Profile by Iyesha Lynch "They gutted the boat... We had nothing except two paddles and the shirt[s] on our back[s]."

Back to Table of Contents | Back to Main Index Previous Profiles | Send mail to The Voice Quiet lunch lady reveals her humorous side Left: Dee Scott loved fast cars when she was younger. Right: Mr. and Mrs. Scott went on a seven-day fishing trip on the Salmon River after they were married. -Dee Scott, photos In the middle of the night, Dolores "Dee" Scott sat in her car at the light on 174th Avenue and Division Street, waiting to get her nicotine fix from the gas station on the corner. Mrs. Scott was a heavy smoker, averaging more than two packs a day. She had tried to quit, but in the middle of the night her craving often got the best of her. The radio began playing a country song. It was about a girl who wanted 10,000 angels to help her leave her boyfriend, Mrs. Scott said. As she waited for the light to turn green, she thought about the song and her addiction to smoking. "Lord, you have to fill this car with 10,000 angels to make me not go and buy another pack of cigarettes," she said to God. Just then Mrs. Scott started laughing hysterically and the cravings left. She never went to the gas station. She never bought the cigarettes. She never smoked again. A native Oregonian born in Dallas, Mrs. Scott grew up in Willimina, Ore. She refers to herself as the "typical" middle child of two sisters and one brother. Mrs. Scott started working on her 15th birthday. Her dad had gone to get ice cream for her party. When the manager of the ice cream parlor found out it was her 15th birthday, he called her at home and asked if she wanted a job. Mrs. Scott got her work permit and worked for him that night. "I was a teen in a small town, and I knew it was a way to make money," she said. "I wanted money to be able to do things. There were six kids in my family and not a lot of money to go around." The next year she began working at a cafe as a waitress. There she made a lot of jokester friends like herself. Mrs. Scott's dad was a logger, and he knew everywhere she had been even before she got home because of her log truck buddies. Once gas attendant, pulling a clever prank, put mud all over her car windshield, and Mrs. Scott spent a lot of time cleaning it off. Another time Mrs. Scott stole her dad's car just because he said she couldn't drive it, but she broke something on it. A man repaired it well enough so that when her dad got in the car he thought he had broken it. Her father never discovered the truth. But the man who fixed the car blackmailed her for free coffee at the cafe three weeks in a row. Mrs. Scott met her husband when she rode her bike into his parked truck. They lived in the same apartment building and saw each other often. "I played a lot of jokes on her," Mr. Scott said. "Dee would believe anything I told her, as long as I kept a straight face. She believed I was a ski instructor for a long time, but I've never even been on skis." The two were married in 1982. Mrs. Scott's husband wasn't the only one who took advantage of her gullibility. On a camping trip to the Salmon River in California, Mr. Scott's father convinced Mrs. Scott that there was such a thing as a "belt snake." He described it as a deadly, poisonous snake that was flat and looked like a belt. While his father was telling her about the "belt snake," Mr. Scott had hooked his belt to a fishing pole and was reeling it closer and closer to the fire. The firelight flickered off the buckle and made it look like eyes. "Oh my, it looks like one of those belt snakes," Mr. Scott's father said. Mrs. Scott started "screaming bloody murder," Mr. Scott said. "She got up on the chair while my dad grabbed an axe. But she got pretty mad about that joke." The Scotts have two children. Lisa, 19, attends community college. Cindy is still in high school. Mrs. Scott works at Multnomah, where she calls herself "little man on the totem pole." She works in the kitchen part-time as a server preparing lunch for the students, stacking dishes, creating fruit trays and just about everything else. She came to Multnomah as a part-time employee five years ago. "I came to be around grown-ups," Mrs. Scott said. "It has been wonderful. Being there for the [students] is my way of serving the Lord." Left: Dee Scott smiles in her high school graduation photo. Right: Mr. Scott places the wedding ring on his wife's finger. -Dee Scott, photos Back to Table of Contents | Back to Main Index Previous Profiles | Top Of Page Send mail to The Voice| Journalism department website © 2002 The Voice. No part of this publication may be reproduced in written or electronic form without prior written consent from the journalism adviser of Multnomah Bible College. All rights reserved.