In Memory

Daniel Davis

According to Jim Bishop, he died in the VA Hospital.



 
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02/18/09 06:04 PM #1    

Jimmy Bishop

i was employed at the vets hospital in palo alto and in the late seventies i ran into danny on the third floor. he was wearing a patients gown. we shared a lot of good memories over the next few couple of months. like the time he, ernie hanson and i traveled to t-town to sow a few wild oats, a story wrapped in unusual events. ernie was driving about eighty going through gilroy at one or two in the morning when we almost hit a cow/bull, which was asleep in the middle of the road. we were going so fast that it was hard to tell which it was. i'm not sure it even stirred. periodically when danny was doing the driving he would yell 'not my turn' and do kind of a backward roll into the back seat of the car leaving whoever was riding shotgun to bring the car back under control. the next night ended up with our heading for ensenada to sleep on the beach. i, being the least inebriated, managed to drive us on to the tarmac at tj's airport mistaking it for the freeway to ensenada. we then sort of gave up any hope of making it there. we pulled off on a road adjacent to the airport and crashed in the car for the night, only to be awakened in the morning by eight or ten kids bouncing on ernie's bumper.

at the va we discussed jimmy reed who's 'i ain't that loving you baby' was our favorite song. as teenagers we would listen to the 'i'm jimmy reed' album for hours on end. to this day i think of danny whenever i hear any jimmy reed song.

danny was in the hospital because he had developed a brain tumor. he seemed to like the idea that the va believed that marijuana was a good appetite stimulant for cancer patients. one day he said 'jimmy, i can't f-ing belive this; all i gotta do is tell them i'm not hungry!'

danny said that his employment had been shoeing horses. he never mentioned being married or children. he said he had spent some time in oklahoma. obviously he was a vet. he was into riding motorcycles and i met his best friend 'tiny', another motorcyclist, who went a good three hundred pounds. it was hard to see the bike under tiny. after six months or so i missed seeing danny around. i ran into tiny about a year later and he said that danny had seccumbed to the brian tumor. tiny related danny's riding his motorcycle til the very end with several harrowing stories of danny's forgetting where he was at the time and basically stopping his bike where ever that happened to be. in the right hand lane of bayshore freeway, tiny related as being the worst. tiny said he finally convinced danny to stop riding but that was pretty close to the time danny passed away.

i think not a lot of people knew danny as i did. he was really a sweet man. when you're young, you don't engender tender instances. danny would kiss his father goodbye every night that ernie and i would go to pick him up. as i said i thought it was a bit odd at the time and was sure i would never do that in front of my friends. i envy him that closeness to his dad; i wish now that i had been able to demonstrate my love to my dad as well as danny was able to demonstrate his.

02/19/09 01:16 PM #2    

Diane Doxtator (Cox)

Thanks so much for sharing those memories, Jimmy.

09/09/16 06:07 AM #3    

Jeffrey Newby

Thanks Jimmy. I never really knew him until reading your stories.


09/09/16 08:40 AM #4    

Margaret White

What a wonderful picture of Danny Davis you have given him and us, Jimmy.  What wonderful memories of him.  Somehow your TJ/Mexico/Gilroy adventures remind me of John Steinbeck's stories.  i definitely see Danny as James Dean in my imagination.  Thanks for sharing DD with us.  Termpaper


09/11/16 01:13 PM #5    

Judy Saltzman (Saveker)

Danny was a very handsome fellow. The girls were crazy about him.I am glad you and Danny survived the wild trip to Ensenada. Danny will be missed.

09/12/16 08:24 AM #6    

La Rae Herring (Kemp)

I read your comments when you wrote about Danny years ago. I am glad you posted it again. He was one of the people I remembered, jeans, T-shirt, rolled up sleeves etc.  He always had a smile for anyone who passed by him. He was a free spirit, loving and kind. Your discription of him was right on.  Thanks for the memory of a boy turned man who always had a good heart and loved good times times.


09/13/16 09:29 AM #7    

Deborah Edginton

Someone should do a movie about him and his buddies. Great story. 


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