Donald A. Dittman

We will miss you Uncle Donnie. We have many fond memories of fishing the lakes, creeks, ponds, and rivers in South Dakota. The many trips to Deadwood, and the infamous calls asking ‘Is it cocktail hour yet?’ or ‘The weather here is in the seventies, how is the weather in Rapid City? ‘ Knowing full well we were -25 wind chill. We always got the giggles when Rapid City would beat out Florida with nicer weather. Our 3 favorite memories of Uncle Donnie were when we went fishing in Pierre, and he really thought he had a big one on the line, and it turned out to be a really nice new fishing pole he had snagged and caught. At Sheridan Lake, Uncle Donnie was going back to the truck, Uncle Ralph told him to follow the trail, it was safe and lead straight to the truck, Uncle Donnie being stubborn decided he wanted to go straight up the hill, got up to the top and tried to climb over the guard rails, he couldn’t , so he got on the ground and tried to scoot under the guard rails and got stuck. Grandma Ardene and Uncle Donnie were talking about the old days, and brought up that they both really liked duck, and it had been awhile since they had one. I said my husband Brad hunted duck and planned on going the next day and would bring them one. The next day, Brad got them a duck, breasted it out and brought it over, they asked him ‘where was the rest of the duck’? They wanted the wings and the feet, they said that was the best part of the duck. You should have seen the look on Brad’s face. Uncle Donnie and Aunt Gerry hold a very special place in my heart. Wish we could be there, our thoughts and prayers go out to all of you at this time. Brad and Kary Wheeler.