At first, my mom would wait with him at a bus stop on Cleveland Avenue and when the bus came, he would take it to Cockrell's in Westerville. After a while, the neighborhood where she dropped him off started going downhill and mom didn't feel safe there, so she ended up taking him to work and then going to her job.
The Cockrell's Restaurant people soon learned of Dan's amazing talent of being able to tell the day of the week someone was born on by just being given the date and year. When a customer would have a birthday, they would have Dan come out and tell them the day of the week they were born on. Dan loved this. He LOVES praise so this was pure happiness to him. The guy that ran Cockrell's was called 'Buzz' and there was a group of people that met there every so often known as the 'Old Buzzards' Club.' Dan loved it when one of them would have a birthday and he would get to tell one of them the day of the week they were born on. There was a whole bunch of people there and Dan got all sorts of praise. They were all really nice to Dan.
Dan learned how to bus tables and run dishes through the big dishwasher. He also made friends there. His first day there was a little rough, he accidentally broke a bunch of dishes and that had to be taken out of his paycheck (company policy). After that, Dan broke very few dishes. This generated a whole new set of bad stuff story ideas where 'Echo' - the Little Miss Echo character from his childhood who had grown up- would drop a whole bus pan full of dishes or would break a whole rack of dishes in Dan's imagination. In reality, Echo wouldn't have lasted there very long, but Dan had a great time coming up with new ideas for new trouble for Echo to get into.
Every once in a while, Dan, my parents and I would have breakfast or dinner at Cockrell's and Dan really loved that. He loved to eat there. He wanted his birthday parties there. He was thrilled that when I was going to get married, that we had our rehearsal dinner at Cockrell's.
Dan worked at Cockrell's for 18 years, busing tables and doing the dishes. Dan is great at anything repetitive. He can be like a machine, doing something over and over again and be happy as a clam. It's just when something changes, that would throw him off. Occasionally, the big dishwasher would breakdown and dishes would have to be done by hand until the repairman would get there. Dan would get to see the repairman repair the big dishwasher and Dan would enjoy getting to see the inner workings of the big dishwasher get repaired.. As I said earlier, Dan made friends at Cockrells, with both employees and some customers. Mr. Cockrell would have a Christmas party at his house each year for employees and Dan loved going to those. Dan had his own world and group of friends at this restaurant and this was really good for him.
When Steve and I got married, Dan was an usher at out wedding and he did very well. My husband and I moved to Fort Worth, Texas, a few days after we got married. Dan got my room. He also got my double bed, which he was happy about. The mattress had springs sticking through it and was really worn out, so mom, dad and Dan went out to buy him a new mattress. Dan had some money in the bank so this was going to be his first big purchase. Mom and Dad said that Dan picked out a 'Top of the line' mattress that cost some money, but it was what Dan wanted. Dan still has that mattress today.
Since we were in Texas, mom and dad would call us once a week on Sunday evening. Dan would be the one who placed the call. Every week on Sunday, around 7 PM, Dan would call, then mom and dad would talk to us. After a few years, we got an answering machine because of all of the telemarketing calls. Every week Dan would call and say into the answering machine, "This is Dan, we're calling to see how you are." It was always the same words, the same tone of voice, almost like a recording coming out of his mouth. Dan did that every single week, for years and years to come.
Finally, Cockrell's Restaurant closed up. The building now houses 'Graeter's Ice Cream' parlor. They still have a picture of the 'Old Buzzard's Club' in the back of the building. The kitchen that Dan used to work in became a party room. The Cockrell family and mom worked on finding Dan a new job. Dan began working as a dishwasher and bus boy for Bob Evans' Restaurant. The nice thing is that Bob Evans was located in Gahanna and mom didn't have as far to drive Dan to work. Mom was retired now and this suited her just fine. The people at Bob Evans' Restaurant were really nice to Dan. They really liked him and Dan loved it there. They had a bigger dishwasher and Dan really liked that as well. As time passed by, if there was a time when for one reason or another, if mom could not pick him up, someone from the restaurant would take Dan home.
Dan in 1981 at Aunt Jeni's house in Phoenix
Both pictures are of Graeter's where Cockrell;s Restaurant used to be, where Dan used to work
Both mom and dad were retired. They had a nice little life at home with Dan and Dan had his daily routine, which he loved. Dan took trips with them. They went to Phoenix to visit dad's sister, Aunt Jeni and her family.They also visited Grandma Briggs who lived in Phoenix, close to Aunt Jeni, her daughter. Grandpa Briggs had died of cancer a few years back. Dan loved visiting Aunt Jeni and his cousin's. All of his cousins and Aunt Jeni and Uncle John were lovely to him. His one cousin, Mary Sue, is married to a guy named Karl, who was real nice to Dan. Dan took a liking to Karl and looked-up to him. Mary and Karl have sent him stuff and called him up on the phone occasionally. Dan loved that. Mary and Karl had two little boys at the time. Dan loved going to visit the family. Those little boys are now grown and have families of their own.
Dan, mom and dad made a few trips down to Texas to visit us. We had a little one-bedroom apartment in East Fort Worth. We had a sort-of 70's style apartment with rust-colored shag carpeting and avocado green appliances and sink in the kitchen. We even had a window in our kitchen, which was unusual for an apartment. It was a cool first apartment. The first time they came, Dan stayed in our apartment and mom and dad stayed at a motel.Instead of a sofa, we had a single bed that was kind-of a daybed with 2 bolster pillows and a cover. We made it into a bed for Dan while he stayed with us. One of the first mornings he was staying with us, my husband and I got a little taste of a deceptiveness about Dan that I never knew. Mom and dad were still at the motel and I was either out or in another room. Dan asked Steve if he would make Dan's bed! Dan acted like he didn't know how to do it, so Steve, nice guy that he is, made Dan's bed for him. When Steve told me about this later, my jaw dropped!
I told Steve that Dan had pulled a fast one on him, that Dan was perfectly capable of making his bed and had been able to for years. I was floored! I had never known Dan to deceive anybody before! He has an innocence about him that can fool anyone. I was also angry that he pulled that on my husband! What had he been pulling on people over the years? What had he pulled on my parents? What had he pulled on me? I don't think he pulled anything on me when we lived at home because I grew up with him, I knew what he could and couldn't do. I just didn't know he lied. I told my parents about it. They scolded him but didn't make as big of a deal about it like I thought they would. I asked them to have a talk with him and they did. The only thing was they didn't push the issue, they didn't react like I thought they would and that left me kind-of surprised. I never looked at my brother the same again. One thing about Dan, he loved being waited on and taken care of. He loved being a little kid and having stuff done for him. He remembers it like it was yesterday. In his mind, he is a little kid. This stunt he pulled on my husband was not innocent little kid stuff, Dan wanted to be looked after and he manipulated my husband and it made me angry.
As my parents grew older, they relied quite a bit on Dan's help around the house. Dan would do the dishes. clean the kitchen and vacuum. He also helped mom with the laundry. Our parents were getting less mobile due to arthritis and other ailments. Dan, who loved being looked after, was starting to help look after them.
-To Be Continued-
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