A lifetime friend, Dick Sullivan, 89, died Tuesday. He, his parents, and siblings lived three
doors down from us in he Clay Homes.
Dick’s family did the
concessions at Larry Bell Park. Their
father owned a flatbed wooden wagon to haul canned drinks and snacks from one
event to another at the park. It also
hauled us and picnic supplies to our annual outing to Sweetwater Creek near
Austell. It was a birthday outing. Dick’s brother Eddie’s birthday was July the
15th and mine is July 16.
On one birthday outing on the banks of Sweetwater Creek by a
bridge I waded out and suddenly stepped into nothingless. I think years before the creek was lower and
where I stepped was where a bridge was at one time. A swift underwater current grabbed me and
away I went, underwater. Dick jumped in
and saved me. My daddy also yanked off
his shoes and helped save me but Dick got to me first. The obituary today said Dick was 89 and I am
79. He was ten years older than I when
he saved me. I was about 5 and Dick
would have been about 15.
About ten years later when I had an Atlanta Journal paper
route I delivered their paper when they lived on Chester Street, near the Coca-Cola
Bottleling Company on Atlanta Street.
Though the years I talked to Dick and his brother Eddie at
the annual Bell Reunions. The Bell Reunions were commemorating Larry Bell Park. The only other family there that I know of
that had such an attachment as the Sullivan was the Hood family. Betty Hood was there at every reunion also.
When the Clay Homes Housing Project was being bulldozed;
demolished, it was a sad event for many people who once called the homes their
home. Dick went there more than a couple
of times to see it, my sister Frances saw him there several times. At that time, Dick had retired and worked at
Cobb Hardware, which was at the foot of what was the Coca Cola company, which
was just a hop, skip, and jump from the Clay Homes.
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