I was surprised and saddened to hear of the passing of my cousin David Patterson. Of all my cousins I spent the most time with David between my ages of around 8 and 18. Whenever our families met, he and I usually ended up hanging out together.

I got into the most trouble when I was with David because he didn’t seem afraid to do anything, and because I always thought he was one of the coolest, friendliest, funnest, and best looking people I knew. And he knew how to talk himself (and consequently “us”) into and out of almost anything or any situation. He knew how to act cool, dress cool, break dance, and do whatever he wanted without a care for what others thought. He was the reason why I listened to The Ramones, The Beastie Boys, and The Sparks; why I wanted to skateboard (tho my mom kept that from happening at home); why I knew about Tony Hawk before he was a household name and can still draw the Powell-Peralta logo; why I owned skateboard wax even tho I never owned a skateboard; and why I once nearly got kicked out of Disneyland.

We got in plenty of trouble together. Secretly taping grandpa’s Jenga set together (I was the only one who got in trouble), counting how many times we could hurl our Transformers into grandpa’s front yard tree before they broke (they were still die-cast metal so they took quite a pounding), listening to the headphones of our new transistor radios at max volume as long our ears could stand it (and longer), riding skateboards down to Denny’s for breakfast without telling anyone we left, sneaking into the Disneyland Hotel and then back into Disneyland park by telling them “his dad works here”, throwing ketchup packets off the Disneyland gondola, and plenty of other minor misc mischief.

And even when we weren’t getting ourselves into trouble we still experienced some of the most memorable times of my life together. I don’t remember half of the things our other cousins say happened when we were all together, but what I do remember usually involved David. One of our favorite stories was fishing together with grandpa in his canoe and grandpa cussing when trying to fix the rat’s nest in David’s fishing line - we always loved to retell that story. In another fishing trip to the Santa Ana Lakes with grandpa we spent most of time listening to The Ramones, using Velveeta for bait, and talking about girls. And when grandpa left the lights on in his truck, the guy who helped jump start grandpa’s truck switched the cables and fried the electronics. We listened to all kinds of the coolest music together whether it was in his room, on a road trip, or while camping. I remember staying up past midnight playing Mastermind in his room on the night before a camping trip. And then buying some of the silliest looking sunglasses at convenience stores and camp stores on the trip because they always looked cool on him - but not on me. I remember riding our bikes off-road on a different camping trip at a trailer camp some place I don’t remember anymore, trying to find the biggest jumps - while wearing funny sunglasses that made the bumps seem bumpier and the dips seem dippier. And buying as many Nestle Crunch bars at the camp store as we could afford (and convince our parents to give us money for) to see if we could match up the wrappers and win something big (we only won a couple more free bars).

From family Christmases and family parties to family camping and backpacking trips and random school vacation or summer weeks spent at his house. For those few years we spent a lot of our time together. Somehow, fun and funny things always happened when I was with David - I’m sure that’s not a coincidence.

We drifted apart as we grew older and he continued to go off and do his own thing and marched to beat of his own drum. I’ve missed him for a long time, and am sad that he passed far too soon. But I feel blessed to still have so many amazing memories of him, and that his brilliant and busy mind is now at peace.

I have many fond memories of Davey (not sure if anyone else called him that but he will always be Davey to me) I will never forget watching scary movies when he baby sat. For some reason licking 9 volt batteries. Which is weird I know. But what is a memory of Davey without a little hint of weirdness, in the best way. 💗 Always entertaining and the life of the party. I will never forget taking him snowboarding and drinking hot chocolate in the summit lounge. And most of all just hanging out and discussing life. 

My brother and him were like two peas in a pod. Joey was his little shadow. I will never forget them getting pulled over for letting him drive the car while sitting on his lap. Or tricking each other into stepping on the perimeter wire and shocking ourselves. 

He is now at peace from this crazy world. He will be greatly missed and will forever be in our hearts.