Stories About the Padilla Family

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 My Brother’s Early Christmas Present

My brother Ernie is smart. And that’s putting it mildly. When he was a young child, he wanted a set of NFL mini helmets for Christmas. But he was impatient and wanted to know whether or not he was going to get them as a gift. His mission was to find out BEFORE Christmas.

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Our training company faced a 12-mile forced march in the sub-freezing conditions of a Fort Leonard Wood winter. And our drill sergeants kept reminding us of it!

During Army Basic Training, our company faced a 12-mile forced march in the sub-freezing conditions of a Fort Leonard Wood winter. In the week prior to the actual event, our drill sergeants had constantly reminded us that we recruits would be suffering pain not only from the march itself, but also from the residual pain for days to follow. The entire company was dreading it. Believe me; I was anxious about it myself. But whenever you least expect it, fate often has a nice way of intervening on your behalf. Thanks to my Marine brethren, I wouldn’t be making that march. It wouldn’t be the drill sergeants who would have the last laugh.

frozen march

On My Hunt for an Old-School Broncos Logo, I Couldn’t Believe What I Experienced.

The year the Denver Broncos adopted their current uniforms, they went on to win the Super Bowl. “New uniforms. New stadium. New trophy.” Anything with the old logo went on sale or ended up at the Goodwill. The new logo reigned as the team repeated a back-to-back Super Bowl run. I had worked for the Broncos when they sported the old-school logo. So I went on a quest to find some items with the old-school logo before they disappeared completely.

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 My Brother’s Way to Get a CLUE

My younger brother has always been a very competitive individual. Winning wasn’t the only thing to him, it was everything to him. And he was a very talented dude. So he came up with some clever ways to navigate this big blue planet as he likes to say. This is but a sample of how clever this guy was / is.

CLUE game box


A shy student asked me, “Dr Padilla, are you selling hotdogs?” I wasn’t prepared for what happened next. 

I tried to get a shy student to talk all semester. I would entice her to talk in the lively class discussions; but she would always politely decline. So when her hand went up, I rushed to her and thrust the microphone in front of her face. What she did next was talk alright, but not exactly what I expected.

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My Friend Terry and the Blind Lady

My friend Terry had a plan to raise some spending cash. Only I had no clue what mischief I was getting into. Let’s just say I regretted it after it was done and over.


Mom’s Clever Prank after Visiting Disneyland

When our family returned from Disneyland, little did we know that our mom had planned a clever trick to play on us kids with an item she purchased at the Disney souvenir shop.

Disneyland logo


Visiting Jake Plummer After a Cardinals Game

Jake the sanke Plummer

I had Jake Plummer as a student during ASU’s undefeated season. He was an awesome guy. So one day as a Cardinals game was ending, I decided to say hello to him after the game. I never expected what happened when Jake came out to greet the crowd.


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cropped-pete

pete padilla petepadilla.com