User:Joe Wondering

Darrell Norrod the author of the book "Dreams Outback" Biography

Darrell Norrod’s father was Denzle Norrod and his mother was Jewel Norrod. Both of Darrell’s parents were born in the backwoods of Tennessee and both of Darrell’s parents were raised during the great depression near a coal-mining town called Wilder, where the county lines of Fentress and Overton meet. Darrell’s father, Denzle, was the youngest of eleven children and was an orphan at the age of seven when both of his parents died in 1931 from typhoid fever. After the death of Denzle’s parents, Denzle and his eight-year-old sister Rachel were both given away. Denzle never had the opportunity to go to school like other children, because Denzle’s taskmasters worked him extremely hard as a small child cutting wood and working in the coal mines. So without an education, Denzle went through life learning everything the hard way, because his taskmasters never sent him to school. But, despite Denzle’s lack of reading and writing skills, Denzle had something that an education and money couldn’t buy. Denzle had a master’s degree in common sense and learned how to survive in life with his great gift from God. Darrell’s mother, Jewel, was one of four children with one sister and two brothers who were both hemophiliacs. Jewel’s father died from pneumonia when she was five and her highest grade of education was the sixth grade. After Jewel and her older sister Opal watched their mother Jenny bury their two hemophiliac brothers in an unmarked grave in the Wilder Cemetery, they both began to wonder what was next in their poverty-filled lives. Darrell’s mother, Jewel, was a blond haired seventeen-year-old teenager when she met her soon-to-be husband at a church outing. Denzle was a curly dark haired nineteen-year-old young man and he and Jewel fell in love when their eyes met. Darrell’s parents, Jewel and Denzle, were married on January 28, 1945 and later that same year, they had the first of their three children. The first of the three children was a little girl named Sheila who arrived on a beautiful October day in 1945 in her grandmother’s tar papered covered house setting on a mountainside in Wilder, Tennessee. The second of the three children was a bouncing boy named Darrell who made his first appearance in the world on a cold and snowy February day in 1947 in a small two room rented wooden framed cabin setting on railroad ties on the outskirts of Dayton, Ohio. Darrell was born in Ohio while Denzle and Jewel were looking for work in Dayton to support their new family. The third of the three Norrod Children was another bouncing boy named Gary who was born on a windy day in March 1949 in the same tar papered covered house in Tennessee that his sister Sheila was born. But, shortly after the birth of their second son, Jewel and Denzle’s worst nightmare came true when little Gary was diagnosed as a hemophiliac. After Darrell’s parents learned about little Gary’s medical condition, the Norrod’s moved back to Dayton, Ohio for the medical care needed for little Gary to live and with the hopes that Denzle could land a fulltime job to pay for it. Things were looking good after Denzle landed a job in Dayton as a day laborer. But, two months later on Christmas Eve 1949, the Norrod’s started from scratch again after losing everything they owned in a fire. The Christmas Eve fire was caused by an idiot living in their apartment building who replaced a blown fuse with a penny. After losing everything in the fire, the Norrod’s rented a two-room cabin setting on eight limestone blocks located near the northeastern outskirts of Dayton in a small community in Mad River Township called, Hell’s Half Acre. The Norrod’s two-room cabin in Ohio, seemed like their home in Tennessee, no running water, no electric, a coal stove, a kerosene lamp, and the outhouse wasn’t that far outback. All of the Norrod’s, Denzle, Jewel, and their three children were born without the aid of a doctor and without the modern conveniences of electricity and indoor plumbing. Most people in America today have no comprehension of life without electricity, indoor plumbing, and heating. Try to think of being poor, without an education, a sick child in your family, and living in America before the federal government took control and started passing out free social entitlements like medical care, dental, vision, food stamps, public housing, school lunches, and a free check in the mail that was based on how many children a family had. Well, the Norrod’s could comprehend living in America without federal aid or government help, because their family of five did it, with a disabled child and a whole lot of love combined with a whole lot of hard work. In the summer of 1953, the Norrod’s moved one street over in Hell’s Half Acre to a larger wooden framed house with four rooms. And guess what? The Norrod’s were moving up. Their new rented house had four electric light bulbs and four electric outlets. Darrell now was six years old, and was in the first grade of school, and working hard after school with his father. No job was too small or didn’t pay enough for Denzle and his young son, Darrell. No job was too dirty or too ill smelling to make the money needed to survive on. No job meant no food and no money, and no money meant no medication for little sick Gary. In most cases, the family clothes were always used and bought second handed. Breakfast was white gravy made from lard, whole cream, and water. And the bread was biscuits made from flour and water. Supper was cornbread, fried potatoes, and pinto beans. And good cooking meat was sometimes a groundhog or a raccoon. Darrell and his sister Sheila watched as their little brother struggled to survive in life. Little Gary learned to walk with a dog harness around his shoulders tied to a metal wire on two poles. Little Gary couldn’t fall down, because if he did he would start hemorrhaging internally, and at that time in America, there was no medical way to stop or slow the bleeding of a hemophiliac. If little Gary cut himself or had a nosebleed, he would bleed for weeks and when Little Gary lost his baby teeth, he bled for days. The sight of a dishpan full of blood and a wet rag was a common sight around the Norrod’s house and people praying for God to save little Gary’s life was also a common sight. Darrell’s life was filled with joy and sadness. And besides all that, Hell’s Half Acre didn’t get its name for no reason. The neighborhood was a rough and tumbled place and most of the people who settled there were of Southern descent and had moved to Ohio after War World II looking for work in Dayton’s thriving industrial factories. There