In Memoriam
by Tom Pilkington
Back on September 5th I lost a friend of more than seventy years, and Huntington lost a native son. On that day, Edmond Coulter passed away at age 82. He was a gentle soul...a good man who saw only the good side of most folks he met. He was a man of integrity, a “golden rule” type of person. One might say he gave heed to the words of Thumper in the Bambi movie, “If you can’t say somethin’ nice, don’t say nothin’ at all”.
Aside from all of that, Edmond was an outstanding musician. He could get a lot of music out of his old Martin flat top guitar. Some will likely remember that Edmond was one of the original members of the Pineywood Playboys band of the 1950s heard on KRBA and KTRE radio. He was one of the last surviving members. Now there are three: Jack Green, Dan Davidson and myself.
I first met Lawrence Edmond Coulter around the middle of the 1940s when I was about 10 or 11 years old. He was about a year or so younger, I think. The way that came about was that my aunt married his widowed father. Edmond’s mother had died a few years before when he was very young.
As I write this, remembrances from my early youth and my friendship with Edmond spring forward loud and clear. They were just little things, insignificant at the time, but under the circumstances appear more important now. Some things that come to mind are when Edmond and I listened to the Lone Ranger on the radio and another thing is when we made “the big trade”. Here’s what happened: Edmond had a nice Western Flyer bicycle that I really wanted. On the other hand, I had a new watch my mother had bought for my birthday. Edmond really liked it. Well, we decided to trade. We ran into a bit of trouble though because we forgot one slightly important thing. We forgot to inform our parents of our little transaction. After bombarding us with harsh words and threats, they finally relented and our “big trade” was allowed to remain in place.
Edmond and I were big comic book fans. Most kids, especially boys, back then were comic book junkies. We always had lots of them around. I had some that Edmond hadn’t read and he always had some that I wanted to read. We traded them back and forth and thereby, having new comics to read. Can you imagine kids doing that today?
Though he has been gone for more than a month now, I just wanted to say a few words about an all-around good guy, Edmond Coulter. Thank you for listening. And now, I bid him farewell. I bid farewell to someone I have called friend for almost three quarters of a century. Go rest, my friend….go rest in peace.
Tom Pilkington is a
Huntington native and
freelance writer now residing
near Breckenridge, Texas
t.pilkington@wtxs.net