BS: Obit: Donnie 'I'm a drunk' Pettit, 42...

Subject: BS: Obit: Donnie 'I'm a drunk' Pettit, 42...
From: Bobert
Date: 31 Dec 10 - 06:01 PM

Not exactly musical...

Not sure how many of ya'll remember the character Earnest T on Mayberry but Donnie was as close to Earnest T as one will ever find... Yup, all 4'10" of him... He lived at the very back of our holler and spent his entire life drunk and stoned but...

...he had a big heart, was a purdy decent framing carpenter and stone mason's laborer...

I met Donnie the very first day we moved here some 5 1/2 years ago... It was a Sunday mornin' and he walked the 1/2 mile up our driveway and had the remnants of a six pack danglin' from the plastic holder and introduced himself like this, "Hi, my name is Donnie and I worked on this farm all my life... I don't mind tellin' you that I'm a drunk but if you need anything done I can do it..."

That was beginning of our relationshiip and he worked for me off and on on all kinds of projects until last year when I purdy much ran outta work for him...

Now Donnie would go to bed around 7 at night and be up watching cartoons and smokin' pot and drinkin' by 4 in the morning and would show up for work at whatever time you wanted him there and would work purdy well until around noon when he would be too drunk to work any more...

But before noon he would outwork everyone around him...

He was also very entertaining and everyone loved him back here in the holler...

I told him one time that if he continued his life style it was gonna kill him and he said that he didn't much care 'cause he was living the way he wanted to...

Well, he didn't get up this mornin'... His brother, who has been a saint all these years, found him dead in his bed...

RIP, Donnie...

Bobert and the P-Vine
(Mommy and Daddy what he called us)

Subject: RE: BS: Obit: Donnie 'I'm a drunk' Pettit, 42...
From: maeve
Date: 31 Dec 10 - 06:34 PM

I'm sorry, Bobert and P-Vine. Thanks for telling about your friend.

Maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Obit: Donnie 'I'm a drunk' Pettit, 42...
From: Jeri
Date: 31 Dec 10 - 07:08 PM

Bobert, it's good he had friends/Mommy & Daddy like you & the P-Vine.

Subject: RE: BS: Obit: Donnie 'I'm a drunk' Pettit, 42...
From: Bobert
Date: 31 Dec 10 - 07:30 PM

Thank you, maeve...

Just a little Donnie story from a few years before we moved here... He had been drinkin' with his only neighbor, Pudder, back in the holler and the two of them got into an argument and next thing ya' know Donnie had burned Pudder's house down to the ground... The fire department came and Donnie was over on the porch of his shack yellin' "I told you that I'd do it"...

Well, the cops came for Donnie but he knows the woods and the mountain real well and they couldn't catch him... Lotta folks in the holler knew Donnie real well and loved him so every time the sheriff's car would be seen coming back in the holler someone would call Donnie and he'd be up in the mountain... Took a couple months for them to finally catch him... In the meanwhile he and Pudder had made up, Pudder got a used trailer with money from the insurance company and the two of them would be drinkin' and arguin just like always... That's a testament to how much folks loved the little guy...

Donnie did 3 years in the state pen for that but when he got out it was right back to being Donnie...

Sniff...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Obit: Donnie 'I'm a drunk' Pettit, 42...
From: Bobert
Date: 31 Dec 10 - 07:33 PM

Thanks, Jeri...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Obit: Donnie 'I'm a drunk' Pettit, 42...
From: gnu
Date: 31 Dec 10 - 07:36 PM

Bobert... I know... knew guys like that up country. Still keep in touch with some. I know what you mean. My condolences.

Subject: RE: BS: Obit: Donnie 'I'm a drunk' Pettit, 42...
From: Bobert
Date: 31 Dec 10 - 08:00 PM

Thanks, gn-ze...

People like Donnie ain't easy to forget... I mean, I ain't never known anyone like him... I thought that Earnest T was a character but Earnest T didn't have anything on Donnie... No, sir...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Obit: Donnie 'I'm a drunk' Pettit, 42...
From: Ebbie
Date: 01 Jan 11 - 04:53 AM

No cardboard cutout for Donnie, for sure. Condolences to both you and the P-Vine, Beaubear. It is never easy, is it.

Subject: RE: BS: Obit: Donnie 'I'm a drunk' Pettit, 42...
From: Bobert
Date: 01 Jan 11 - 07:53 AM

Thanks, Eb, and no, it isn't... Even when you really understand that with a life style like Donnie's he wasn't going to live all that long...

