Lost Friends
This page is in memory of
my nieghbor Johnny A. Lovato.
The Man I Knew
By: Jason T. McGuire
September 23, 1997
Every summer Johnny and Roberta would sit down on the steps of there front porch, my sister Carrie and I would go across the street and join Jenny, Cassie, Jennifer, Michelle, and Chrisy on their front lawn forming a half circle in front of the porch. I remember clear as day, the night I fell off his porch, trying to open his front door. Johnny rushed to my side to make sure I was okay. We laughed later that night trying to figure out how I fell, and we continued to laugh over it for several years later. Along with those nights of talking came the occasional trip up to Arctic Circle. Johnny, Roberta, Davy and I piled into their black Corsica to head up to the fast food joint. They got dinner and dessert, and Johnny always got an extra Brown Topper for me. Our lives changed over the years and different people started to hang around the porch, but Johnny was always telling us stories and jokes to make us laugh all night long or until our parents called us in.
Johnny was always willing to share his new toys.
Sitting at the computer reading my e-mails, I remember getting one from him saying he got a scanner from Roberta for...well I can't remember, it was for either his Birthday or Christmas, but anyway just the tone of the letter made me feel happy for him. He was so excited he could send me pictures from his vacations, I remember having to send him an e-mail to figure out how to open the attachment the pictures were in. He told me that anytime I wanted to use the scanner I could. When I needed the scanner I was always welcomed with open arms, and ten minutes of scanning turned into an hours worth of talking. I remember him telling me that he was so proud of Davy for working and going to school to pay for his car.
Johnny wasn't caught up in his own life, he loved everyone.
"Hey Jason, come watch this." Johnny shouted out of the living room into the computer room where I was finishing up on his scanner. When I got to the TV I saw the neighborhood how it was about six years ago. "Nice overalls," Johnny laughed, "I recorded this when you and your dad were painting your house when I first got the camera." Johnny was kind of our own historian for the street with his camera. He used it to video tape my family saying good-bye to my sister on her wedding day as we all threw rice at her. He also used it to record his own families activities.
The last long conversation.
The last long conversation, that had a lasting impression on me was one we had through e-mail. I received a response from Johnny telling me how proud of me he was for being accepted into the University Of Utah, and he told me he knew I would do well and make the neighborhood proud.
Thats the fun, loving, out going man that I knew and was proud to call my neighbor for the majority of my life.
In Memory Of
Johnny A. Lovato