Dead classmates

I'm not that old, at least I don't think so.
But it has occurred to me recently that I have at least a half-dozen dead school classmates, who died before the age of 30. A large number, in my mind anyway, considering I attended small schools and didn't have any friends or classmates who died in a war or were killed in car crashes.
I know people who died as result of car crashes and other things, but none were my childhood friends, just acquaintances or people I knew through other people.

One of my Little League teammates drowned.
Three of my grade school classmates are dead. One died as the result of a trailer fire. I saw him in a bar the night of the fire.
He was a bully, but I always felt sorry for him because his dad was a wife beater. The kid's older brother followed dad down that road and even made the local paper a few times due to his mainly exploits.
I remember the stories 1: Because I knew the family and 2: Because his girlfriend kept apologizing and making excuses for him in court. You know, the typical battered women's response.. It was a sad situation all the way around. Though the older brother did end up in jail.
I don't know if Scott, that was my classmate's name, was a wife beater or not. He was about 24 when he perished in the fire.
Everytime I go home, I drive by the site where the fire occurred.
Another childhood friend moved to DC got hooked on drugs and was found dead of an overdose in a seedy motel room in NYC. I went to the wake and didn't recognize the guy. He was all fat, bloated and covered in tattoos.
Growing up with him, I knew he was headed down a path I did not want to follow.

A girl I had a crush on in Jr. high (I mentioned this once before) died of a brain tumor shortly after college.

Not death-related but strange none the less. ...
Then there was my high school classmate, who was always a bit weird. Really, nice nad gentle, but well, just weird.
A few years ago, it was discovered his dad was a pedophile who was responsible for the death of a 12-year-old boy as the result a drug overdose, which was attempt to get him stoned so he could have sex with him.

Not sure what the purpose of this thread is or where it will lead, but it is something I have been thinking about for a while and wanted to get out.

 

Four of my friends -- not just classmates -- died before I was 20.

Three in car accidents, one suicide.

Being a teenager can be a minefield that I just pray folks get through.

 

Teddy sniffing glue he was 12 years old
Fell from the roof on East Two-nine
Cathy was 11 when she pulled the plug
On 26 reds and a bottle of wine
Bobby got leukemia, 14 years old
He looked like 65 when he died
He was a friend of mine

Those are people who died, died
Those are people who died, died
Those are people who died, died
Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

G-berg and Georgie let their gimmicks go rotten
So they died of hepatitis in upper Manhattan
Sly in Vietnam took a bullet in the head
Bobby OD'd on Drano on the night that he was wed
They were two more friends of mine
Two more friends that died

Those are people who died, died
Those are people who died, died
Those are people who died, died
Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

Mary took a dry dive from a hotel room
Bobby hung himself from a cell in the tombs
Judy jumped in front of a subway train
Eddie got slit in the jugular vein
And Eddie, I miss you more than all the others,
I salute you my brother

Those are people who died, died
Those are people who died, died
Those are people who died, died
Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

Herbie pushed Tony from the Boys' Club roof
Tony thought that his rage was just some goof
But Herbie sure gave Tony some bitchen proof
"Hey," Herbie said, "Tony, can you fly?"
But Tony couldn't fly . . . Tony died

Those are people who died, died
Those are people who died, died
Those are people who died, died
Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

Brian got busted on a narco rap
He beat the rap by rattin' on some bikers
He said, hey, I know it's dangerous,
but it sure beats Riker's
But the next day he got offed
by the very same bikers

Those are people who died, died
Those are people who died, died
Those are people who died, died
Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

 

First girl I kissed named Christine died of an overdose shortly after high school. A girl named Alice fell asleep while smoking in bed and died in the resulting fire. A guy named Dave also died in a fire. A guy named Dwayne was shot to death by a burglar.

Dwayne and Christine's deaths both got to me. The other two I didn't know very well.

 

I thought this was going to be about a new band.

We lost a classmate my senior year in high school. She died in her sleep at home.

At our 20-year reunion we had a brief memorial for those who had passed. I think about eight of my classmates had died at that point. Most of them within a few years of leaving high school.

The saddest one though was a girl who married another guy in our class within a year of graduating high school. She became a nurse, they had two beautiful kids and she dropped dead from a previously unknown heart defect when she was 36.

 

Came from a very small school, but am aware of only 1 person in my class who has passed away--not bad for a group that's passed the 25 year reunion mark.

The one? Was trying to buy drugs in a bad part of town and got murdered.

 

I went to two high schools. One graduated about 100 people and that is the school I consider my own. I was invited to the 20th reunion and I cannot remember hearing of a death when I was at the reunion a few months ago.

My other high school graduated about 600 and I did not attend that reunion. We were kind of a Heathers high school. There were a handful that killed themselves and more tht tried, and I think there was another person who died shortly after high school. The school was just too big for everyone to keep track of everyone else.

 

Any idea why?

 

Three from my class that I know of:

One girl died of cancer before graduation
Another girl's attempted suicide turned into the real thing. She just shot herself in the arm, but nobody came to rescue her and she bled to death.
One guy got run over by a train during our college years.

 

My dad graduated 43 years ago - class of probably 65 or so - and only two have died, compared to four from my class of '93.

 

One of the guys I graduated with died a few years after high school.

We weren't real close friends, never hung out outside of school, but he was a real cool guy. The person everyone got a long with.

Got a full-ride scholarship to play small college basketall, and cracked the starting lineup before getting bone cancer. They had to remove half of his right foot. The kid battled back, and actually played the next year - with half a fucking foot. How awesome is that?

When everything looked like it was getting better, the cancer came back and he died. 21 years old.

 

Have had four or five pass away.

-- Former wrestler died a few weeks ago when he fell asleep driving home.

-- Another guy was killed in a wreck driving to work.

-- Two classmates, Ben and Ramon, died a few months apart. Ben died of an aneurism (sp?) and Ramon died in a wreck while visiting family in Michigan.

-- A cousin of mine hydroplaned into a tree and his truck caught fire. He couldn't get out, and they had a closed casket because there wasn't much of him left.