Just the night before a neighbor had stopped up to return a plate, sans the apple bread that we had baked for alot of the holler folks, and we were talkin' and as every conversation that goes on in the holler Donnie came up... And I mentioned that we should be happy to have him because he really wasn't going to be with us all that long... I didn't realize just how true that was...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Obit: Donnie 'I'm a drunk' Pettit, 42...
From: SINSULL
Date: 01 Jan 11 - 08:33 AM

Bobert,
I haven't thought of Donald DeWitt in years. He was a tall thin mountain man whose family owned property near my Dad's hunting club's cabin. Donald was not allowed onto paved road which meant he could wander all the woods near Beaverkill NY but if he stepped on paved (county) roads he would go to jail. He had murdered a man with his bare hands in a fit of anger and booze.
We would go walking in the woods and all of a sudden this tree of a man would be standing in front of us. My mother was terrified of him. I was very young, maybe 8, and was fascinated by his eyes - that vague faded blue.
Donald looked after the cabin for the club and made sure it was never broken into. In return, chewing tobacco and probably some liquor was left on the porch. Once my father and brothers were invited in to meet his mother. The house was wallpapered with patches of odd bits. The old lady was frail and arthritic but her boys looked after her.
What I would not give to go back 50 years and meet her, actually speak with Donald...
I always thought it sad that he would walk to the end of the road to the paved county road and say that "If I put my foot on that road I will go to jail." Donald also was convinced that Godzilla was real. He talked about all the ships sinking and no one could stop the monster.
Your Donald was happy. I think mine was too in his woods alone.
Mary

Subject: RE: BS: Obit: Donnie 'I'm a drunk' Pettit, 42...
From: Bobert
Date: 01 Jan 11 - 09:17 AM

Yeah, Sins... I thought I knew all about hillbillies back in Wes Ginny but some of the folks livin' in this holler are throw-backs to a different time...

Interestin' that your Donald couldn't be caught on public roads... I had an old ridin' mower and gave it to Donnie to between our farm and his shack after a couple of days the Sheriff Deputy drove up one evenin' and told me that if they caught Donnie drivin' it they were going to jail him for DUI... I told him that and it scared him purdy bad 'cause of the 3 years he did for burnin' Pudder's house down so we went back to walkin' (staggering)...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Obit: Donnie 'I'm a drunk' Pettit, 42...
From: Charley Noble
Date: 01 Jan 11 - 10:27 AM

Bobert-

Your friend reminds of this song that one of our band members used to lead about a similar character in Down East Maine (copy and paste into WORD/TIMES/12 to line up the chords):

By James Harper ©1988, as sung by Molly Carlson; slightly changed by Charles Ipcar, 2005; further adapted by Sandy McLean, 2005

THE KING OF MAINE

G-C-G----------------------------C------------------G
Jo-ey Jones was a native of the Sunrise County shores;
-----C--G-------------------------------------A------------------D
Peo-ple claimed that he was crazy, from shellshock in the war,
----------G---------------G7-------------C-----------------------G
He lived on a road less traveled, in a shack perched by the sea;
---------------------------------D-------------------G
And he was a dear friend to all my friends and me.
---------C-----------------------------------G-----------C----G
He was old when I first met him, and a gentle kin-dred soul
---D---G---------------------------------------D--------------D7
To the ones like me who loved to hear his tales of long ago;
---------G---------------------G7------------------C-----------------G
He told how this land was conquered by the gleam of Viking gold,
-------C----G-------------------------------------------D----------------G
When they sailed with Lief the Lucky from their land of endless cold.

G7--------C---------------------------------------G
And we'd climb to where he always liked to be,
---D-G-------------------------------------Am----------------D
To a hill above the barrens 'tween the Jack Pine and the sea;
-------------G---------------G7------------C---------------------G
There we'd rest upon the stones in the place he called his throne,
C------------------G-----------------D-----------D7--G
Surveying all the kingdom of the Last-King Joey Jones.

Like the Roanoke colonials who were lost without a trace,
No one knows the fateful ending of that ancient Viking race;
But I found myself believing in an old man's simple claim,
To be the last lord ruling from the Maritimes to Maine;
"When my last day is upon me," said my King-without-a-crown,
"For the honor of my Fathers I can't rest on Christian ground;
And if Jesus comes to greet me, well, I'm sure He'd understand
For Odin ruled the Vikings and from Him I take command."

"Let me lie where I've always liked to be!
Let my spirit greet the morning as it rises from the sea!
Let a cairn of native stone and the wind which sings and moans
Bear witness to the resting place of the Last-King Joey Jones!"

