As I mentioned in the last Golf post, I have a group of true blues that I really need to introduce to you. We will start with the easiest one. The one I have known the longest. This is Red.
He was the best man in my first wedding. I have known him for fifty years. We have been to the mountain, and back together. We have always been there for each other. I count on him more than he will ever know and always ask his counsel in important matters in my life.
He is an extraordinary example of what a good husband and father should be. He married later in life and got it right the first time. His wife, already had 3 children, and he took them on as if he were their father, because he really was. The real Dad was really never around unless it was to his benefit. He like most deadbeat Dad’s always kept letting his kids down. This was a large pain for my buddy and we have spoken about it many times. It used to eat him up; he could never understand how a father could simply not care about his kids enough to love them and try to be a part of their lives. He simply took over and the kids now, I feel, look to him as their real Dad.
This is the guy that one weekend my Mother and Father went to visit the grandparents and left me at home. I think we were about 17 at the time. Well we did what all 17 year olds at that time did we went out got a bunch of beer and came back home and drank every drop and proceeded to walk around the neighborhood singing at the top of our lings. There was a ditch in front of our house we fell in it and I know it took us over an hour to get out of it and it might have been 3 feet deep. We finally got in the house and passed out thank you lord. Well as fate would have it my Mother got a little sick and my parents decided to come home early. When they drove up in the drive away my Dad saw Red's car in the drive and told my Mother to wait outside he wanted to make sure everything was ok in side before she came in! He came in to find Red butt naked on the kitchen floor every eye on the gas stove running on high! He woke me up first, then we got my buddy up and about the time he fell into my room my mother walks in, as far as I know my Dad never told her what he found. Thanks Dad for that one we owe you!
This is the same guy who I have played golf with for over forty years. We used to play in a lot of local tournaments around our area. We weren’t too bad either we won a few and lost a few but always had a great time, just like the other day. We have worked on every car either of us has ever had including the ones we drive today. We have built lake houses, and dog houses. We have wired houses and done about anything we ever put our minds to we are good for each other as we always think together we can do anything.
Where would we be without people in our lives like my buddy? What kind of existences would we have without people who bring us unmitigated joy? The times in my life I have laughed the hardest are with this guy. The memories I have that make me smile and my eyes fill with tears mostly I can connect to this guy. What have been thought together can only be characterized as life. All of the crossroads all my life he was right there by my side. This is the closest thing I have to a brother on this planet. He is the one I would take a bullet for, and I think him for me as well. We have lost parents together, friends, girlfriends and wives. We have seen each other’s kids born and quietly supported each other as they made choices we both know would turn out badly for them. We have sat across the lunch table and cried and laugh together. We have shared a full and wonderful life together.
Now our lunches are more about how we can retire and what we want for the golden years for each other. I have always said when I hit to redneck 401K (read Powerball) he will reap the benefits as well. I always know I will one day retire and enjoy the last days of my life living on a little land and raising a few animals and fishing. He always says he will be carried out of his job and a stretcher. I try to make him understand you get what you ask for but he is just not there yet. So when my ship comes in I will do whatever I can to make sure he can retire in the mountains as he wants and live the life he so rightly deserves.
I hope reading this has brought back a memory of a friend you had growing up that you miss. If so, please pick up the phone, break of the computer and email. Whatever it takes please stay in touch with eh people that shape your life. I do not know what I would have become had it not been for my band of brother I grew up with. I am so blessed we are all still together save one who it was his choice to be removed. I still would do anything for him and I truly believe he knows it. So take it from a blessed man, life is all about your family, friends, and the relationships you foster, keep in touch.
Thanks Red, Love you Man..................
Peace,
The Blessed Man
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