Good Bye Old Friend.....

Old soldiers beds never die.....they just fade away. Today I said goodbye to a steadfast friend, my old queen size bed. I won't go into the entire chronology of the bed, but it has been with me for 31 years, and for 28 of those years it was my primary place of respite. For the last 3 years it has been residing in my guest room, which will now become Jack's room. So...the Cody Memorial Bed had to go.

The bed has a long and storied history. I purchased it while in the Army in 1972 from a friend, Lt. Dick Cody. Dick is now Gen. Cody, the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army. It has moved with me, and been placed in 14 seperate residences over the years, including a house in Mililani Hawaii, a highrise condo overlooking Waikiki, and apartments, duplexes, and homes in Dallas. Ditto this in Midland Texas. Several years ago, as a guest bed, it received another historic sleeper....my friend and author Joe Galloway. In an ironic slumberland twist, Joe knows Gen. Cody very well, having met him during the first war in Iraq.

When the decision was made to purge Jack's room of the bed, I notified Gen. Cody that he had first right of refusal on taking the bed back. In what must have been a gut wrenching decision for him.....he declined. I then offered the bed, as a piece of history, to Joe Galloway. Joe apparently didn't appreciate the historical significance of the bed as he replied back, "get rid of that suma' bitch, it was worse than a Days Inn mattress slept on by 10,000 traveling salesmen". So, all avenues exhausted, I offered the bed to a charitable organization, The Servants of the Poor. This morning they took delivery of the historic object. I only hope that they can find a good home for it. Perhaps a destitute derelict on par with the first two owners.