Bill W's Attitude

Bill W said...
Alright now, I think I've waited long enough.
There are a lot of things I want to say, and for 1 year and 3 months I have been standing back, trying to be a gentleman, waiting for other people to have their turn.
"What's wrong with this picture?" I keep asking myself.
When I started this website along with Joy Preslar and Jackie Helvey, I promised myself that I wouldn't hog it, much as I like to write. I'll be a good boy and wait my turn. Well now I've decided that a year plus another season is enough time to wait for someone else to say something, and if no one else is going to use this blog space, than I'm gonna "have at it" and not feel guilty about it. After a year I see a grand total of one page and a blog page, containing 6 comments. I wrote two of them and Joy wrote two.
What do they say about the third time?

For starters, I should confess that I did not know Debbie Key as well as I pretended to. I knew Debbie only through my friends, and I subscribe to the theory that, "The friends of my friends are my friends."
Perhaps it's because I'm not much of a drinking man, so I don't go to bars very often, but this excuse will only get me so far.
I tend to regret that I did not go out to Sticks and Stones, when my dear friend Joy would call me and say that she and her band, Storm Front, were playing there and "why don't you come by?"
Yes, my friends, I regret not coming by to hang out with you at your favorite watering hole, and taking the opportunity to get to know better the person I've been writing about. (Hindsight being what it is.)
But I have known all of you for a long time.

David Hurlbert I have known since high school. (Way back in the 70s, Man!) His wife, Chris, I have known since the early '80s, when I and all my local friends would hang out at Breadmen's, and she was everyone's favorite waitress. She has since then moved up in the world, and is now one of the managers at Jade Palace, a popular Chinese Restaurant in Carrboro, which just so happens to be across the street from where Sticks and Stones used to be.
Debbie was a bridesmaid at the wedding of David and Chris, and also at the wedding of Paul and Carole Kemp, who are also old and dear friends of mine.
And then there's Joy, who has been my greatest source of moral support when I needed it most during the last decade or two.
These are the people I have seen in the newspapers and read about, from 1997 to 2005, concerning the murder of our friend Debbie. I knew that Debbie was a special person to them, and so she became to me.

It was in December of 2005, when everyone was still upset that, after 7 years they finally arrested a suspect, but it didn't bring the closure we were hoping for.
Joy and I were at her house talking about what do we do next. Let's start a website, the decision was made, and Joy got Jackie on the phone and she came over. Jackie is perhaps most famous for Carrboro.Com in her work as a website designer. I felt we had a great team together.

Well I am sorry to say I was very disappointed in the lack of response. Where are all these people who were gathering at the courthouse at every trial, with the posters and buttons, talking to the reporters, and making such a big to-do about it? Perhaps they feel like they have done their part already, and it's time for me to do mine. If that be the case, then here I go.

Another thing that bothers me is that everything I have read about Debbie is about her being murdered. Yes, of course, this is an important part of her story, but it is not the only part. Am I the only one who wants to write about who Debbie was when she was alive? God, I hope not, but it sure is starting to look like it.

I am very grateful for the support of John Allore, and his website, "Who Killed Theresa?" In that site I have found a lot more about Debbie and friends than we've got in here. Also I am grateful to John for keeping up with me in e-mails. He has never been too busy to respond to my raves and rants. The parallels between his story and Debbie's story are so uncanny, especially considering the house he moved in to when he and his family settled down in Chapel Hill. (see Bad Dream House, an awesome read!)

Now if anyone is offended by me taking up all the blog space in here, please feel free to jump in at any time. Otherwise, you may expect to be hearing a whole lot more from me in the near future. You have been warned. It has long been a goal of mine to prove to all that the pen is indeed mightier than the sword.

As Arnold says, "I'll be back!"
Bill Widman