Kelly called just a bit ago to tell me that Rolando “Chip” Cheng (someone I knew peripherally in high school and college) jumped to his death yesterday morning in downtown Louisville. The Courier-Journal reports: Man who jumped to his death identified.
I encountered Chip at first from my experience on Eastern High School’s Quick Recall team – he was a student a Manual High School (where Kelly went to High School). Manual, being the magnet school that it was, was to be feared, but I seem to remember Chip being one of the heavyweights on a team of heavyweights.
This scenario is unfortunately all to familiar to me, having learned of the death of another brilliant mind shortly before Christmas, three years ago – Ben Edelson. Another genius with a troubled mind crushed under the weight of things they kept all too private.
I can’t pretend to have known Chip to the same level I did Ben, but the similarities are enough to send that pang directly into my gut. (update: a local copy of his UofL blog) cast a more frightening shadow – one of paranoia, confusion and ramblings I’ve only ever read from someone in a state of advanced mental torment. Be advised that it does lead all the way to the end, giving us a window into his state of mind.
Further: fraterfamilias.blogspot.com
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Those of you who knew me when I was younger knew that I worked at the Dairy Queen in Middletown for most of my college years. Working at a restaurant offers interaction with a good number of people – but there are always a few that stand out, the regulars. One of my favorites was Carroll King. He was a man who did odd jobs for us on occasion or sometimes just sat in the back booth sipping coffee, always ready with a “hello” and a too-good-to-be true story. He was a bow-legged story teller, always dressed in black. He was a good man, but deeply flawed. Carroll died on January 4th, 2007 in a wooden shack in Middletown, Kentucky.
Carroll was a man about Middletown. He was known by all and was as close to a fixture as Middletown has ever had. Carroll was also homeless by choice and an chronic alcoholic. You could make reference to the loveable Otis the Drunk from TV’s Mayberry, and you’d be about half-right. Carroll, like Otis, was harmless and had a heart that, while weathered like the wrinkles on his face, was still good and true. But to romanticize him would be overlooking the crippling addiction that Carroll faced day-in and day-out. He was unapologetic in his poverty, and squandered much of what he received on alcohol. He seemed to accept his lot, and turned away offers for a place to stay. He was wild at heart. He won’t be missed by some, but he will be missed by many.
He was, in the end, a bridge to a lifestyle and a disease that no one would ever normally wish to associate with, but he managed to do so without force with so many people in Middletown that he had become part of Middletown.
Article: Homeless man had a place in friends’ hearts
Gallery: Memorial for Carroll King
Video: Carroll King’s Memorial Service
Obituary: Carroll M. King
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Isn’t it some sort of cruel irony that…
Elvis Costello‘s “Radio, Radio” — a plea for radio to not be sucked dry by corporate intentions — is now a “classic rock” staple?
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