It saddened me deeply when I heard of the passing of my childhood friend "Curt" Lawson...although I am a few years older, in the West Virginia coal-camps where we grew up age was not much of a factor when making friends …we all melded together like one big family. I remember Curt running around the Glover, West Virginia coal camp, along the Guyandotte River, in the summer covered with "bug-dust" (coal dust) we kicked up from running and playing tag and such most usually barefoot or in a pair of well-worn U.S. Keds . Curt comes from good stock, his father Bascom was a hard working coal miner and his mother Eileen worked along with my mother at a Keystone Gas Station pumping gas to help pay the bills. Honesty and an outstanding work ethic were instilled in Curt and his siblings from an early age. Although I got to see Curt only once or twice after leaving the coalfields and joining the Navy, many times my thoughts and memories returned to those glorious days back then and to the Lawson family in particular. It saddens my heart at his passing; it gladdens my heart to learn he was so active in his church and ministered there. In a short while we will be running around again together on the streets of paradise…no more pain, no more worry, only happiness…You will be sorely missed here Curtis Lee Lawson, my friend.