LAFAYETTE — Dave Thompson’s roots and friendships grow deep in his tight-knit Lafayette community. But they grow deepest among the people he’s shared his life with along Crestview Court, where he’s lived roughly 64 of his 66 years.
Dave’s roots and friendships spread across the state when he went to Vincennes University and later grew at Wabash National, where he spent 35 years making semi-trailers.
When the call beckoned to Dave’s friends to gather Sunday for a surprise reunion to celebrate Dave’s birthday, they came from Indy, from Marion from Vincennes, from Mooresville and other parts of the state, too.
They came to show Dave what he means to them.
“It’s all about loving Dave,” childhood friend Greg Perigo said about Sunday’s party. “He just doesn’t know how many people think of him and care for him. He’s a good guy.”
How good of a guy?
“You really want a community full of Dave Thompsons. You really do,” said Perigo, who grew up with Dave along Crestview Court, shared their college days at Vincennes in the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity, and kept in touch as years faded into decades.
The party at Heritage Health Care, where Dave’s convalescing, caught him off guard. Seeing many of his old buddies evoked an emotional response.
“I was very surprised,” he said. “It’s very touching. I’ve got fraternity brothers here. I have high school buddies here. I’ve got a workmate here.”
“We are old, old friends. Me and Greg and Dave, we were like the three amigos,” said Craig MacDonald, who moved to Mooresville after retiring. “If we were between the ages of 16 and 18, if you saw one of us, the other two were very close by.”
Most people’s childhood neighborhoods hold special memories. But Dave’s been a part of other neighbors’ special memories through the decades. He — along with his wife, Rene — are still there on Crestview Court, tying the neighbors who settled there in the 1950s to the people who today call that small stretch of street home.
Dave’s still there because his neighbor, Wilbur Rae, thought highly of Dave, his parents and his brother and sister.
“He was kind of like our adopted grandparent,” Dave’s sister, Amy Thompson, said. “He lived next door.
“He would have us over for meals. He showed us how to cook. He made cookies for us,” she said.
“He was our neighbor,” Dave said of Rae. “He was my Sunday school teacher.
“When he passed away, he willed me his house, which was next door to my parents,” Dave said about the transfer in 1998. “We were very shocked. Very pleased. Grateful to be back in the neighborhood.”
As the room at Heritage Health Care where Dave’s party was hosted became a little packed, Amy recalled Dave’s role in her life while standing in the hallway.
“My big brother. My protector,” she said of Dave.
She recalled when she was a toddler, she broker her leg and was confined to the playpen while she healed.
“He crawled into the playpen to play with me because I wasn’t allowed out of the playpen,” she said of her protector.
“He always stuck up for me,” she said. “He was always there to protect me.”
As she grew into a teenager, Dave continued to protect Amy, warning her boyfriends against doing her wrong, she said.
“He may or may not have helped me when perhaps I was out late at night and came home,” Amy joked.
Dave links Crestview Court’s past in the neighborhood for anyone who moves onto the street.
“I am probably the elder statesman,” he said about his role among the neighbors. “I’m the last original one.”
Perigo, MacDonald and Amy Thompson all spoke of their neighborhood filled with caring people and as a great place to grow up.
“We’re a village. We take care of each other,” Dave said when asked about his lifetime of friends along the easily overlooked neighborhood north of Teal Road and west of the fairgrounds.
He typically meets the newer neighbors when they move in and welcomes them, treats them well. In turn, they blend into the community west of the fairgrounds.
Except for a couple of years, Dave’s lived on Crestview his entire life.
“We watched the Y get built,” Dave said, recalling growing up with his parents, his brother, Mark, and sister.
“I remember when they built Jeff because I was right across the street in my kindergarten room. I watched them tear down the barn and start building the new Jeff,” he said.
Dave remembers how his childhood was so different than that of kids today.
“Bikes were freedom back then, we weren’t this,” he said raising his hands to mock today’s kids who are glued to a gaming device.
“We also used to run those ravines back in there, down in the American Legion,” he said, recalling the bike trails that ran in the area.
“We did a lot of dumb stuff,” MacDonald admitted, including throwing tomatoes over the hill toward the American Legion.
With only three TV channels back in their day, the trio of boys found other ways to amuse themselves.
“Part of our entertainment when we were kids is we’d grab lawn chairs, and they’d have the circus to town,” Perigo said, recalling sitting along the east side of the neighborhood and watching the circus animals being walked.
“That’s great entertainment,” Perigo said with a laugh.
It’s these special memories that brought the trio together for a celebration.
Roughly half-a-dozen old fraternity brothers joined Dave on Sunday.
One of those frat brothers, Doug Whitham, drove from north of Marion in eastern Indiana to see Dave for the first time in more than 40 years.
“I’ve known Dave since the early ‘80s, and Greg has kind of kept me up to date on what’s going on with Dave,” Whitham said. “I’m really glad to get over here today to see Dave and help him celebrate his birthday and be a part of all of this.”
What was Dave like in his fraternity days?
“Dave was adventurous. He liked to have fun,” Whitham said, recalling a nighttime trip south of Vincennes to a supposedly haunted bridge.
They didn’t see a ghost, Whitham said, but it was fun.
Together, the half-a-dozen fraternity brothers tried to sing old Lambda Chi Alpha songs, but the decades faded the memory of the lyrics, leading them to break down in laughter.
After more than an hour of laughter, well wishes, presentations of framed decrees in Dave’s honor and reminiscing, the crowd began to thin.
“I just enjoyed seeing all my old buddies,” Dave said near the end of the celebration. “We always helped each other out.”
Reach Ron Wilkins at rwilkins@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @RonWilkins2.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Dave’s wonderful life on Crestview Court
Reporting by Ron Wilkins, Lafayette Journal & Courier / Lafayette Journal & Courier
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