Thursday, April 14, 2016

David Capozzalo

He is my oldest friend. I've been lucky in that my dear friends are all good ones.

David is a good one.

I met David and his brother, Douglas, back, back, back, in 1966 at Fort Meade, Maryland. So long ago that the details are kind of fuzzy. David and I learned about girls together, we delivered newspapers together (I was the worst paper boy), and we learned about growing from boys to teenagers together.

Some long ago memories...

David and me playing on the worst football team ever. We scored 21 points the whole season. Going nuts on the sideline when we finally scored a touchdown.

He also has two big sisters, Gayle and Karen. The washer and dryer were in the basement of their house and Karen, maybe 17, came down in her underwear to get some pants, saw me and said,"You have a big sister, right?" When I answered yes she said, "Well, you've seen this before," and kept coming down the stairs. I remember thinking, "Yeah, but not like that."

I was caught by the police relieving myself (ahem) on a wall of the Junior High School. The cop who caught me asked for my name and I told him Dave Capozzalo. The police officer asked me to spell it. I knew how to. The cop looked at me and you could see him thinking--does he even look like a Capozzalo?

He let me go.

I have to mention this although it has nothing to do with David. It has to do with another David. David Mathews. This David was five and lived in our neighborhood. One day after playing, he was going home and came upon a big rain puddle. He didn't see me. He looked left, he looked right and David then stooped down and took the biggest drink. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, said "Ahhh," and kept going. Goofy and funny at the same time.

My David eventually went to Hawaii and life was a bit more empty.

Nowadays with texting and cell phones and email it's easier to stay in touch. Back then? Much harder. You had to write letters.

He eventually came back, graduated from my high school (Arundel), his too, lived at my house, and wore a hard hat with me. We had a summer job at a place called Longs Fence. I was reading a book by James Michener called The Drifters and turned David on to it. The wanderlust in that book took hold of him and helped guide his life.

We went our separate ways and I lost touch with him. But there is a part two to this story...

Fast forward and I'm on CBS. David was in China and saw an article about our show in Time magazine, recognized me and reached out. We reconnected and it was great.

By then he lived in Perth, Australia and worked in Bahrain.

Wanderlust.

We had adventures part two and also since I'd had a stroke I helped a friend of his who'd had a stroke.

He's now married to the wonderful Barbara. They met in 1979 in Saudi Arabia. How about that? They've been together ever since. She and my wife went to dinner with David, his mom and me.

His mother, Olga, and his father, Daniel, were special. I can still hear the words of advice his dad gave us before we went out at night when we were teenagers.

Ask David.

His mom was a looker before I knew what that word meant.

David and Barbara are the proud parents of Meeka and Sam.

Meeka has a Ph.D and is now working and living in the Netherlands. Sam, still in Australia, has embarked on a career in Human Resources.

Good kids. Talented kids.

David Capozzalo.

My friend.

My brother.


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