Who is Dave Watters?

My name is Dave Watters and I was born in Africa.

The part of my story I’m focusing on today is what you might call my formative years, where I was finding my way, weaving through the tapestry, discovering, adventuring, experiencing setbacks and disappointments…this was from about the age 18 through about the age of 30. These years included five different states, 20 different domiciles, several different jobs and universities, starting a business, several trips to Europe, and rounds of airport roulette, where we would drive to LAX and literally find a flight to somewhere once we got there. Looking back, this movement was my Zen, something that balanced my mind and body and allowed me the time to “transition”.

Yes, Africa. I might win the award for distance between home where I was born to home today. 6,046 miles. Born on a Navy base and lived on an Air Force base in Morocco. My mom actually moved there when she was pregnant, so my zeal for adventure actually came from her DNA. We moved back to Lincoln, Nebraska when I was two where I grew up as Dave Watters.

My mom was unlucky in marriage and our family grew up for the most part without a Dad in the household. Rose was an extremely hard worker and was the original Dave Ramsey of money management after she cashed her check each week putting money in envelopes for various categories (mortgage, utilities, groceries, etc.). Her work ethic, our solid middle class upbringing, various touch points with religion, understanding the differences between right and wrong, respect, compassion, consideration for others…these fundamentals were taught by example by Rose. I did not know it at the time, but I was grounded and when I left home at 18.

At 18, I headed to the University of Northern Colorado on a football scholarship. I found myself surrounded by lots of good players, including one guy who was a few steps ahead of me in the depth chart who eventually became an all-pro QB for the Kansas City Chiefs. I had to work hard, I had to play hard, I had to study film hard, we trained hard, and everything was extra tough. Two years later, in my sophomore year I found myself living with some teammates in a trailer park, next to a feed lot and although playing football, not playing as much as I wanted [Read: Redshirted] One day, I said to myself as I looked around and smelled the air, “I need to get out of this predicament”.  I felt boxed in and the output was not equal to the input. One day later my car was packed and I was headed east back to Nebraska. My mom was devastated. She didn’t understand and quite frankly neither did I. It was more of a gut feeling at the time that I needed to move on.

I needed some space between me and my Mom after this. Some friends of mine were living in a small town in western Nebraska, Benkelman.  No stop lights, two bars and one restaurant. Pop. About 1,200. Today there is less than 900 people. One guy, Kevin Johnson, was the assistant editor of the Benkelman Post. He wrote about me coming to town (this was news) and the whole county knew I was now there. Anyway, I stayed with them and quickly got a job putting up grain bins for farmers. This is where the value of a hard day’s work for a good day’s pay bonded with me.  We went from farm to farm over western Nebraska, experiencing some of the simple pleasures. Sunrises and sunsets, working hard, getting paid every Friday, home-made lunches and dinners at various farmer’s homes, simple conversation…about the weather most of the time, Nebraska football, cold cheap beer, waiving with your figure on the steering wheel while going down a two lane road. This was important! EXPLAIN THIS.

After several months there, I made way back to Lincoln and enrolled at the University, joined a fraternity, attended the Nebraska football games and started to blend into the Nebraska landscape.

Blending in was never a strong suit of mine.  My friend, Bob Pollock and I decided we wanted to go west. His grandmother lived in Sun City, Arizona. So one night, we put a map of Arizona over a dart board. Yes, we threw darts to determine what City we would move to. Flagstaff was the winner and two weeks later we were off, driving into and eventually out of one of the worst snow storms of the winter. I got pulled over in the Arizona desert, my car was packed, and everyone was being pulled over as they were looking for a bank robber. The officer asked me for my driver’s license and as it turned out it was somewhere packed in my car full of stuff. He asked me to keep looking. After about 15 minutes, I found a frisbee in the back of my car and it had my name, address and phone number written on the inside. The officer came back and I handed him the frisbee. He looked at it, astonished at first, then somewhat accepting and shrugged his shoulders took the frisbee with him. I saw him walk over to another officer holding the frisbee and them both inspecting it. They talked for a bit and the original officer came over handed me the frisbee and said, “we are going to have to have a second ID.”! Yes, the Frisbee counted as the first ID!

That year may have been the most grueling of my life. Hamburger helper or canned tuna for most dinners, late rent and utilities being turned off, bartending for a while at a black discotheque, lots and lots of snow, but eventually landing a job at the State of Arizona on a survey crew. EXPLAIN HOW I GOT THIS JOB. Unconventional approach. And I worked there every summer for the next three years to pay my way through school.

The University of Arizona was my next stop now that I had earned the right to pay in-state tuition. I tried out for the football team, did not make the cut, but looking back, trying in that situation was the key. It was like going for that next unknown. I was definitely outside of my comfort zone, but overall my experience was a good one, except in the coach’s office that final day when he gave me the word. I knew at that time, the play calling, the handoffs, the two-minute drill, the TD passes, it was all done and I now I was disappointed and felt the rush of mom’s disappointment from quitting the university and football earlier.

Soon, I was on the Rugby pitch and for the next few years as I had several university internships related to planning and building, as we played Rugby all over the southwest and pacific coast as well as England and Wales. Lifelong friends were made along the way. I had found an avatar for football and the adventures were at full tilt.

So back to Dave Watters. When my Mom was married a third time, I was about six or so. There was talk of officially adopting me so when I entered school, I enrolled as Dave Watters, my mother’s new married surname. The adoption never happened, she got divorced, the name stuck and I was Dave Watters. My sister is Paddy Watters.

You can google Dave Watters, Lincoln East High school and get several hits. My friends back there still call me Wads or Watts today. I was asked to join the HS football Hall of Fame and they said do you want to go in Watters or Bartlett, and I said Watters. People always asked why I changed my name. Well, I didn’t. I just started using the name that I was originally given.

My name is Dave Bartlett and I was born in Africa.