People of Conshohocken – Tom Davis

People of Conshohocken – Tom Davis

10/15/2016

by Brian Coll

This is part of our People of Conshohocken series…

We have close to 10,000 people in our borough, add in the residents of West Conshohocken, Plymouth and Whitemarsh and we have a large community. Some of the people that will be featured will be well known in the area, some will have just moved into the area, some will have been here their entire lives. Some of them may be business owners, or people who walk around the area, or maybe work in the area. Maybe you know them, maybe you don’t. Everyone has a story. While we are only going to take their picture and maybe ask a question or two, we want to share these stories with you.

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       I keep my eyes open when I’m talking to someone or sometimes just see someone on the street, I’m wondering who is going to be the next People of Conshohocken…. Today an old friend walked in the door. Mr. Tom Davis. Tom came by our frame shop today escorted by his lovely daughter Nancy. My dad Jack and I love when they come by. Sometimes there is a frame project, other times we are going to solve all of the worlds problems with a conversation. Today it was both. The first part of that was Tom had something he wanted to get framed. A Japanese Bayonet. He told us of how he traded a machine gun for this bayonet while serving in World War 2. The soldier who he made the swap with needed the extra fire power of the machine gun, while Tom needed something in case of close combat. It was during this part of our conversation that I decided to ask Tom a few questions.

       I have known many veterans, and I have never pushed too hard for a conversation when it comes to combat or war. Many of our veterans have seen things that they don’t want to talk about and honestly I don’t know if I want to hear. I did want to know a few things about Tom that I may not have known. I did know Tom when he served on the Colonial School Board for 8 years. We talked a little bit about an old mutual friend in Bob O’Neill. Bob was a great man who served his community in a number of ways that we lost too soon.

      What I and many of you don’t know about Tom Davis is he is a DAREDEVIL. That’s right. Tom is 92 years young and was talking about his 90th birthday where he not only went swimming with a couple of dolphins, he also went skydiving!!!! SKYDIVING!!! He went skydiving for his 90th birthday. How cool is that? I bet his old friends from C and D battery didn’t know that. Tom told us how he used to fly a plane, but never thought he would jump out of a perfectly fine airplane.

      Tom, if you see this, I want you to know you have inspired me to take a few more risks as I go forward in life. I’m not sure that I will jump out of an airplane, but maybe I’ll go cliff diving or something fun that I haven’t done in a long time, and I’ll think of you.

Thank you to our friends at Neal Eye Group for sponsoring People of Conshohocken.