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Donald Albert
Distel was born on February 27th, 1940 in Akron Ohio. His father, Alexander, was in the Navy and his mother, Hazel,
was a housewife as well as a very loving and caring mother. He has two
siblings. He has a sister named Carrol, who is 14 months older than he is,
and a brother named James, who is nine years younger than he is. Growing up
Donald and his siblings attended many schools because their father was in the
Navy. Some of the schools he attended were: Betty Jane Elementary, Spicer,
Schumacher, Simon
Perkins, Butcher, and Painesville
Harvey. He never enjoyed attending school and never really thought of
himself as a good student. During his free time he would enjoy playing
baseball with his friends and was on the wrestling team.
Even though he
had never thought about it before, Donald enlisted in the Air Force at the
age of seventeen years old. He was taken to San Antonio, Texas, to
receive his basic training. He was later taken to Pensacola, Florida, were he was stationed for about four years. He was chosen to
be trained as a driving instructor. The weather in Texas was
very hot and tropical, much like the weather of Florida. They were provided with homes called barracks to stay in, which
had room for about two or three people. On a regular day they would usually
be woken up at 6:00 in the morning and their training would be over at about 4:30 in the afternoon. They would eat food just like ours, and
wear either a blue or a khaki colored uniform. During free time when he
wasn’t training, Donald would enjoy hanging out with some of the very close
friends he made, or he would go to the beach.
Donald was
never sent to be in a war, but the military taught him as much as the war
would. He grew up a lot during the time he spent in the military. It was a
very good experience that affected his life in such a big way.
After spending
four years in the military, Donald was discharged. He returned home right
away to Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. He soon began working in a machine job, where he spent many
years. He then met his wife, Sandy, at a
race at Barberton
Speedway. They dated for two years and finally married on October 12, 1963. A year later they had their first daughter: Dawn. In 1966
they welcomed another daughter who they named Kim. Two more years later, in
1968, they welcomed their last daughter: Tammi. Donald, Sandy, and their
three wonderful daughters lived together in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.
Donald is
currently sixty-seven years old and lives with his wife Sandy in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. He
recently retired from his machine job of forty-two years. He now has six
grandchildren, three girls and three boys. His six grandchildren are Mandi,
Michael, Alex, Jake, Meghan, and Erin. With his free time he enjoys working
with wood and building things. He also enjoys looking at and fixing up old
cars like his father-in-law’s old Camaro
from many years ago.
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