A tribute and memorial to my good friend Doug

21Apr07

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I can still remember the first time I met Doug, it was in the 7th grade at C.A.C. Doug and I were both new to the school and played football, we also shared classes together that year. I remember Doug was really easy to talk with, so we hit it off fairly quick. Then in conversation I found out that he had grown up with my cousin, Bryan Diemer, and were really good friends. Our friendship continued through school until graduation. It was only after high school graduation that we had to go our seperate ways. Of course we kept in touch and I always knew what was going on with Doug and Shannon. Shannon and I were also very good friends even before her and Doug started dating. She and I had classes together and also became friends. It made for a great friendship after they started dating because I was friends with both, we did a lot of double dating and hanging out together. I remember our senior year we took a trip to Opryland together, he and Shannon and my girlfriend and I all went, I believe it was for a youth rally that was held there.

I want to tell a few stories that I remember about Doug and I will ask that you leave a comment on my blog concerning Doug. Nothing big, maybe just a funny story or remembrance about him. It was great seeing all of our classmates at the funeral on Thursday, Brad and I had plenty to talk about on the way home.

When we were in the seventh grade Doug and I were still getting to know each other when he told me that his grandfather started Maumelle New Town. (As it was known then) I had only seen the television commercials advertising for Maumelle. I can remember thinking Doug was one of these kids who told big stories in order to impress people and make friends. Beside how do you just start a new city? Then when he told me that his grandfather owned Dogpatch U.S.A. I was really skeptical. My mom confirmed the truth for me and Doug became one of my best friends. I mean Dogpatch, that was the ultimate, a friend who’s grandfather owned an amusement park. Doug’s grandfather also owned the high rise apartment building that you saw in the introduction to Hawaii Five 0. The building that Jack Lord was standing on, I was a fan of the show and that was pretty cool. Only later did I realize that Doug was so business savy at 13 years old. After he gained my trust with all the cool grandpa stories he encouraged me to bring my baseball and football cards to school so that we could “look at them”, aka take advantage of Klay and his lack of baseball knowledge. So I did and Doug convinced me to trade my best baseball cards to him for some mediocre football cards. Oh, it was a fair deal I just did not know any better and he got the better end of the deal. He knew I loved the Dallas Cowboys and he used it against me in the trade. One of the last days I saw him at the hospital we were making plans to go to Dallas this fall and see the Cowboys play.

Doug also had his own football helmet when we started football in the seventh grade, he was the only one. Coach Macelroy issued all the team the school helmets which were solid white, Doug’s helmet was solid maroon. He stood out like a sore thumb but he had the nicest helmet on the field.

In the eighth or ninth grade Doug got the idea to invest in some of these x-ray glasses you see advertised in the back of the comic books. They were made of paper kind of like 3-D glasses. The lens were made of paper as well and the very center was a small red bubble lens. You really could not even hardly see out of them, but like a good salesman Doug began to spread the word around school that he had some x-ray glasses on the way. By the time they arrived he had sold 10 or 12 shares for these silly glasses. A share was 50 cents and that allowed you to borrow them for 1 or 2 class periods. At the end of the whole deal he made about $5 after paying for the glasses.

I also remember going over to Doug’s house a lot in Jr. High. Mrs. Gayle would always buy us pizza from the place next door to the Circle K and we would run around Maumelle without a fear of the police because of Doug’s last name.

When we were a little older and starting to drive Doug would come out to my house to get me. My mom was very strict and Doug could always convince her that it would be okay for me to go with him because he would look out for me. Somehow she bought it every time. He had a way of making the parents love him. If she only knew what we were up to she would have been worried to pieces, however I am sure Doug would have made her feel better about it.

In the eleventh grade we were at Mazzio’s one night after a ball game and the place had nearly cleared out. All that was left were me, Brad Johns, Brad Matchett?, Alan Bessent, Bryan Diemer, Barry Mills, Mike Stecks and maybe some body else and then two men eating at the table next to us. Bryan and Alan began throwing pizza and being loud, go figure huh, Alan threw some pizza and it hit one of the men’s jackets and Alan kind of blew it off. The men didn’t say anthing but finished their beer and went outside. We were finishing at the same time and went out to our vehicles. We were all standing in a group and this guy hollers out at us and when we turn around he is holding a sawed off double-barrel shotgun pointed right at us. He would have hit us all if he would have pulled the trigger. We all froze, I was scared to death, the man was cursing at us about the jacket and threatening to shoot us. Doug walks toward him holding out one hand making the stop sign and began calming the man down. Doug apologized and told the guy it was not worth it, yada yada, Bryan and Alan are idiots for doing that and that they couldn’t help it. The guy put the gun down and we all breathed. We got the heck out of there before the guy changed his mind. Doug was cool as ice that night. Now Bryan may not have been with Alan that night and we really didn’t think they were idiots, at least most of the time, but it was the right thing to say to cool the moment.

I had a broken leg our senior year from a football injury. The day we went to “sell” ads for the yearbook Doug knew I was unable to drive because of my leg. He loaded me in the extra cab of his Toyota truck. I remember he drove as easy as he could because I was in a lot of pain and he knew I was hurting. Doug, Shannon and I went to Poochies to swim in the pool that day with the rest of the crowd. He helped me over to the pool so I could be near the action. He was a very good friend when it came to things of that nature.

I have posted a very short power point slide show of Doug. You will find the link above his pictures. I have a song attached to the show but I am having trouble making it work properly. It will begin to play on the first slide, if you continue to click through the show it will cause the song to stop. So if you want to hear the song sit patiently at the first slide. I did not have many pics of him but I did manage to find a few and I thought I would share them. If you have any you should be able to post it with your comment.

Please tell us something about Doug we may not know or may have forgotten.

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