David Loudin

DAVID LOUDIN “A Remembrance”

by Bob Loudin

Dave was born on September 21, 1945, the second of Evelyn and Dana Loudin’s three children in Parkersburg, West Virginia.

World War Two had officially ended just two weeks earlier and the country was looking forward to peace and prosperity once again.

Dana was a chemical engineer at the huge American Viscose Rayon plant in South Parkersburg. He and Evelyn with three year old me were living in the Company House next to the plant since Dana was on call 24 hours a day. They brought newly arrived David home to the Viscose house from Camden Clark Memorial hospital and just eleven months later, sister Marydana arrived. The Loudin Family adventure began. It was an adventure filled with love and support and life changing moments along the way. The things that made David who he became.

Young David, in those early years was quiet… but all he had do was flash his angelic smile with those cute dimples and he could get anything he wanted from his adoring Grandmother and Aunts.

Parkersburg is a small town located at the junction of the Ohio and Little Kanawha Rivers. The American Viscose Plant employed over 5000 people and our Mom, Dad, Grandfather and numerous Uncles worked there. People in that part for the country believe “if you were supposed to be somewhere, you’d be born there.” So David’s entire extended family either lived in town and worked at the plant or were on farms out in hills surrounding Parkersburg.

Family gatherings were always big affairs.

The Viscose House was Christmas central in those early years. Our Mom, Grandmother and several aunts used to gather in the kitchen a couple of weeks early to make chocolates for the whole family. They would put the freshly dipped candy on big cookie sheets and set it out on the back porch to cool. More than once, Dave snuck out to sample a few of the tasty holiday treats.

Dana and us kids would head out to the woods in the surrounding hills to find the perfect Christmas Tree growing the wild. No Christmas tree lots back then. The whole house was filled with the scent of freshly cut pine. Christmases and Thanksgivings were always celebrated in a big way with dinner at Grandma’s House just a few blocks away. Aunts, Uncles and Older cousins at the grownup table and Dave joined the younger folks at the kids table. Sometimes twenty people at those wonderful holiday meals.

Then there was the time Dana missed two Lions Club meetings in a row. The next morning, there was a goat tied up on the front porch. He had to keep the goat until someone else missed two meetings. He wasn’t too happy but Dave had so much fun taking care of the goat, he hoped nobody missed any meetings for a long time.

By the time Dave started elementary school in 1951, we had moved into the new house Dana built on 9th avenue. Dave, walked to school by himself or with friends. There were no school busses. And at lunchtime, he walked home for lunch. He loved the grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup, hamburgers, hot dogs, salmon cakes and about everything our mom made.

In first grade, Dave was made conductor of the Rhythm Band. That might have been the start of his love of music. His and all of the band and majorette uniforms were sewn by the Moms in the neighborhood from patterns they got at the Singer Sewing Machine store.

A few weeks in summer were always spent out at The Cottage on the river. Dana and some of our uncles had bought the place with no electricity sewers or running water. The men could go fishing in summer and hunting in the fall. David went along and learned early to appreciate those simple outdoor sports. There were strict rules, David and us kids could wade in the “Run” (a tiny stream beside the house.) but we couldn’t go near the river. Grandma kept watch to be sure no one strayed down the path to the form forbidden river.

Dinners were cooked on a wood stove, the food stayed cold in the gas refrigerator and you washed dishes in water David helped his grandfather get in a bucket from the well across the street. After dinner, with kerosene lanterns glowing inside, Dave and the rest of us kids would chase and catch the twinkling fireflies out in the front yard. An idyllic way to spend those lazy, warm summer days in the mountains of West Virginia.

In town, there were always family picnics at the City Park. These were big affairs with everyone bringing a “covered dish.” Or on Sundays, the family would gather at Aunt Mary’s farm for Sunday Dinner after Church. Lots to do for us city kids… pitch horseshoes, feed the chickens and pigs, play in the barn, pick blackberries and best of all Dave loved riding Smokey the pony. He also couldn’t wait for those Sunday Dinners with Fried Chicken, Baked Ham, candied sweet potatoes, creamed corn, succotash, green beans cooked with salt pork, wilted greens, apple pie, cherry pie, pecan pie and angel food cake that our Grandmother always made. And sometimes, homemade ice cream. Dave always took a turn cranking the ice cream maker… that way he had first dibs on licking the dasher when they pulled it out of the freezer can.

In 1954, Dana was transferred to the company headquarters in Philadelphia and the family moved to our new home in Wallingford, Pennsylvania. It was difficult at first for all of us, leaving our friends and extended family behind in West Virginia.