was always a label attached to any child in the Mad River School District if you lived in Hell’s Half Acre. Even in the first grade of school, the teachers were quick to call the students who lived there, Platt Rats. You have to understand that the people who lived in Hell’s Half Acre never had running water in their home and everyone had an outhouse located in the back of their yard to do their personal business in until 1963. In Hell’s Half Acre a boy like Darrell without a big brother to take his part, was an easy target for all the boys who grew up in large families and ran in large groups. So, after being beat-up by the older boys and their brothers, Darrell learned to fight the other boys and their big brothers who always bullied the weaker boys in the Platt. After many fistfights, Darrell soon learned the art of fighting and the hard work that Darrell did with his father made Darrell as strong as most men. The fighting, the working, and the honor of going to school, what more could a boy like Darrell, who lived in Hell’s Half Acre ask for? Darrell learned everything from his father Denzle. Darrell learned how to hammer a nail, cut a board, haul trash, split wood, roof a house, junk metal, cut people’s grass and shrubs, ditch digging and digging holes for outhouses, repairing broken down cars, pouring cement, painting houses, tile and ceramic work, how to build a fence, and how to drive a truck. Even though Darrell’s father could not teach him how to read or write, Darrell’s father taught him the most valuable thing in life he had to offer, common sense. Darrell’s father told his son the most prized things in life started with your family, God, and country, and the Norrod’s handshake was a contract with your good name written on it. Darrell attended Mad River Elementary School and Stebbins High School in Mad River Township, now the City of Riverside, Ohio, where he met the little girl who lived outback. After two years of dating, Darrell eloped with his childhood sweetheart, Donna Martin, and they started their roller coaster ride in life. It all took place on a warm Sunday night in July 1965, as Darrell helped Donna from her bedroom window. After the two young lovers ran through the Martin’s backyard, the car that Darrell borrowed from his sister, Sheila, idled on the back street for the getaway. As luck would have it, the reason for the borrowed car was because the engine in Darrell’s old 53 Chevy blew up a few hours earlier that same day. Darrell was eighteen and Donna was sixteen when they both said “I Do” the next day in front of an unknown pastor and his wife on the pastor’s front porch in Harveytown, West Virginia. After a one-night honeymoon across the Ohio River in Ashland, Kentucky, the two young married fugitives began the struggle of their young life. Darrell said, “The day I married Donna was the happiest day of my life.” When Darrell and Donna returned back to Dayton, Ohio, three days later on their roller coaster ride, they had six dollars to their name and the police was still looking for the two runaways. The talk around town was that Darrell and Donna had to get married and it would not last. But, it was only talk, because the people who were doing all the talking really didn’t know anything about Darrell and Donna, and the true love that burned in their hearts for each other. After receiving a not-so-warm welcome from Donna’s family and the police, the two young runaways started another roller coaster ride in life. Darrell landed his first full-time job a few weeks later in August of 1965 at the McCall Corporation in Dayton, Ohio working on the assembly line. Darrell and Donna started their family, when Donna gave birth to their first child in September 1966. It was a little girl who they named, Julie Christine. After living in a two-room upstairs attic apartment with a shared downstairs bathroom, Darrell and Donna with their daughter, Julie, saved enough money in July 1968 for the down payment for their first home. Donna gave her husband, Darrell, another gift in May 1969, their second child, another little girl who they named, Kimberley Ann. In May 1970, the third and last of Darrell and Donna’s children was born. It was a boy! And they named him, Teddy Darrell. A few years after the birth of Teddy Darrell, Donna went to night school to further her education and learned secretarial skills while Darrell babysat with their three children. After years of working different shifts in a dirty hot factory, Darrell moved on to bigger and better things and so did his wife Donna. Darrell became a jack-of-all-trades, doing lawn care, home repair, and buying and selling used cars. And guess what? During that era of Darrell’s life, he found his true calling. Darrell could sell anything with his warm smile and honest talk. Plus, the buyer always got the Norrod handshake to seal the deal and that was as good as a written contract. With Darrell’s knowledge and passion for automobiles, Darrell took on a new profession with his warm smile and honest talk as an automobile parts sales rep. With the southern manners that his parents taught him, along with Darrell’s humor and smiling face, Darrell soon became one of Ohio’s most respected sales reps. Donna was moving up to bigger and better things too. Donna traded her government sales job for a legal secretarial position. Darrell and Donna’s first child, Julie, married and had two children. One son named Jeffery, and one daughter named, Christina. Darrell and Donna’s second child, Kimberley, married and had three girls, Abigail, Hannah, and Elianna. Darrell and Donna’s third child, Teddy, married and also had three girls, Sara, Ashlyn, and Emma. Darrell’s father, Denzle died of a heart attack at the age of fifty in his son’s arms while he and Darrell were pouring cement on a cold snow flurry day on April 15, 1974, in Dayton, Ohio. Darrell said, “The day Daddy died was the saddest day of my life.” Darrell’s disabled brother, Gary, was home schooled and died at the age of forty in 1989 after receiving a tainted HIV injection of blood cells in 1984. Gary had been using the clotting factors from blood donors for over twenty-five years to thicken his blood and reduce internal hemorrhaging. Gary was married and had one son. Darrell’s mother Jewel, died in Dayton, Ohio at the age of sixtyfive from lung cancer in November 1992. Darrell’s sister, Sheila, is married and has one daughter. Sheila is a very happy person and is an active church member. Darrell and Donna have been on the roller coaster ride with no hands since their wedding day, now for forty-three years. Darrell said, “That’s got to be some kind of a record, for a roller coaster ride.”