Mother Hopes Her Son’s Death Teaches a Lesson

As she walked out of the mortuary that is handling her son’s funeral, Linda Anderson looked across Main Street in Fillmore to the high school where she had watched him graduate only two days earlier.

“I hope his death serves as a teaching tool,” she said Saturday, fighting back tears. “If it takes one life to teach kids what alcohol does--if one kid can live because mine has died--I just hope something good comes out of this.”

Across the street, two of James Anderson’s friends were wandering the empty hallways of Fillmore Senior High, talking about the drunk-driving accident that took his life early Friday.

Mike McCarry, 19, said he had grown up with “Goggle Man,” as his friends affectionately called Anderson, 18, because of his thick glasses. Together they played football, rode horses and hunted dove and quail.

“You grow up with the same people all your life in a small town like this,” McCarry said, leaning against the wall near the assistant principal’s office.

Another friend, who would identify himself only as Dave, was sitting on the floor with his head down, petting his dog, Scruffy. He said he had been with Anderson two hours before the accident. “Things could have been a lot different,” he said, without elaborating. “What we did and what we could have done are two very different things.”

Anderson and a 1988 Fillmore high school graduate, Justin Neff, had been drinking at a post-graduation party, their friends said. “It was graduation night, and you know what happens on graduation night everywhere,” Dave said with a shrug.

Anderson asked Neff to give him a ride home. Neff’s car veered off a country road and smashed into a telephone pole. Anderson was pronounced dead at the scene.

Neff suffered multiple internal injuries and remained in critical condition Saturday at Ventura County Medical Center. He was placed under arrest by the California Highway Patrol on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol. A CHP official said an investigation is in progress to decide whether to charge Neff with manslaughter.

Described by friends and teachers as quiet, generous and shy around girls, Anderson had planned to joined the Marines.

His funeral will be held this week. His mother said the date has not been decided.

“Life is so weird and different sometimes,” said McCarry, shaking his head. “You don’t know what’s going on anymore.”

At the entrance to Fillmore’s Memorial Hall nearby, James Anderson’s Little League coach was welcoming Fillmore Senior High School alumni to their annual reunion party Saturday, an all-day event.

Helium balloons floated outside, and near the dance floor, a clarinetist played “Sweet Georgia Brown.” Old-timers exchanged handshakes and hugs. Three members from the school’s first class were observing the 75th anniversary of their graduation.

It was several years ago that Alumni Assn. President Monte Carpenter coached Anderson, but he said he remembered the boy vividly.

“He was a very dedicated kid,” Carpenter said. “He had an eye problem, so he didn’t get to play every day, but he never missed practice and always did what I told him.”

James Anderson’s smiling picture was one of 164 that hung on a wall under a Class of 1990 banner. Carpenter said he didn’t plan to mention the accident.

“We don’t want to put a damper on the celebrations.”