Douglas Cotton was born in the San Joaquin Valley town of Visalia, California on January 28, 1949. Visalia is in Tulare County and located in the heart of California Agriculture between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Visalia is known as “the gateway to the Sequoias,” (Sequoia National Park), home of the “Giant, two thousand year old Sequoia Trees,” only a two hour drive away. Visalia has hundreds of large beautiful oak trees and the city is surrounded by rich and fertile farm land. Tulare County is one of the top most productive agriculture counties in the world. You can be either at the beach or snow skiing in the mountains in only two and a half hours. Lake Kaweah is only a twenty minute drive.
When Doug grew up in Visalia during the fifties and early sixties there were approximately eleven thousand people in the entire town. Since then it has grown to over one hundred and twenty five thousand. He loved it when the town was small because it seemed like everyone in town knew each other. When he rode downtown in the pick-up with his father people were friendly and they would wave hello to each other. Although it was still his home, he thought it had grown way too large too fast. It didn’t have the same small hometown reputation and appeal it once had.
His childhood was normal and like most kids of that time period he had to help his father on the farm. His mother and father owned a nice older farm house with a hundred and sixty acre walnut grove a few miles out town. Most of his free time growing up was spent helping his father on the farm. He loved living on the farm but didn’t want to do farm work as a profession for himself. Much to his father’s disappointment Doug wanted to do something different with his life when he grew up. The one thing he was always grateful for was they didn’t have to worry about enough food on the table or going without clothes. His mother always made sure he and his brother were dressed appropriately and behaved properly in public. His mother and father taught them to show respect for authority and to their elders.
Doug’s Brother Randy was seven years younger and was just the opposite of him. He had sandy colored hair and was a few inches shorter and heavier than Doug. They didn’t have a real close relationship because of the age difference. He loved Randy but they just didn’t have that much in common, he saw him as more of a pest than anything. Randy was always poking his nose into his business where he didn’t belong. That attitude carried over into their adult lives. Doug didn’t share a lot of his personal opinions and ideas with him.
When Doug was a junior in high school he was six feet tall with dark brown wavy hair and brown eyes. He was always well groomed and not a hair out of place. He weighed about one hundred and seventy pounds but he had a lot of wiry hard muscles. He was a good athlete and lettered on the varsity football and basketball teams his junior and senior years of high school. He had plans to someday go on to college and maybe play football. He dated a few girls in high school but none that he was really interested in until he met Shirley Stevens his junior year. He had seen her at school and was attracted to her, but didn’t think she was interested in him so he never made an effort to meet her.
In the early 1960’s the government went on a campaign to push fitness to all the school students and people in America. It was called “The Presidents Council for Fitness.” President John F. Kennedy was encouraging fifty mile walks to improve fitness in America. There was a wave of support for the program throughout the school system so in a few years a lot of the schools like Redwood High School, where Doug attended, got on the “band wagon.” The students decided to make it a competitive school spirit issue. There were rallies on campus to support the program and students began taking ten mile walks together in groups of fifty to a hundred. The Redwood students made it a challenge to their rival high school Mt. Whitney, and they were always trying to outdo them and this was no exception.
Redwood’s school spirit drew national attention when early one Saturday morning approximately three hundred students from Redwood High School decided to walk to the foothill town of Three Rivers and back. It was around fifty miles there and back and parts of the walk were up and down hills. Everyone had decided they were going to do the entire walk in one day. Doug loved the idea so he asked his dad if he could take that Saturday off work. His dad usually wanted him around on Saturdays to catch up on chores he wasn’t able to get to during the week. Since this was a rare request for him his dad agreed to let him have the day off.
Everyone met at the high school before daylight on that warm spring day and started walking east on Highway 198 toward Three Rivers. The school spirit was in full swing and was a lot of fun until everyone reached the foothills. Then the walk became a grueling experience as people started slowing down and some were dropping out or turning back. Shirley Stevens and her friends were among a group of girls that were determined they were going to finish the entire walk. Doug was going to take advantage of his day off and he made up his mind he was going to finish the walk. He wanted to be one of the people in school that could brag about making it there and back in one day. He and his friends had a lot of fun throwing rocks, visiting with the girls, and wrestling with each other all the way to Three Rivers.
They were on their way back to Visalia when up ahead they could hear girls screaming. It was Shirley’s group and one of the girls had fallen over the side of the hill. She was about twenty feet down the side of the hill. Doug ran to see what was going on. When he looked over the hill and saw the girl he immediately made his way about twenty feet down to her. It was Shirley and by the time he got to her she was sitting up. She had cuts and scratches on her knees and arms. There was dry grass in her hair, dirt on her face and all over her clothes. She was spitting dirt out of her mouth when he got to her. He said, “Are you alright?” Before she could answer he asked, “Do you feel like anything is broken?” Doug could smell the sweet fragrance of her shampoo as he started brushing the grass and dirt out of her hair and from her clothes as she replied, “I think I’m alright, it doesn’t feel like anything is broken.” She winched in pain from the scratches and cuts as she said, “Can you help me to my feet?” As he reached out for her hand he couldn’t help but to think how beautiful she looked, dirty face, hair and all as he asked, “Do you think you can stand up or walk?” She slowly stood up and tried to put weight on her foot that was injured, “My ankle is hurting really bad. I don’t think I can walk on it.” As she tried to take a step he asked her, “Is it okay if I carry you back up to the road?” With a smile Shirley said, “Do you think you can carry me?” He immediately scooped her up in his arms and made his way up the hill.
When he got to the top he sat her down on the edge of the road. All of her girlfriends swarmed her asking her if she was okay. She told them other than being totally embarrassed by the ordeal, her ankle, and a few cuts and bruises, she was fine. After everyone was satisfied that nothing was broken Doug told her, “I can carry you piggy back down the mountain until a car comes along that could give us a ride back to Visalia if you would like?” Shirley thought for a moment then smiled, “Only if you agree to stop when you get tired.” Doug laughed and said, “That sounds good to me,” as he helped her jump on his back. Doug gave up his bragging rights of finishing the walk that day but he met the girl he fell in love with.
Shirley was five feet six inches tall, thin, with dark brown hair, and dimples in her checks when she smiled. After Shirley’s accident they started dating and were inseparable. Although Shirley was the same year in school as Doug she was more mature than most girls her age. It seemed to him that she was ready to settle down and get married after the first few dates they went on. He didn’t have a problem with that because he had really fallen for her. They both just knew right from the start that someday they would end up married to each other.
After dating for over a year, and a few weeks before their graduation from high school, Shirley gave him the news that he was going to be a father. That news would change both their lives forever. Doug asked Shirley if she would marry him righ
t after graduation. Shirley was about two months into her pregnancy when they got married in June. Doug went to work for his father on the family farm but knew it was going to be temporary. He had plans to go on to college and knew he didn’t want to be a farmer for the rest of his life. Even though he had desires to go to college it had to be put on hold because he had a baby on the way.