Jerry Swarthout

Jerry Swarthout lived across the street from us in Vancouver. He was a year older that me. His family was what Dad called "Jack Mormons". Both is parents were chain smokers and would actually light one cigarette off of another on. I remember eating at their house and even the water tasted like smoke. But Jerry and I played together a lot. Here is a picture of us hanging upside down in a tree that fell over beside our house. We played in the woods a lot, road our bikes, whatever we could think of. One time we were having a water fight and I accidentally picked up a jug that I thought was full of water. Well it was full of GAS and I drenched Jerry with gasoline. That was the end of that water fight. Jerry love to tell big stories about what he did when he lived in California or Ohio. He always said he was related to the ice skater Peggy Fleming. My first couple years of High School I rode with him to school. After I left home and both of Jerry's parents passed away, he got real wild and drinking...About 10 years ago he was killed when he drove his car into a telephone pole.