Patricia Ellen (Bird) Tice was born May 17, 1958, the youngest of three children to Frank and Esther Bird. As my sister while we were young, she was the one to take sides either for you or against you. She may have sided with my brother Larry or taken sides with me (Wayne). Did I forget, sometimes brothers would team up against younger sister.
As a young girl Pat enjoyed riding horses in the open space that was behind our parents house,
riding on the ridge of "Sugar Loaf" or what I remember calling "Six Pines". Like the rest of the family she also enjoyed swimming at the "Sunny Hills Aquatic Club" that was just down the road from us.
She helped make sure that I didn't take on the bad vice of smoking when I was young by letting my parents know that "Wayne was smoking a cigarette". On the other hand I tried to persuade my sister from smoking too! I would sneak into her bedroom when she wasn't around and place loaded cigarettes ( exploding sticks from a gag or magic store meant to put into the unsuspecting smoker's cigarette) in her purse so that when she would light them up the cigarettes would blow up.
I would say that growing up, I remember the trips we took as a family, the dinners we had together, the time spent together as family watching TV (B&W), the school activities, and sibling rivalry that was between the three of us.
Brother and sister didn't interact with each other too much when we were away from home. Since we each had our own friends and activities, and I kept busy with my paper route after school. When I joined the Air Force, again I missed a lot of watching my sister grow. During that time she graduated from Las Lomas High School, had an accident with my car that I had left at home, and started dating some former Air Force guy (Bill Tice) that I probably would not of approved of as a big brother. She went on to marry this guy and I now have a wonderful nephew Shawn Tice.
Today my dear sister is a hardworking mother, trying to see her son (Shawn) make it through college. Pat is the one that lives the closest to our parents, so she is the one that gets to interact with them the most and recieve the blessing of being so close to mom and dad. She was the one that put so much effort into making sure that my parents were able to have such a wonderful "50th Anniversary" celebration. She is the one that will make sure that everything is ok with mom and dad (when the time comes) when they can no longer take care of themselves. I am thankful that that has not happened yet.
So these days I cherish my sister and I am thankful that I have had some wonderful times spent with her on trips that I have made back to California, the vacations that I have spent with her, yes even in our younger years. Like Larry and I, Pat's favorite camping spot I would say is "Hayden Flat" on the Trinity River in northern California.
