10/21/2024
Dave Yarber, Dandy Dave, is long gone in my life but not my memories of him.
I don’t remember how I’ve met so many people that I now recall with numerous reminders.
After the great birthday gathering my mind has been afloat with so many but one arose after a dental appointment.
Dave was recalled due to partials I needed and now I have to wear.
Dave’s were a story in itself, so I am writing to tell you.
Yes, Dave had at least one partial too, when I knew him, and his partials bring a smile to think of his, and one experience I share.
Dave and Betty had a beautiful, very friendly yet hyper cocker spaniel.
Dave also had a habit of falling asleep in his comfort chair with his dog nearby, if not in his lap.
Dave’s partials would fall out and his dog found the partials as a delightful chew toy.
A dentist friend of Dave’s replaced them for free once, but the second time the dog chewed them, Dave decided to go without those needed teeth.
I am pretty sure that that was Dave’s lifestyle for his remaining years, chewing without some of his teeth.
My own experience was not falling asleep but setting them next to me on a table when visiting family.
I was visiting my niece, Jessica Hurst, when her dog found them and proceeded to take them where we couldn’t find them until my niece was to move months from this home later.
I think she said they were under her husband's and her bed.
I had already replaced them so I have two pairs if you might need to borrow one.
My partials that you would get have been used by me and enjoyed by a dog.
Dave Yarber was also the Bell Court morning Herald newspaper boy.
He asked me if my foster boys (at that time) would like to take over that paperroute.
They were quite willing but only for a few days at the most.
I ended up delivering that and I remember two unforgettable experiences.
One was a Sunday only customer who was extremely well known as one of the anchors on WLEX television, Lexington’s number one news station at the time.
I think she had gone through a divorce and moved into an apartment in the neighborhood.
She got way behind in paying for her paper after numerous stops at her place to collect but not finding her home.
One Friday, I found her home, however she said I would need to come back in 24 hours, Saturday night.
I did come back the next night but when I did, she said sorry but she had company and that I would have to come back another time.
That was it.
I stopped delivering her Sunday paper the next morning.
She was irate.
Some uppity Herald-Leader circulation staffer called me and told me to deliver her a paper.
I told him I wouldn’t despite his demands and why.
The newspaper's circulation department paid her bill in full for as long as I can remember her living on the route.
My last contact that I think I had with her (probably Mindy Shannon) was at a petting zoo appearance in the Herald-Leader parking lot.
The other memory of that route was my having been told by Dandy Dad that these people in Bell Court were generous at Xmas time.
That had been true of a number of people on my long time Castlewood Park paper route.
But I say with no hesitation that not one of the Bell Court, almost well-to-do tightwads gave a dime to this carrier for Xmas.
I disposed of that route soon after.
Dave Yarber was also a yard sale partner and character of talent, or better said exaggeration, with so many yard sale customers.
I had a lot of items stored, years ago, in part of my grocery building on Walton and got them out for a $3,000 yard sale.
Maybe the next year, Dave stopped by and suggested we do it again at my home across the street and that he’d join me.
Dandy Dave actually did yard sales in his retirement years from being a low income life insurance salesman to poor folks on a weekly basis.
This meant he collected their payments numerous times getting to know lots of poor folks.
We would split my front yard because it was on a highly traveled busy street.
I'd have some household stuff I wasn't using anymore and did pretty well myself.
At our yard sales most often, Dandy Dave would have lots of items disposed of along the streets of Lexington.
Out early most mornings, he or his wife knew more about the items they'd find than the folks who disposed of the "junk."
I was always amazed at how much he'd collected.
I thought it was a lot of junk but people who'd buy such knew what they found.
They were like him... yet they had to pay for their finds.
Many times, he'd tell a whopper about how his great grandmother used the item.
Humorously, his whoppers weren't the same whopper for the same item he told someone else not long before.
And Betty, his wife, would bring food for lunch and he was never allowed to go hungry.
His round shape proved he enjoyed her kindness.
Sometimes, Betty would stay and take care of sales while he'd go home to take a nap.
She was not a big whopper teller and was a friendly sales rep while he would tell tales plus a few times he'd lose his temper when someone bad mouthed his prices.
A short two memories told now:
Betty and Dave were married 50 or 60 years. They were meant for each other in so many ways.
She had been a nurse while he sold low income death insurance.
They raised two girls and one son while working before full-time hustlin "junk."
She did a lot of the computer sales and shipping.
Their success was also represented by them collecting some beautiful antiques and art in their home, including some valuable Henry Faulkner's.
With a major wedding anniversary approaching they set up plans to renew their vows at a local Catholic Church.
This was the first time that I ever thought they "had religion."
I went, remembering the boring service and the real huge antique diamond he gave to her.
One of his finds.
The other memory was his decision to do the US127 Yard Sale.
That week and weekend was truly hot with the strain of packing and unpacking to then back home unpackingreally was a strain of Dandy Dave.
I don't know when it happened, there or at home, but Dave had a major heart attack or worse.
I was to visit him a few times at Central Baptist before that collection of events took his life.
The vitality of Dave Yarber is gone and missed.
You can miss him, too, now.
