Their days were filled wandering around Riverside Park in Wichita, Kansas, partaking in some sort of illegal activity. Bruce, Mark, Greg and Kip Dawson, were known for wreaking havoc in their neighborhood.
One hot June evening in 1960, the boys were at Riverside and came across a summer concert playing in the bandstand- the perfect opportunity for trouble. Scheming a plan, the brothers concluded that fireworks would make the concert more entertaining. With a lighted cigarette in one hand and an M-80 in the other, they returned to the bandstand. Climbing to the top of the venue, the boys set up shop. Just as they had finished lining up the mini bomb, “1812 Overture” began to play. They couldn’t have imagined a more perfect piece of music for their pre meditated plan. In the middle of the song, what normally sounded like cannons going off in the tune, were instead replaced with the loud blast of an M-80 echoing throughout the park painting the evening sky with sparks of gold and white. The Dawson Brothers were satisfied with their work as they watched confusion spread across the faces of the orchestra and enthrallment across the audience.
Raising four boys was chaotic. For Joy and Robert “Bob” Dawson, the brothers’ parents, there was an added element of chaos. One morning in 1949, when Bruce was just 3 years old, Bob left for work just like any other day. He worked as a Marine Corps test pilot at Toro Marine Air Station in California. What seemed like a routine day on the runway and in the air would be the day his life, and the Dawson’s lives, changed forever. While in flight, one of the propellers failed and Bob’s plane crashed into the ground, utterly destroyed. Miraculously, Bob survived. He left the plane crash with multiple fractures to his left arm, broken ribs and permanently blind.
A medical anomaly.
Raising a family, loss of identity and career, adjusting to life without sight and moving all over the country, resulted in a lot of stress and strain on the Dawsons. Sadly, in 1968 Joy and Bob filed for divorce- a decision that left the Dawson Brothers heartbroken.
“The hardest thing for me was being a kid in the middle of Mom and Dad and the issues that they had,” Bruce said. “Some of the issues they had weren’t even their fault. There was tension a lot of the time. That was the toughest thing.”
Greg shared, “When I found out my parents were getting a divorce that hit me really hard. We suddenly realized we had been struggling as a family for some time, and now we were no longer a family.”
Amid the family’s tension, in hopes of a fresh start, they moved across the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii. Days spent catching crawdads and building rafts in the Arkansas River were replaced with exploring Honolulu and work at the Dole pineapple factory. For some, moving to Hawaii would be luxurious. For the Dawson Brothers it was merely a bandage and distraction from the family crisis that was crumbling before them.
“We moved to Hawaii in between my junior and senior year,” Mark said. “We moved to this awful house in the middle of my family’s crisis. I was feeling terrible. I felt the move was such a bad idea and I was going to be left there all alone since Bruce was going back to college in Iowa. It was a really, really, down moment for me. I was figuring out how I was going to cope.”
Even in the middle of the family mess, the brothers still managed to do what they did best-find mischief. This time, it was at an active volcano.
“We went down into the caldera of this volcano. We were walking over solidified lava and went over to the vent of the volcano. We were sitting at the rim of the vent looking down into it, you could not see the bottom. One slip and you were done,” Mark recalled.
Kip remembers that Joy called the boys back for breakfast. Instead of going around the volcano, the brothers decided to take a “shortcut” and cross the lava.
“When Mom called for breakfast, it was time for breakfast. We knew we couldn’t go back around the volcano, so we crossed over it crossing the lava,” Kip said. “I was a sixth grader and couldn’t make it over the big cracks. I started running and Bruce picked me up and threw me over the lava to Mark. They propelled me over this crack in the Earth. If it wasn’t for them, I would not be here today!”
This was one of the several stories the Dawson Brothers share. Together, their friendship and life have evolved into an inseparable bond. True brotherhood.
“We grew up with a father who was an amazing role model but at the same time, not your traditional father,” Greg said. “He was not somebody you would look at and think, ‘He’s the guy who is going to teach me to play football,’ or ‘He’s the guy who is going to take me to the baseball game.’ Those things didn’t happen with our dad, they happened with an older brother. I looked to them for understanding what manhood was all about.”
The brothers had to rely on each other. Their relationship was the only consistent one in their home.
“We learned to depend on each other, but we learned cooperation too. We had things that had to get done and we realized we had to cooperate with each other to get things done,” Mark added.
The Dawson’s family mantra was “You are a Dawson. You can do hard things.” Joy and Bob instilled the value of hard work, no matter the circumstance or situation. Whatever was going on around them was no excuse for what they could achieve.
“The family saying actually began with Roy and Mary, Bob’s parents. Working in the restaurant business, their family moved a lot,” Kip said. “Bob always had to go into the restaurants to help cook the food and bake the pies. Those were 14-hour days just to make a few bucks.”
With Bob’s hard work in the restaurant businesses followed by serving in World War II as a Marine Corp pilot, he expected his sons to be high achievers.
Bruce said, “We were taught from the time we were born that we were going to achieve things. You were not going to be a slacker and were not permitted to lie around. We had this work ethic between Mom and Dad that you were expected to get it done. It was always there.”
From criminal behavior, to divorced parents and near-death experiences, the Dawson Brothers walked through every season of life together. Their relationship was shaped by commitment, alliance, loyalty and holding one another up during difficult times. A true brotherhood.
Mark said, “In the midst of chaos and unhappiness, we found joy and happy times with brothers.”
“I don’t want to hear excuses; I want to see results. Do you see me complaining? Listen, life is not fair. You need to understand that life is not fair. You level the playing field with your attitude and hard work.” – Bob Dawson
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