MY PAL DIVAD SREGDOR

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March 1, 2017 · Posted in Commentary 

 

 

David Rodgers

David Rodgers

 

By Tony Cloud

(Editors note: The writer remembers his boyhood friend David Rodgers here in this short essay. I’ve known Tony Cloud since we were young kids, so you can imagine my pleasant surprise in recently discovering his creative and fresh voice as a storyteller. You will notice no explanation is offered for the reversal of letters in the title—a subtle nod to their boyhood secret code of friendship.—Bob Vickrey)

Yep, Ole Divad was something special.

An old friend from way back in the Cub Scout days, he was.

Karen and I drove to Lake Charles to witness his hitching when we were expecting our first daughter fairly quickly

Sure was hoping all would work out and we could get back across the Sabine in time so I wouldn’t have to break the news later to her that she was a “coon-ass” by birth.

Terrible news that would have been, but we made it.

Before that Karen and I had married and David was in our wedding and I guess he thought he was part of our new family cause it seemed like he was over quite a bit.

And we loved it!

We would all three go to the Stinkadena drive-in and Karen would sit between us two fools, all three in the front seat, and we would have ourselves a time.

Hope nobody we knew saw us.

Thinkin’ of Young Tony, I wish he’d relayed to the Biology teacher that he had established a human-reptile bond with those two water moccasins that him and David had caught over on the levee and brought to school for all the children to study.

Man it was a lot of trouble to get those two snakes to class, and then you go and put em in a big jar of chemicals overnight—Could not believe it.

Had those babies in an ice chest and it got tumped’ over in the front yard.

There were about ten kids around and plenty of panic followed.

They didn’t name names, but if you remember they announced over the loud speakers the

next morning—No more snakes!

Wow, and just to think, I had already picked out names for them overnight—

Slippery and Slimey.

Anyway, a lesson for you Mr. Sandell. Don’t kill two guys’ snakes without asking. OK?

David Rodgers was a wonderful friend over the years,

And I was sad when he moved off.

And it was unreal news when I found out he had passed away.

Tony Cloud retired after a 40 year career in the pipefitting industry, including the last 12 years for United Technology where he worked in Houston and traveled throughout the country. He and his wife Karen live in the Houston area.

 

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