Alfred F. Johnson

My own personal recollections of Denny Aiken are slim, mainly around the shock that he has been diagnosed with a serious illness, some form of leukemia, and then shortly, too shortly, thereafter the announcement over the P.A. system I believe that he had passed away. Denny, a guy I had gone to Atlantic Junior High with (okay, Middle School) and who lived right across the street from that school had left us for some mysterious and unfathomable reason.

The main point of my comment though is not my own recollections of Denny but my brother Preston’s who was friendly with Denny through Atlantic and until his end. Preston cannot present his own comments here because although he should have graduated with our class he dropped out in the tenth grade. He however told me some of his thoughts to be relayed here.

The common thread with Preston and Denny was Billy Hutchison who introduced Denny to him. The three were fast friends going places, movies, and stuff like that. They also took a turn at caddying at the old Wollaston Golf Course (now President’s) after Hutchy led the way. Also all three went out for ninth grade football (where I believe Denny was first diagnosed with his illness). My brother quit after a while (he didn’t want to cleat anybody) although Hutchy continued on and did well as I remember. Preston and Hutchy would go visit Denny over at the Lemuel Shattuck where he was hospitalized. The rest you know.             

My question 50 years out though is did the fact of being around one Andrea Aiken, who was the twin sister of Denny, ever enter into the heads of Preston James Johnson and William Hutchison during that long ago friendship. For me though, yeah, Denny Aiken, yeah he was/is a member in good standing of the Class of 1964-no question-RIP Denny 

Preston said that they liked to play this song during 1961.

i  

Virginia Garland

I like Al Johnson's post for Denny very much, as it helped me to remember my too brief friendship with Denny at Atlantic junior high school, where we were in many of the same classes. I remember Dennis as a really cute guy with blond hair who also had a neat flirtatious smile, and I even recall talking to him in math class, and also getting in trouble for passing notes to each other. Like Al, I was totally shocked by his passing. The Roy Orbison piece is a nice tribute!