LETTERS FROM STEVO: Family Trilogy Part III...Rise of the Busch Brothers!!!

Part III of the Family Trilogy is aptly titled...Rise of the Busch Brothers!!! The Busch Brothers consist of yours truly, Dave and Mike. We are great friends now but that hasn't always been the case. As kids, we fought constantly and it drove my parent nuts! They didn't know how to handle it! They tried everything...spanking, grounded, nose in the corner, etc. Then, they came up with an ingenius idea...Operation Ebenezer Beasley! Ebenezer Beasley wrote the music for a church hymn titled, "Let Us Oft Speak Kind Words". Whenever we fought, we had to go outside to the back porch and sing this song. We couldn't sing it reverently either, it had to be earnestly! It was so embarrassing and we hated doing it! If you can imagine three scruffy boys singing about the "warblings of birds on the heather" you get the picture! Overall, we had a pretty normal childhood that included wandering around the desert with our .22 rifles and shooting whatever we could find, playing sports, fighting, driving the folks crazy, chores, telling random people that Grandma Memo was a commando in Vietnam, shaving the hair off the dog and dirt clod fights! Now, a little bit about the Busch Brothers individually...

I'm Busch Bro. #1. I was born in Albuquerque, NM. I was the blue eyed, blonde haired, freckled brother. I was a shy (in public) and skinny kid (surprising I know!). I loved hot wheels, G.I. Joe, dinosaurs and transformers. I didn't acquire a love of sports until junior high. It was weird, I just woke up one day and decided that I love football and basketball and it was down hill from there! I was the...let me re-phrase...I AM the stubborn and sarcastic one. If I didn't like what was going on, I would make a sarcastic comment to voice my frustration. I was the quick tempered and ultra competitive brother. All you had to do is point out that my team just lost and you would get a right hook! Beat me at Risk? Right hook! After a while, I couldn't figure out why my brothers didn't want to play games with me anymore! I was a poor student by choice...I almost didn't graduate high school on time! I recall spending half of my senior year either in "in school suspension" or "out of school suspension". Let's just say I went through a little rebellious phase in high school and leave it at that...I'm not sure if my statute of limitations has run out yet! After high school, I landed a sweet job at an ice plant working for a guy named Dewey and became good friends with a group of brothers called the Fierro's who lived on the south side of town. I then served a mission in Columbus, Ohio (redneck speaking) and upon returning moved to Utah with two goals in mind...get a bachelor's degree and get married. After an exceeding amount of dating and girlfriends, I landed my sweetheart Amy, or as Ma Busch calls her, St. Amy. Bud worships the ground Amy walks on! If she told him to jump off a cliff, he'd do it! No questions asked! The rest as they say is history.

Dave is Busch Bro. #2. Dave was born in Montrose, CO. We are only 18 months apart agewise, so we were raised together, almost like twins. Dave was always a bigger guy for his age so we were basically the same size growing up until high school, at which point he shot up past me. He's incredibly intelligent, wise and has a very big heart. He is a giant teddy bear! Big personality, very likable...he has a presence that people gravitate to. He is a sponge for knowledge, well read and prefers to avoid a fight. He has a temper but you have to back him into a corner and give him no other option (I think I'm the only one whose ever taken him to that point, think "right hook"). Dave is also the big animal lover (softie). I seem to recall a couple of times he would find a stray dog, bring it home and name it "Sport". Dave was also the sounding board for the Busch Brothers...as I focused on the sarcasm, he would lodge the official complaint and articulate what exactly our beef was. The stereotypical middle child, Dave also had quite the hankering for that priceless commodity we know as "attention". Dave was quite the ladies man...known to make musical compilations of 80's hair band love ballads and give them to the objects of his desires. After high school, Dave played football at Eastern Arizona for a season then served a mission in Boise, Idaho (potato farmer speaking). Following the mission, he married Lyndley and got an Accounting degree from New Mexico Highlands. He is currently working as an Investment Banker in Farmington and has one son named Gavin (I call him Big G) and a daughter on the way.

Mike is Busch Bro. #3. Mike was born in Durango, CO. Poor Mike was the baby and took quite a bit of abuse from his older brothers. Mike served two separate purposes for Dave and I. For me, he was my whipping boy...I just flat bullied him. For Dave, he was a personal assistant. Mike has told me stories of Dave watching his favorite movie, "Grease 2" (yes...Grease 2, not Grease...Grease 2) and ordering Mike to go get him some more kool-aid. Mike's method of confrontation (as opposed to my sarcasm and Dave's complaining) was to act bratty. He was the baby so he took advantage of it. Mike has a brilliant sense of humor and can make anyone laugh. I have a really hard time staying mad at him very long because he ends up making me laugh! Mike didn't get into football like Dave and I, but he did get into soccer and apparently became a good defender. Mike was also a ladies man and has a certain charisma about him. One thing that Amy and I like about him is that he's always up for anything...probably stemming from being Dave's personal assistant! Mike served a mission in Cincinnati, Ohio (major major redneck speaking...I mean serious backwoods Kentucky redneck speaking!). Afterwards, Mike married Nicole and they currently live in Spanish Fork with two pugs. Mike is an aspiring law infringement officer, i.e, cop.

The picture at the top is us with Dave on the left, Mike in the middle and me on the right. The picture below that is from the "Terminator" movies...one of the movies is titled, "Rise of the machines". The title of this post reminded me of that...

In summary, the Busch Brothers needs were simple. All I wanted was to give someone a right hook and some competition (this makes for a hard life, I'm ultra competitive and not very coordinated, not a good combination!)...all Dave wanted was a dog named Sport and more Grease 2 and all Mike wanted was a hug.