That fall on the first day of school, for the first time, Dave boarded the school bus at the corner and was off to The Wallingford Elementary School. That night he told our Mom that some of the kids couldn’t understand him and said he talked funny because of his West Virginia accent. She said, “They’ll get used to it.” Mom had bought new jeans for school, but then found out that unlike back in West Virginia, The Nether Providence Township School District had a dress code. Jeans were not allowed and slacks with buckles on the back were required. So it was off to Sears and J.C. Pennys again to buy new slacks. Dave remembered it was a stretch since Mom had already spent the clothing budget for the fall.

In his new elementary school, Dave had a chance to study the violin. Evelyn made him practice right along with doing his homework. As he went on to Junior and Sr. High school, he continued to study the violin and in high school Dave played in the String Quartet.

Nether Providence High School was a small suburban Township School where the Jr. and Sr. High were combined in one building. It was here that the world of sports opened up for Dave. In his teenage years, he grew to become a big guy. Working out, he played Junior Varsity and Varsity Football and Basketball and loved team sports. In Philadelphia, he could join his Dad going to Connie Mack Stadium to catch Phillies games and Franklin Field for The Eagles.

Christmas was still a big holiday in the Loudin household. I had installed a pipe organ in the carriage house where we had moved and every year there was a gathering of choir members from the area, accompanied by organ, celeste and string quartet to perform Christmas music and selections from the Messiah in the large living room where the organ was located. Dave always enjoyed playing for these musical get-togethers. Years later Dave called me and asked if it would be possible to pull off another Christmas Musical. So one last time, over a hundred singers joined the string quartet to perform Christmas music for Chorus, Organ, Strings and Celeste. It was a wonderful afternoon and evening and nobody enjoyed it more than Dave. He was just beaming as he played those familiar arrangements.

It was now the mid sixties. Dave was working as a Desk Assistant at WCAU-TV in the newsroom where he fit right in hanging with Tom Brookshier the sportscaster and John Facenda the number one Newscaster in Philadelphia. Everyone loved working with Dave. It was a great job while he was getting ready to head off to West Chester State Teachers College for Undergraduate Studies.

But College just wasn’t for Dave right then and after a a couple of semesters he decided to enlist in the Navy. The Vietnam War was well underway then and this was a good way to have some control over how you fulfilled your military obligation rather than be drafted. He served his two years in the Great Lakes Region.

In the 70’s, Dave was spending a lot of time on the road in his new job which he described as “selling dirt.” He was involved in recycling waste material from Aluminum smelting processes. He used to say he’d rather drive than fly to meet his far flung clients. So he crisscrossed the country many times over in the coming years.

Being on the road allowed him to remain an important part of his first daughter Jenny’s life in Colorado. She says, “He was my go to guy for everything, my texting buddy and the best dad and grandpa ever!!!”

In 1981, Dave married Maureen Sullivan and they had two Children, Nicole and Michael. It was the start of another amazing family adventure filled with love and support and life changing moments along the way.

By this time, I was in Boston, Marydana was in Philadelphia, David was in Cleveland and Dana and Evelyn were in Philadelphia.

But, year after year, Dave, Maureen and the kids managed to drive to Philadelphia to be home for Christmas. And, during the year, Dave would just drop in on Dana and Evelyn when he was driving through.

Even after Mom and Dad passed away, Dave made it point to bring the family or if they were busy, drive by himself to Marydana’s for a day so we could all see each other at Christmastime.

He never lost that wonderful sense of Family he learned so many years ago back in West Virginia. Family was always so important to him. Under that quiet sometimes gruff exterior was a sweet, loving and caring guy and it doesn’t get any better than that.

We made of point of keeping in touch over the years. On February 21, 2022 we were in Puerto Vallarta and, out of the blue, I remember thinking I should give Dave a call. We hadn’t chatted in a while. So I called him and we had a great long talk. He was doing well with his treatments. He was going to go see Michael play hockey and was looking forward to coaching again with Nicole. He loved seeing the grandkids. The weather was cold in Cleveland. As we finished chatting I said, “I love you…” and he said, “I love you too…” and we hung up.

Two days later, on Februay 23, 2022, I was out shopping at the Fish Market in PV when I got the call from Nicole. And he was gone.

When I think back, underneath it all Dave was still that quiet three year old I remember with the angelic smile and cute dimples his Grandmother and Aunts adored. He was quite a guy!