Don and I go back about 47 years I think.

These notes are memories of hanging around with Don for all that time.

I am about 5 months older but he didn’t get his license for an extra six months because he got a ticket for driving without a license before he had one.

We both had Honda Nineties. Mine was a trail 90 his was a street bike. Don’s wound up Popsicle purple.

We used to ride them to Logan to chase girls. That was hard to do on a small bike like that.

Don’s first car was a ’57 Ford he purchased from an Aunt. We thought it was great fun to head up the canyon at night in it with our dates or other lady friends. If you pushed the dimmer switch (you remember the ones on the floor) just so far the headlights would go out and panic whoever was with us. I remember we would put 2 X 4s in the front suspension to make it look like a gasser. It sure rode rough when we did that. A good hard bump and the 2 X 4s would fall out and we would have to go put them in again.

We used to take that car to Logan also. He could always remember the face of girls we met over there. It was my job to remember their names.

During our senior year we double-dated to the Junior Prom. I took a girl from Logan and he took Cassie who now my wife.

Don went in the army and wound up in Viet Nam. We wrote back and forth during that time. He told me they had what he called clown juice available to them over there. What it was was beer. He thought hard stuff would be better. I would find someone over here to buy some for me (neither of us was 21 yet). But it was illegal to send it through the mail to him so I get empty 46 oz. juice cans and put the bottle inside and surround it with M&Ms and tape the cans up so hopefully no one would know what was in there. We never did gat caught.

While he was there he bought this embroidered hanky that he did not think his parents would appreciate. So he sent it home to me to keep until he got home. It said “Fighting for Peace is like (expletive deleted) for virginity”.

Don always did take good care of me. After we were out of school and he was back from Nam he had a ’62 Impala. He had bought paint for it but decided he didn’t like it. He gave it to me and it went on my ’61 Olds F-85.

In 1971 I married my first wife, she was from Tooele. Don was my Best Man and gave me a ride out there because she and I had a car already out there. As we past the turn-off to Wendover (this was before the interstate was out that way) he offered to turn and take me out there rather than to the wedding. In the end that might not have been too bad an idea.

Once we were both married we didn’t hang out together to much for a while.

During that time is when Don got his ’62 Nova. It belonged to a neighbor across the street from his parent’s house. It was originally red and the first time he had it painted it was red. He must not have liked the color very well because it wasn’t long before he had painted it yellow.

Later when I was going out with Cassie we went to the auto recycler in Brigham looking for a part for something. Her ex-husband happened to work there and we all got along so it was no big deal. When we went in Don was there also He was very quiet and stayed out of the road. When Cassie and I got out said I asked her what she had done to him and she claimed nothing. I guess he just didn’t quite know how we would all get along or what might happen. Try to imagine that – Don Quiet!

After Cassie and I were married we would usually go on poker runs and things by ourselves. There was this 100 mile or so poker run we invited Don to come go on with us. It’s a good thing we invited him. Just out of Randolf we lost a rear wheel on the ’47 Olds. Luckily Don was right behind us. This was in the days before cell phones and he had to go back to town to call a tow truck for us. Cassie and I Don his wife Debbie and their daughter Carrie and son Breck waited by the side of the road, had lunch in the middle of know where while we waited for the tow truck. Once the truck picked up the Olds we packed all four adults, Carrie and Breck into the Nova (it seemed pretty crowded) and made the trip to Logan and on to Brigham City. Again Don was there to take care of me.

Later when I became chairman of the Peach Days Car Show I asked to help out. It is a good thing I did. He went out and went after donations in a big way. It is because of him that the show was able to stay in the black. I used to tell people that he should be a used car salesman because he was so good at getting people to give donations to the car show

One time he went with us in his Nova to a car show. I didn’t remember all the details so I emailed my son Kellan to see what he remembered. He remembers it so well that I will just quote what he sent me.

“Anyway, we were on our way to the Sun Run to Pocatello, if I recall correctly.  We had pulled over to get gas off the freeway, and he was driving up by himself, so I went and got in the car with him.  It was his Yellow Nova, too, if I remember right.  Anyway, I remember when we pulled onto the onramp; he completely gunned it, gluing and pressing me into the seat.  And as I sat there, awestruck, wide eyed and jaw-dropped, his only comment was, "well, I had to get up to merging speed."  Haha.   I don't remember what I said after that, but I know that I was thoroughly impressed, seeing as how riding around with you as a driver, I never really experienced speed or acceleration like that.  :)”

Kellan says that is the he has been telling people when he tells them about Don.

On a number of occasions Don went with us to the Moab car show. I’m not sure you wanted Don to make the reservations. One time we stayed at the Cottage Inn. It was a garage the people had converted into motel two rooms. When we got there they had gotten the reservations mixed up and those rooms were already taken. Well we wound up using their living room and a spare bedroom for our reservation. Another time we stayed at the Hotel Off Center. And was it off center. It was an old hotel with shared bathrooms. Clean but unusual.

A while back Don was at the Cache Valley Cruise In. He had asked several of the staff questions and hadn’t known the answers. You know Don’s personality. When he ran into the president he mentioned the lack of knowledge. Well at Peach Days that year Scott (Cache Valley’s president) presented don with a special t-shirt that said STAFF and that stood for Stand There And Find Fault.

A couple of years ago Don and Pam went camping and motorcycling with Cassie and I down in Mt Pleasant. Of course they brought the dogs Max and Zoey. It was really funny. When they came to our camp site for dinner one night Don had Max on a leash. Don just laid the leash on the ground. You should have seen the look on Max’s face. Very sad. Max acted like the leash was staked to the ground and he could not go anywhere. Don must have trained him very well.

It was Don who did the work to resurrect the Bonnevills Rod & Custom Car Club. He got with Lee Velasquez who was the last president of the original Bonnevills so he could give don the information about the original club and quite a few of the original club plaques. Don was very proud of having a club plaque numbered the same as the year of his Nova.

He was the first Vice –President of the new Bonnevills and then President.

The president ends up being the chairman of the car show each year. After being an officer for 4 years (2 years in each position) he still remained active in the club with family helping with the raffle for several years and lastly doing the poker run the last few years.  He was in charge again this year and Pam has said she wants to finish it for him.   Don was the one that took the initiative to try to hold the poker run in Brigham instead of Ogden. Brigham is especially busy on the Friday night of Peach Days with all the activities. I’d have to say I was a little skeptical of the idea at first but it turned out to be a very good idea. All of the poker runs that Don has done have been a success. He is also the one who added the idea of doing it for charity with the proceeds going to the American Cancer Society.

Don is the first president to allow himself to be elected vice-president again. This usually turns into being elected president and being the chairman of the car show again. Don was willing to do this rather than see the show possibly end for lack of officers.

That’s the Don I knew and loved.

Don we will miss you.



Don 'Hez' Byington

Past president, Bonnevills Rods & Customs car club.

2011 Dedication

In memory of Hez, the 2011 car show is being named in his honor. Thank you for your years of devotion to the Peach Days Car Show and the Bonnevills car club.