Make New Friends, Keep the Old

The 60 influential people of my life:
Day 5:Jimmy Dale Butts was my first friend; his family lived beside mine from the time I was born until I was 13. My first remembrance of Jimmy Dale is sitting with him in our living room watching Saturday morning cartoons in the early 1950's when television was new. Although I don't have younger memories of him I do have photographs of my 2nd birthday, and Jimmy is in a photograph with me. Jimmy was several years older than me, and I remember crying when he went to school and I couldn't go. I can remember wondering what I would do all day with him in school. Jimmy was patient with me and let me tag along when he wandered in the woods. I loved him like a brother.
            Clyde Ford, the band director in Harrisburg, who gave me a place to belong. He showed compassion for me and will never know the impact he had on my life. Thanks, Mr. Ford, for being kind to me.