BROTHER : DAVID

Brother David
July 4, 2008

Today is my big brother David’s birthday. ` Happy Birthday, David ` !

Yes, a fire cracker was born to our family, in 1960. We are sixteen months apart in age. I like to remember David in his `Buster Brown`, cloths. The little shorts with little man shirt. How cute !

I remember thinking how difficult it must have been to be a first born, son. Due to him having two older sister’s who thought we knew everything. Interesting, that David was born on our great grandfather Culpepper’s birthdate, July 4th. Our younger brother Terry, was born on our grandfather Culpepper’s birthdate, January 7th.

I completed a research on pattern birthdates within families. And July 4th, was one of the` Guinness World Record’s 2008`, birthdates, for the record for the most generations born on the same day.



( See research below, and scroll down for the continuance of : Brother David )


Page #67, of Guinness World Records 2008 ---- by Betty C. Clark
Under : Human Beings :

Family Trees

· The record for the most generations born on the same day is four,
and is held by five families:

· Ralph Betram Williams (USA, born 4-4-1982)
· Veera Tuulia Tuijantyar Kivisto (Finland, born 3-21-1997)
· Maureen Werner (USA, born 10-13-1998)
· Jacob Camren Hildebrandt (USA, born 8-23-2001)
· Mion Masuda (Japan, born 3-26-2005) . . . all share their birthday
with a parent, grandparent and great-grandparent.


My father is one of 13 children.
His birthday was 8-23, like the one listed above.
He is one of seven brothers and six sisters. His baby brother is the
7th son of a 7th son, just like the Johnnie Rivers ole tune.

Out of almost 30 grandchildren with the Culpepper surname, my
two (2) brothers were born on a great-grandparent and grandparent birthday.

Interesting, one of those dates is July 4th, just like the record family
listed above. ( I have known two other July 4th people in my life)

I always thought it odd that out of so many grandchildren, how my two brother’s were born on the ancestor birthdates, and none of the other grandchildren were.

Must be something to that July 4th date, in the worldwide theme
of the most generations born on the same day . .







Continued : Brother David



At school age, the teacher’s escorted David, as the leader of the class. He was so small, the teacher thought she would loose him.

You would never know by his size and stature today, that he was so small in the first grade. The teacher would hold his hand and all the kiddies would follow the leader to go outside to play, to head toward the lunch room and I would observe this from the school hallway’s, during the course of the school period’s. I always thought, ` There goes my brother, the head of the class `.

As we grew up we did so much traveling, due to daddy’s job. We really enjoyed our playtime, in Section, Alabama, at the ole `Presley` house. This house was built from bedrock. Due to the rock on the outside of the house, it maintained an internal temperature of comfort. The winters were chilly. The summers never to hot, inside the ole rock homeplace.
This house held secret closets. Yes, we could enter in one bedroom and travel through to other bedrooms through the closets. `Hide & Seek`, was a regular entertainment in this house. David loved animals, just like all our family members did. Outside, daddy had chicken coups for laying hens. And we always got to hold the new born chicks and quickly return them before the mother hen was fluffing her wings, to flog us.

Also, daddy always cut open the side of wooden telephone reels. They were the height of a pic-nic table, with a round circular, top and bottom
wooden surface. The reel side panel’s could be taken out, to make an opening.

Daddy who was in telecommunications, (see his story under blog section: Milford E. Culpepper), had access to dozens of these wooden reels. He would make doghouses, play houses, chicken coups and pic-nic tables, out of these reels. I can remember that David, Terry and myself could crawl inside these reels and still have room to breathe. ( Ha )

So having pretend tea parties, playing house inside these wooden reels was very much a memory none of us kids will forget.

One fond memory of David, is when he rescued me from the snake that was trying to bite our bird dog, `Spot`. The bad memory is I ran and locked the front door and David was pounding on the door, for me to let him in. Finally, I overcame my fear of the snake and let him inside. If David had not warned me, the snake would have bitten me for sure.

When David became old enough to get his driver license, I finally accepted I was no longer the boss over him. Until then, I thought it was my duty to inform my parents about everything he did.

I remember how David and Terry both, loved to prowl through my girl things, when I was away from home. This caused daddy to put a key lock, on my bedroom door. Which helped everyone to get some peace and silence, from my outburst of my stuff being rambled through. I thought boys just were jealous of all that good girl junk. ( Ha )

As we grew into teenager’s I could depend on David to help me. And he could depend on me to help him. We both have shared many secrets. Some secrets were `life & death` issues, which we have a bond of trust regarding. Now with his own two boys, I think about the parallel’s between David’s two boys and my two brothers.

David is an expert, in hot rod car restoration. He manages his own farm land with crops and livestock. Plus bi-monthly he monitors public water quality.

One story of his humanitarian characteristic, is about a lady we will call
`Mrs. L`.

She had an elderly father who was bed ridden. My brother freely came daily to administer assistance in his bathing and physical well being. Also David mowed the pasture lands, for Mrs. L and was available to help her as needed. Elderly people adore David’s soft spoken spirit.

Just like daddy, both my brother’s are wilderness hunters. Seasonal deer hunters, using self-made deer stands and processing deer meat prepared for family and neighbors freezers. As a green thumb garden expert, David can bring the top crop yields in regard to family favorite vegetables, like corn, okra, cucumber, squash, pepper, beans, potato, tomatoes.

When you visit David’s property, every garden metal cage, every vine and garden tool, are all set up in complete order. His garden looks like plowed ground, groomed on a photograph of ‘Home & Garden’, magazine.

I would like to conclude my respect for my brother David. I feel my brother is a true survivor. His life experiences since daddy’s death, have proven the strength of character within our bloodlines. My wish is for his boys to learn ¼, of what David has acquired in knowledge of life. His challenges I think are examples of his July 4th ancestry birthdate. May the future generations live a code of land to earth ethics, like the respect my brother David honors toward God, in his protection of nature.

I love you always, David . . .

Love you sis,

Betty Jean