Friendship

Donny Hall was my next-door neighbor. He was the youngest of 5 boys. He was not quite 4 years younger than me. When we moved in next-door he was 3 years old … we became fast friends. Matter of fact he probably was my best friend while growing up in Miami.

We didn’t always agree with each or even get along. I remember stories, shared by my brothers, of the day that Donny chased me down the street with a meat cleaver. Since I don’t remember the event I surely don’t remember what I did to provoke such behavior.

Donny accepted me for who I was and never shared the many, many stories of things that I am not necessarily proud of today, but he was either a witness to, a participant in or knowledgeable of those “less than proud” moments in my past ... and he still picked me to do things with. If you can say that you love someone, for a particular period of time and without causing eyebrows to be raised, then I can honestly state that I loved Donny as a very special friend.

Donny Hall knew that I wasn’t very athletic – my abilities left much to be desired – while his skill level caused him to be one of the captains. Donny always picked me to be a part of his team … sometimes even choosing me first. He tolerated me when others simply laughed and stood up for me when others made fun. He would get frustrated and I heard too many times, “Oh, Jimmy!!!” but next time around there he was and there I was on the same team by his choice.

My mom and his mom always knew that where they would find one of us they could be sure to find the other. Also, if one of us got into trouble then it was a fair bet that the other one was going to receive the same punishment. It would simply be a matter of time. We loved to give the Hall’s maid, Rose, a hard time … and she always told on us! Why we didn’t learn our lesson is beyond me, but we sure stayed in trouble a lot!

I envied Donny – for his athletic ability and also for his garage chest freezer where he had his own half-galloons of ice cream that he could eat at any time he wanted some as long as it wasn’t too close to supper time.

Donny was always challenging me to do something crazy because he knew that I would do it. Like seeing how high we could climb the tall tree in his front yard – I ended up falling out of that tree onto my back knocking myself out for several hours. Or, challenging me to go a little further on our bikes knowing full well that I won’t tell on him and he won’t tell on me. Boy, did we see Miami!

Summers meant many afternoons and evenings at the local community pool.

When it was time to pick individuals to stand up with me at my wedding one individual I picked was Donny Hall. He even hid our car so that members of my youth group would not trash it.

I got married and moved to Nashville. Donny graduated from high school, went to Miami-Dade Community College and eventually entered the U.S. Army – it was during the Viet-Nam war. My mother would keep me informed as to where and what Donny was doing, but after he entered the Army we both lost all contact.

While in seminary in Atlanta, Georgia we did read in the paper that Donny Hall married a Georgia girl in Atlanta, but all tries to make contact failed. After I graduated and came back to Florida to start my ministry I was appointed as the associate pastor at First UMC, South Miami. One day while driving down 7th Avenue, I passed Hall’s Refrigeration and there stood Mr. Hall and one of Donny’s brothers, Gene. I stopped and asked about Donny. Gene shared that he was till in the Army, but was going to be released soon and come back to Miami to go to work for Southern Bell.

Fate stepped in again because that June I moved on to a new assignment in St. Petersburg and never tried to get in contact with my friend.

Well, this year Margaret and I will celebrate our 45th Anniversary so I’ve been attempting to get in contact with the various members of our wedding party. Thanks to switchboard.com and other such web sites that task is much easier today than it was back when I moved to St. Petersburg. Through ancestry.com I made a sad discovery … Donny Hall passed away on June 7, 1995 – he was only 49. Friends and family are not suppose to pass away like that. I haven’t found out the details of his death because that is going to take an actual visit to the Miami Herald to look in their archives for his obituary and other news item.

I’m just sad that I missed my opportunity to renew our friendship … Please don’t take anyone for granted and please don’t think that you have the “time” to leisure pursue reestablishing contact with family and friends. If they were important to you then make the contact and let them know just how special they were to you and your life. I hope Donny can read this from heaven. Thank you for being my friend!

Quote for today: By friendship you mean the greatest love, the greatest usefulness, the most open communication, the noblest sufferings, the severest truth, the heartiest counsel, and the greatest union of minds of which brave men and women are capable. Jeremy Taylor