Leighton Lawrence Peck

Leighton was my closest childhood friend. We met when I moved to the neighborhood. The home behind ours was adding a new garage. The forms were up and filled with sand. Every kid in the neighborhood was there. Giant sand box. I wasn’t there ten minutes when a short chubby kid with birth control glasses, glasses with a bandaid around the bridge of the nose walked up and asked if I wanted to go to his house and get something to eat. That was the beginning of the most treasured friendship I’ve had to this day. I was eight years old he was seven. He was the funniest human being I ever met. He would do skits where he played all the characters in a news cast. Sid Wiener being the anchor man. He was incredibly clever for a kid. Leighton would make me laugh so hard I had to drag myself out of the room on my stomach just to get some air in my lungs. He could do this at will and routinely tortured me for his own enjoyment. He was more fun than you can imagine. I spent a good chunk of my childhood at his house with his grumpy grandmother Irene who had a huge heart under the grumpy veneer and his quiet and wise grandfather Lawrence. I would help him with his paper route . He would charm Irene into driving us around in the back seat of the Belvedere while eating a bag of potato chips and delivering the weekly shopper. He had every Tonka toy , which I think led to his tractor fixation. He loved tractors. Later during high school after taking part in some spirits. Leighton would make his way out of town to a tractor dealership and help himself to a tractor ride. Usually the biggest one he could find. This happened more than once. Leighton didn’t let anyone or anything get under his skin. He took life as it came. Without a worry. I always envied this about him. He was a joy to be around. Leighton grew into a good looking guy and that along with his humor made him a bit of a ladies man. He dated a lot of sharp girls in high school. He seemed to look at them as passers by, enjoying their company as they did his but never invested himself. He was just waiting. I’m not sure he new what he was waiting for. Then he met Lou/ Melinda. He told me she’s the one. He was excited and determined. It took some time to win her over but they made it happen and they made it last. Leighton was a good friend someone you could trust he had no interest in undermining anyone. I will think of him often and miss him regularly.