I won't tell you how we found him, or the oath my friends all swore;
How we climbed that hill together with the burden that we bore
He just disappeared one evening is the tale most often told,
Leaving rusted army medals and ancient coins of gold;
Maybe Joe was crazy but that doesn't change a thing,
If the good were meant to lead us he'd have had my vote for King!
Though he's mostly now forgotten, still I climb this hill alone,
Singing "Skoal, to the Northland and to Good-King Joey Jones!"

For he lies where he always liked to be,
Where the rays of endless morning come rising from the sea;
Goodbye, Joey Jones, Lord of all this land of stones,
May you sleep in peace forever, goodbye, King Joey Jones.

                      (spoken)
By whatever name He's known,
May God bless these weary bones!
Farewell, 'till we all rise with endless morning.

Haven't thought about that song in years!

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Obit: Donnie 'I'm a drunk' Pettit, 42...
From: open mike
Date: 01 Jan 11 - 01:37 PM

the straight story
reminds me...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0166896/

Subject: RE: BS: Obit: Donnie 'I'm a drunk' Pettit, 42...
From: Bobert
Date: 01 Jan 11 - 03:28 PM

I'm sure Donnie would be proud to know that his life reminded ya'll of these people...

Went to get my newspaper this mornin' at Valley Exxon which is this little convenience store where the locals hang out in the mornin' and everyone was talkin' about Donnie...

When I walked in the cashier was right in the middle of tallin' someone about how polite Donnie always was when someone brought him in for his Marboro Lite 100s (in a box) and a case on Natural Lite beer (wouldn't drink anything but it) and how Donnie wold always say, "Thank you, mam"... I didn't have to ask who she was talkin' about...

My neighbor, always referred to Donnie as "the little feller" and I know that "the little feller" is gonna be missed... Most folks never get to really know someone like Donnie "I'm a drunk" Pettit... I am honored to not only known him but fir him to call me "daddy"...

Sniff...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Obit: Donnie 'I'm a drunk' Pettit, 42...
From: Pistachio
Date: 01 Jan 11 - 03:56 PM

Condolences from afar.
Thank you for the insight in to your unique link with someone who fitted within your world in his own special way.

May he rest in peace - and may you find comfort.

Hazel

Subject: RE: BS: Obit: Donnie 'I'm a drunk' Pettit, 42...
From: Bobert
Date: 01 Jan 11 - 05:48 PM

Thanks, Hazel...

Donnie certainly has his "own way" of fittin' into this world... No, maybe the world had its "own way" into fittin' into Donnie's world... Yeah, that probably more accurate...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Obit: Donnie 'I'm a drunk' Pettit, 42...
From: GUEST,Dani
Date: 02 Jan 11 - 09:07 AM

I'm sorry for your loss, but glad for your memories. And that you-all had each other!

People with big hearts like yours keep the world fitting people like Donnie in!

Dani

Subject: RE: BS: Obit: Donnie 'I'm a drunk' Pettit, 42...
From: Bobert
Date: 02 Jan 11 - 09:23 AM

Well, thanks, Dani...

Gettin' ready for Donnie's service which is going to be held at the funeral home... Not too sure what to expect as I know that Donnie didn't have a dime and his brother doesn't either... Word around the holler that he has been cremated and the service is going to be just a little "social"???

Well, one thing fir sure is that if that's what it is there's gonna be some wild stories told... I got about a 100 of them myself and I reckon that everyone else does as well...

Reminds me... I gotta find that "Get 'er done" lighter he gave me acouple years ago... When ya' open it it says "Get 'er done"... Yeah, I'll take that with me...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Obit: Donnie 'I'm a drunk' Pettit, 42...
From: Charley Noble
Date: 02 Jan 11 - 11:12 AM

Sounds as if someone at the service gathering should propose a toast to Donnie with Natural Lite beer, setting out a can for him as well.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Obit: Donnie 'I'm a drunk' Pettit, 42...
From: Bobert
Date: 02 Jan 11 - 12:58 PM

Well, the service wasn't really a service at all, Charlie... It was a 2 hour viewing that was well attended... They had Donnie in a open casket but I learned that he was going to be cremated afterwards... I had thought about takin' a Natie Lite and a pack of Marlboro 100s (in a box, please) but took only the "Get 'er Done" lighter... Last thing I did before I left was to hold so if he were alive he'd see it and told him, "Get 'er Done"...

Lotta hillbillies there, tho... Must been 75 people came and left while I was there and at least 50 sittin' talkin' with one another... Not a necktie in the joint... Lotta baggie jeans and teeshirts on the youngins (teens) and flannel shirts on the older ones...

Well, thanks to everyone who has posted...

I'm sure Donnie would be most appreciative...

B~