Bill Lampp - Chapter 12
November 1967 to March 1968 - Atlanta
I first met Bill Lampp (Ira William Lampp), aka Billy Brooks, selling magazine subscriptions in 1963 for the Junior Senior Prom. He lived a couple of streets over from me in Jax Beach with his first wife Angela. He bought a couple of subscriptions which he never received and he never let me forget it, even years later. He and Angela fought a lot and were frequent visitors to Justice of the Peace Gufford's office for resolution. They had one son, Forrest, and soon divorced. Forrest came back to Florida when Bill wasn't doing so good and took care of him until he died. I don't know what became of Angela. Bill joined the Jax Beach lifeguards in the winter class of 1964 and we renewed our acquaintance. Bill was cutting hair for a living at a barber shop across from the A&P in Jax Bch on 5th Avenue North. He cut my hair until he quit barbering in 1966 or so, and wouldn't ever cut my hair for me again, although I pestered him for several years. I bought a 1956 4 door Lincoln from Bill in the summer of 1965 for $150. It was orange with a white top. I really loved that car. It later froze to death in Atlanta. Bill got a dishonorable discharge from the lifesaving corps in 1965 for wearing Ronnie Herndon's shirt. He took it off a common rack in the locker room without asking Ronnie. Bill's father died on D-Day in Europe. According to Hal Newberry who knew Bill in Atlanta in 1970-1973, Bill would look into the mirror and say "Don't you ever die, you handsome devil."
Anyway, Bill was working at the Atlanta airport when George and I returned from San Diego. We went to see him at his apartment once, probably around December, and I took LSD for the first time. George and I believe Larry Turner were there. Just when I started to come on, Julia Child came on TV. I had never seen or heard of her before, and it was pretty strange. Following Julia was The Prisoner with Patrick McGoohan. That show was weird even if you were straight. We decided to go to the airport to see what was going on. We got paranoid there and went into a bathroom where we stayed for a half an hour or so before we got the nerve to leave. We drove around downtown Atlanta for an hour or so, seeing over and over a black limo that we had seen loading passengers at the airport. They were dropping off passengers at various downtown hotels and our paths kept crossing. I remember seeing one gentleman's face peering eerily out a window of the limo. He must have been the last one to get dropped off. It was very surreal.
During my several stays in Atlanta, I hung out with Bill and he hooked me up with stewardesses and stewardess trainees. He came over to our house in Tucker and had dinner with us from time to time. I remember waiting for Bill to arrive at his girlfriend Beverly's for dinner once. Beverly was a gorgeous stewardess who really liked Bill. Anyway, Beverly says to me, "Watch Bill when he comes in. The first thing he'll do is look at himself in the full length mirror by the door." And sure enough, he did, which cracked up Beverly and me.
When I was a senior at Fletcher, Bobby Wilson, Steve Joca, and I rented an apartment with Bill at one of the old McCormick Apartments, I think on 11th or 13th Avenue North and 3rd Street. Bobby, Steve, and I were still in high school and we used the apartment to party in. Rent was only $60 a month, $15 apiece. We had a lot of fun there.
Bill visited me in my apartment in Newport Beach, California, in late 1970 or early 1971, with James Edmondson (Professor Backward's son) and Bill's girlfriend, Bonnie. I tried to make out with Bonnie, one night, and that didn't go over well.It put a wet blanket on the rest of the visit.
Bill had another son, Brooks, with Vi Dunlap.
Bill stayed with me in the trailer in Palm Valley in 1987. He was sitting around in his underwear all day and not working and I eventually asked him to leave. He had an old Chevy pickup with a silver dollar size hole in the right side cab behind the passenger window. Somehow, Bill had managed to discharge a 12 gauge shotgun which was in the gun rack. He had done route sales before and started doing that again for a chips company. He moved into a small apartment on Beach Avenue in Atlantic Beach. When his Mother passed away, he came into an inheritance and moved back to Leesburg, where he was from, and hung out with homeless people and drank a lot. He pretty much died from not taking care of himself. Sad. He had a lot of potential, but couldn't get it together. He was fun to hang out with sometimes, most of the time. He was very childlike, I think the complex world was too much for him.
I loaned Bill $100 once while we were lifeguards together, probably in 1965, to buy a car. He paid me back $10 a week from his Beach Patrol check, every Friday until he had paid me $90. He didn't pay me anything the next week, and I didn't think too much of it. Another week went by and no $10. The 3rd week I reminded Bill that he still owed me $10. He said he knew, and he wasn't going to pay me, so we would always have something to talk about. He never did pay me the last $10. And I did ask him for it from time to time over the years, and we always had a good laugh.
We had a small service for Bill on the beach in front of the lifeguard station in Atlantic Beach a year after he had passed away. We drank champagne and told some Bill Lampp stories. Walter Bennett was an old friend of Bill's. I don't think he made it to the service.
Bill's Mother's Obituary:
Fruitland Park
DOROTHY INEZ FOMBY, 73 ... retired from Coca-Cola Food Division
MRS. FOMBY, 205 Forest St., Fruitland Park, died Wednesday, Sept. 1. 1999. She was retired from Coca-Cola Food Division, Leesburg. Born in Leesburg, she was a lifelong resident of Lake County. She was a member of Central Baptist Church, Leesburg. She was a member of the Goldstar Wife of America and the Leesburg Moose Lodge. Survivors: son, Ira William Lampp, Atlantic Beach; daughters, Sharon Styx, Lady Lake, Nancy Mann, Nashville, Tenn., Janet Reynolds, Fruitland Park; brothers, Roy Hart, Richard Hart, both of Mascotte, Roger Hart, Honoraville, Ala., Bill Hart, Center Hill; sisters, Margie Rovetta, Omaha, Neb., Daisy Brown, Mascotte, Lavonia Hart, Umatilla; five grandchildren; four great-grandchildren. Beyers Funeral Home, Leesburg.
March 12, 2010
