Ode to David Slaughter

David was my age, in fact we were in the same grade and went to school together. He was a good looking kid. Sandy hair, freckles I believe, and a mischievous grin. He lived on the north side of town. I got to know him from school and then I really got to know him after school. My folks both worked and so after school I would go to the sitter’s house which was just off of Highway 30 (Lincoln Highway). At first she lived in the big house on the corner of Canal Street and Fifth. Last time I saw it was torn down and called “The Wheel Restaurant” and now it is called something else. Then she moved right across the street so that her backyard now included the canal. Her folks still lived in the big house on the corner of Canal and Fifth (Lincoln Highway). Some how David and I hooked up after school and played together. I was close to where he lived so he would ride his bike over. We were together a lot. Nobody really knew it. It was no big deal. When we saw each other at school it was just normal that we didn’t discuss that we hung out together. I don’t know why. Neither one of us were embarrassed or anything. We didn’t hide the fact that we knew each other more than we knew about other classmates either. We were just cool about everything.

Anyway, David was a blast to hang out with. One day we ended up with some cane poles with some line wrapped around the ends with bobber and a hook. All we had for bait was bread that we mashed into dough balls. Hey, that was then. We didn’t think we would catch squat. But we ended landing the biggest Carp I have ever seen. They were huge. Of course Carp are considered a garbage fish to the WASPs (white Anglo sexton Protestants) but we didn’t care we had caught some fish! Yup, David was cool to hang out with.

All that changed one day. David had been over to where I was at with the sitter and we were goofing off. My folks came to get us early and so David took off. No big deal. Next day, I go to school and everyone asks me if I had heard what happened to David. I knew nothing so I said so. David had been hit by a car while crossing Fifth Street (The Lincoln Highway). It was not very far from where we last saw each other. David never saw it coming. His injuries were extensive and there was no hope of survival. He passed away that afternoon. I was in shock. Just numb. I had wished David had never known me, I wished he had never crossed that highway to see me. It didn’t do any good. It was too late. All the wishing in the world wouldn’t bring him back now. I suffered hard and in silence. Just one of many of the “man” lessons I would learn. No one really knew how close we were or that we hung out together. So I mourned for him alone as best I could as best I knew how. I got to see him 3 times at the funeral home. Once after school with some kids I walked home with. Again that night when my parents took me and then again the next day when my whole class went aboard a bus. I did not get to go to David’s funeral.

I believe I was in the 4th grade when David died. I am not sure any more. I know the teacher did one of the most morbid things I had ever seen up to that day. She emptied David’s desk out and just put his stuff on a shelf in the back of the class room. There was nothing else on these shelves but David’s school supplies. The area looked so stark bare naked except for these pencils, ink pens, a ruler, glue, some paper, and a pencil box. Things that David would never use again. Never. And we kids had to come into class every day and like it or not that is the first thing we saw. We couldn’t help but not see them. They were directly in your line of sight as you entered the doorway. It was so haunting. Some days I could almost see David coming back to get them. They stayed there for a long time. Way to long for this little boy.

Then something strange happened. My parents got into financial trouble and either sold the house or had it foreclosed on. So half way through the 5th grade we were moving to Lima, Ohio. I would change schools during the Christmas break. In the mean time we had swapped out baby-sitters again. When we first met her I thought she looked vaguely familiar. Then I realized who it was. This was David Slaughter’s mother. But the guy in the house didn’t look like her husband. Then I found out what had happened. I came to find out that after David’s death her marriage to her former husband collapsed and they divorced and then she remarried. She had David’s older sister with her. It was a strange set of affairs I found myself in. I remember asking her a lot of questions about David but always watching her body language to see if I had treaded too far. She was very gentle about answering the questions and really put me at ease. The time flew by and before I realized it we were saying goodbye for good. She, her daughter, and her husband lived in a cozy little place by the tracks on Franklin I believe and I wondered what would become of her.

So the Christmas vacation was over before it started and I was enrolled in Lowell School down on the corner of Spring Street and Jamison in Lima. I sure didn’t like being the new kid and I stayed the new kid for quite awhile. So I finished out 5th grade and soon forgot about Delphos when summer arrived cause there was a million and one things to do. It seemed like everything in my past just kinda faded away into a dream, then to fog, and then just gone.

Fate was not done with me yet to my amazement. My family and I had started taking vacations a few years earlier as us kids had become old enough to manage on outings into scenic and historic areas. Mom was a history buff so we spent our summers receiving an education in places like Williamsburg, VA, Lake George, NY, and Cape Cod, RI. She had set into motion something that would decide the rest of my life’s pursuits. First she took us to Virginia Beach, VA where I got my first look at the ocean. Next we were driving through Norfolk, VA looking at all the navy ships docked there and we picked up 3 sailors in their dress whites. That was it. It was all over with except for the signature. I was going to sea and that was that. And I did, 24 years in the U. S. Navy and you can call me Chief. Anyway, back to fate….. So it was during one of these vacations that we happened to be in the Smokey Mountains. We had hiked quite a while to get to a view point. No sooner then we got there than I looked over and here came David’s mom, her husband, and her daughter coming from a trail from another direction. We spoke with them for awhile and then went about our separate ways. David’s mom had moved on. She loved and missed him as only a mother can but she had let go with dignity. I admired her for that very, very much because it was at that moment I realized that I could not and I never have….

I am coming back to find David's grave site. If anyone happens to know where it is please email me....