Don Addy, Southeast High School Class of 1960
Colorado Springs, CO.
January, 2021
I was lucky. I lived across the street from Sunnyside Elementary where I began my education journey. There I became friends with Fred Elder, Gary Byrd, Vesta Patterson, Susan Warkentin, Janet Hotsapillar, Doug Whitten, Mike Grier, Larry Bryan, Ron Bryan, Dennis Whitcomb, Dick McKay, and many others. Most of us also went on to Roosevelt Intermediate where I made more friends: Calvin Ross, Dan Kinney, Lee Ayres, Larry Reid, Dave Alldritt, Jim Davidson, Art Casado, Vicki Johnson, Judy Pease, Janet Thelman, and more! What a lucky guy to have had all of those folks as friends, if only for a minute of my lifetime.
To have the chance now to reminisce so many years later is fun for me. I welcome the opportunity to recall a couple of anecdotes about Dave Alldritt, of whom I was especially fond.
I first met Dave when he was in 6th grade at College Hill Elementary and I was at Sunnyside. Somebody arranged a tag football game between the two schools and that’s when I met him. I don’t remember the outcome of the game, but from then on we became fast friends, especially when the first day of 7th grade we learned we were both assigned to home room 102 with Ms. Schmidt. We played tennis together at College Hill, played golf at Sim Park, scrimmaged in basketball in his driveway on Rutan, and even later when he and his family moved a bit further east. His dad and my dad were friends and had invested together in a company called Maderia Corporation. We were going to play baseball one summer and needed a name for our team and decided to call ourselves “The Maderias”! We were the only two who knew what that meant, but nobody else cared. We just wanted to play baseball. Calvin Ross was our star pitcher and we had a good team. We played our games on the fields at East off of Grove and Kellogg.
Dave had several brothers: Dick, Mark, and Jim are the ones I remember. Several others followed after a few years. I was jealous of his family because his brothers were pretty cool too. After 9th grade, my family moved further east into the new Southeast district. I kept in touch with Dave as he played basketball for East and when a senior, he and his teammates were really good. Jerry Burton, Steve Buxton, Elmer Walker, and Jim Jenkins started with Dave and beat us like a drum the first time we played. Our game was at the Forum (Remember that barn?) and I was so embarrassed by the score and my poor performance.
Later in the year, we were playing North at the WSU Roundhouse and managed to beat them. Cheering us on in the stands were the guys from the team at East, including Dave, who afterwards came up to me and shook my hand enthusiastically, primarily because North was always a major competitor, but also because when we beat North, that gave East the local title! Glad I could help.
After high school, we went different ways, he to Harvard, and sadly we never met after that. But, I was so fond of Dave for so many reasons and was devastated to learn of his passing many years later and too many years too soon. I still think of him from time to time and wish Kay and his family all the best. He was a great guy!
Don – great recall! Dave was the oldest of 7 boys. His mom must have been a saint. I got to see Dave and Kay just before he died from brain cancer. He simply said, “beam me up, Scotty.” Meaning he was ready to move on to the next chapter. Thanks, Lee
I went to College Hill Elementary and had many years in classes with Dave. By fourth grade I was sure that he was going to grow up to be a writer. Year after year he revealed a good imagination and a strong tendency to story telling. Fourth grade we had a teacher who promoted creativity in the classroom, and he often entertained us by writing and reading his writings. I loved the creative freedom in that particular class.