My Friend Drowns

           Around 1965-66 Livingston built a city reservoir to supply the city with drinking water. Before this time they had been pumping water from a cave and wells. Donald and I would climb the fence to explore the cave. It was fun exploring. I was living the life of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

            I was also hanging out with Charles and would stay with him sometime. Charles was younger than I, and I was never in the same school as he. I knew him from Church where he attended with Mother and older sister, Genevieve. Genevieve was older enough to drive, so this was our transportation sometime. Charles’s dad was an alcoholic that was in and out of jail. Even though I was friend with Charles and Donald and they both went to the same church that my dad has founded, they never associated with each other. For one thing there was a big age difference; Donald was a couple of years older that I and Charles a couple of years younger. The other thing that kelp them from being friend was that Donald was the popular kid in school, and Charles was an unpopular kid. My time spent with each was separate.

            Charles and I with another kid that I can’t remember his name would go swimming in some different lakes around Livingston. We would swim across the lakes with Charles, who wasn’t a strong swimmer would follow with a tube to give us a safety net. After the city lake was completed, it provided us a larger lake to swim, even though swimming wasn’t allowed in it because it provided the drinking water for Livingston. But that never stopped us. Charles would only get about half way across with the tube while we would reach the opposite side. We would start back and catch up with him before he made it back. We did this every time we went swimming.

            On one occasion Genevieve came by with Charles and his friend on their way to the lake to invite me to go with them. I was busy with Donald, so I declined the invitation. They went to the lake without me. Genevieve didn’t swim and had gone to sunbath while the boys swim. They were making the usual journey across the lake when something went wrong, our friend went down and Charles was too far from him to help. Later that afternoon Genevieve and Charles came by to tell me what happened.

            The next evening Debbie and I went by the funeral home to see him. It was unbelievable that he was gone. I felt that if I had gone with them that this wouldn’t have happened. I was a strong swimmer, but he was better than I. I don’t know what happened!    

Birdie

            Donald and I would hang out at a couple of gas stations at night. We had a friend that worked the late shift so we would go and hang out with him at night. During the night there was little activity, a few people stopping by to get gas. To get gas, you pulled up to the pumps and the gas station attendant would go out and pump the gas for you. No one pumped there own gas, and you didn’t get out unless you were using the rest room, or buy a snack. The gas stations carried a few snacks and cold drinks.

            Often late at night we would use the car lift to work on Donald’s car. It made it convenient to lift the car to change the oil or work on the car. Our friend enjoyed having company while he worked late at night by himself, and we would run errands for food. Often I would nap in the car or on a sofa that was in the station. In cold weather this provided a place to be out of the cold at night.

            In the day time the station had an attendant that went by the nickname “Birdie”, after Tweedy Bird the cartoon character. He was called this because he had a very large head. He was known around town because his looks and he did odd jobs for people. During this time, men would hang out at the court house picking up day work from people. Birdie and another character would hang out at the court house to escort couples that had driven down from Kentucky or Ohio to get married. In Livingston you had no wait period and you could get married at a younger age. These guys would take you through the process, getting your license, VD test, and someone to marry you. You could come to Livingston and in a few hours go home married. The guys charged a fee for their time.

            Birdie worked at the gas station in the afternoons after anyone looking to get married where finish with his duties. He would sleep in a back room after his work hours where finished. On one such night, a gas leak exploded and burned the station. Birdie survived the fire, but was burned and left scared. Afterwards he was unable to work. The town collected money to help him, but he wasn’t seen hanging out at the court house after that.