Ode to an Older Time: Dannie McNeil

“I have no regrets. I have been really blessed,” Dannie McNeil said when reflecting on his life. "I am gonna be 80 years old, and I look at other people that old and I think, do I really look that bad?” He chuckled. The Colville native, born in 1945, said he spent his early childhood in the mining town of Bossburg, Wash. He was one of four children in a family where his mother was a homemaker and "the best mom in the world.” His father was a decorated WWII veteran who worked at Evans Quarry and later at Boise Cascade. “I spent a lot of time with him. He took me hunting,” McNeil said.

He grew up on McNeil Rd, along the Columbia River, which was named after his father. McNeil said he drives out there once or twice a year to reminisce, visiting his nephew who now lives in his childhood home. 

He shared memories of an era when he could buy a candy bar for a nickel and of the small schoolhouse in Bossburg he attended for grade school with only 12 other students, that had been the same school his parents also attended.

“The teacher lived in a small apartment right next to the school,” he explained. “We did most of our work on a chalkboard and there was a phonograph you wound up to play records. I’d love to have that now,” McNeil remarked nostalgically.

He said when he was in the fifth grade, his dad took a job in Spokane and McNeil got a paper route there as his first job that earned him $10/week. “It was a lot of money. I had to get up in the dark and deliver it on foot, seven days a week.” 

Later, they moved back and McNeil attended Marcus High School before it was consolidated into Kettle Falls High for grades six to 10. Offering some local history, he shared, “In the 1980s, my uncle bought the Marcus school after it closed for $35,000 and turned the cafeteria into an apartment. He lived there for a few years, but then it burned down.” He said that the cause of the fire was unknown, and all that remains is the foundation.

Junior year was the switch to Kettle Falls High School, yet he didn’t graduate because he left to join the Air Force. McNeil said, “I had to, because I was only 17 and my wife was 16. And at 17, you can’t get a job, and she was pregnant.” McNeil said he married Frankie in 1963 after the two met his sophomore year, and they have been together ever since. “We fell in love. She was meant to be my wife,” he said.

While in Vietnam, he shared that he wrote to his wife every day, sending letters via Air Mail.  

He became a jet engine mechanic in the Air Force and was later stationed in New Hampshire, Taiwan, Japan, Da Nang Air Base in Vietnam and finished his service in Michigan. He said he worked on B47’s, C130 E-models, HH43B Helicopters and T53 jet engines doing flight line maintenance.

McNeil said he came home in 1967, even though he was encouraged to remain enlisted. “I just wanted to go home. This is my home. I have been everywhere and if someone said to me, ‘I will give you a free trip anywhere in the world,’ I would choose Spokane. I don’t want to go anywhere,” he stated.

“When I got home from the Air Force, we bought a house built in the 1800s in Bossburg for $3,500. It had been moved up from when the (Grand Coulee) Dam came in and flooded Old Kettle; $350 down and $35/mo and no interest. I got a job at Boise Cascade plywood plant,” he recounted.

McNeil would work at Boise Cascade for 41 years, seven days a week.

“We grew up really poor and to me a day off was money lost,” McNeil explained. “I was kind of a workaholic; I liked working by the sweat of my brow and the jobs I had were very hard, and I loved it.”

According to McNeil, in 1967 he made $2.63/hour at Boise Cascade, which was a good wage at the time. “I am not bragging about it, I like working. I wasn’t a sit around person. I had so many blisters, on top of blisters! I did everything in that plywood plant for 41 years. It was like my home away from home. I retired to let someone else have a job who needed it,” he said. When McNeil retired from the plywood plant in 2008, he went to the Veterans Affairs and discovered he was eligible for benefits due to his exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam which caused him to get Type 2 Sugar diabetes. “I didn’t want to go, but my brother-in-law convinced me to go and check into these benefits,” he continued. It was then he was also diagnosed with PTSD. “I get startled really easily.” He shared that while in Vietnam, “I was scared out of my mind.”  

Fun memories in his life include camping at the Evan’s Campground in the summers with his family. He said he bought a trailer for them to stay in during vacations.

McNeil and his wife have lived in Chewelah for the last 21 years. “I love this town, it’s a nice, quiet town. It’s closer to Spokane, near the kids and grandkids. I can’t imagine living anywhere else.”

He and Frankie had three children: Dannie Jr, Sandie, and Barbie, who have given them 29 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.

His oldest son passed away of an autoimmune disease in 2023, and is buried in Bossburg cemetery, where his entire family has been buried. 

He also noted, “The Statesman-Examiner has been around forever, as far back as I can remember. I feel like it’s part of me. All of our cemetery notices are in there. My dad’s in there, my mom, my uncle’s; I got all the clippings in my bible. I clip them out and save them.”  

When asked about his philosophy for life, McNeil said, “I never had a bad day because someone in this world would give me their best day for my worst. I know that, and I have seen it. And you will never hear me complain. I don’t know why the Lord blesses me and blesses me every time I turn around. Why me? The windows of heaven are open and I don’t think I deserve it.” 

He said that the joy of life is his family. “My wife is a prayer warrior. She is such a blessing to me. I can’t imagine life without her. She is just a year younger than me. She is the best grandma and great-grandma in the world. When it comes to holidays, we have one bedroom stacked high with presents for all the kids!”

McNeil also expressed gratitude for his spiritual life. “I didn’t find the Lord until I was in my 30s. I was in church at Kettle Falls Community Baptist Church and the preacher did the invitation to come up. The pastor was my next door neighbor and led me to the Lord. I wasn’t raised in the church. I just went there one Sunday and when he gave the invitation, I went forward. In that moment, nothing could keep me from going forward to accept the Lord.”  

His advice for young people is to “join the military. That’s where you will grow up. I think everyone is obligated to join the military. It will make you a better person.”