David Hurst April 4, 1948 - August 9, 2015

 Thank you Alice for continuing Dave’s memory and keeping him alive in side of us. Because of you I think of him far more often… I say things like, My best friend Dave…. I tell Jennifer about you and about Dave and about Oglethorpe and Atlanta. Peace marches in Piedmont Park and rock concerts that we went to.  James Taylor and Carole King, George Harrison and Chicago…. the Singer brand record player that Dave had in his room that I would go down to hang out with Dave and listen to music; Bob Dylan and Judy Collins - Both Sides Now…

Dave was so much more grown up, so much more sophisticated…. When Dave and I played guitar together he always had a more musical touch, a more musical feeling for the music. 

Then the drives home and back to Atlanta. Dave was the first to have a car… well maybe Billy Barrette who had the black 56 Chevy and then the classic 57 Chevy with the fins. But Dave always had something unique and different. He had a red humpbacked Volvo. A Volvo??? When most of us didn’t know what a Volvo was… of course we had our share of bad luck. The Volvo fan belt broke and the car overheated… we had to stop and go. We could continue to drive it because it was so freezing cold outside. We were stuck in a truck stop for a while so Dave could call his parents. We couldn’t get it fixed so somehow we got on a train somewhere in Virginia, Fredericksburg I think, to get back to Atlanta. I remember feeling the heat in the rail car that felt so great compared to the bitter cold. Somehow we made it back to school… but there was another time when Dave was driving and someone ran a stop sign and hit us. They crumpled my side and I bumped my head on the window frame. We went to the hospital but I don’t remember being hurt. I think I remember Dave’s parents coming to visit us….

There was the time in high school when Dave was in the school play. He had a speaking and singing role but I don’t remember the name of the play. Anyway the plan was to pick him up outside while he was taking a break… Mark, Boner T Q Harris had a car. A big nice Chevy, his father’s car… so we pick Dave up to go for a quick spin… too quick because I remember the scene like in slow motion where Mark was turning the steering wheel with two fingers.. because it was power steering and he had to show off… the car turned but not enough… I saw the chain link fence through the windshield ahead of us. I thought Oh that will slow us down… but not enough… the fence went down like a curtain. I can see the chain link wire just collapsing in front of us then THUD… and stop we did. Nobody was hurt just dazed but I remember in the police station under questioning Dave said.. I don’t know, “the door popped open and I popped out”. And that became the quote and the mantra of our youth and our life time as we stepped in and out of close calls and trouble… Well the door just popped open and I popped out.

Alice, love you… I’m gonna pop out. ☺️