Retirement

 

I can still remember my mother taking me to work at a gas station on Lamar Avenue. for $.065 an hour.  I was the guy that pumped your gas.  I wash your windshield checked your oil, tires an anything else that needed checking.  I was 14!  I have had a job ever since that day.  Well in 2 weeks I am laying it down at 71 years old. 

What a ride!  I have pumped gas. I have dug ditches.  I have run gas pipes.  I have fueled air planes.  I have rode airplanes all over the world to teach people how to work around those airplanes safely. I have been a line cook, a sous chef, a head chef, and an executive chef.  I have fed over 2,000 people in a day with the support of 17 of the greatest people in the world.  I have been all over the world to buy wine. I have had multiple states where I sold wines.  I have been a starter at a golf course.  And I am sure I have left something out.

Not many people can say they have had the run I have had!!  I have met the most wonderful people. Ate the most wonderful food, drank some of the finest wine on earth.  I have learned the most important things from the greatest mentors.  Thank you all.

Well, I am putting it down in two weeks 6/21/25!!!  I will keep my wine jobs they are a pleasure and keep me connected and with a purpose.  But the have to be there portion of this ride is over 6/21!  I have enjoyed most of my jobs.  There have been people and situations that made some of them more difficult than others but mainly it has been a genuinely nice experience.

On to travel, adventure, more golf with Darlene.  Only things that are fun hope 

 

So, look for more posts of the things that come up along the way. 

 

Thanks for always listening

 

Peace,

 

The Blessed Man

Ricky Roy Blankenship

 

If you recognize the name then you just know.  If you don’t then I would dare to say your life is a smile and a laugh or two short.

I met Ricky one day riding my bike home from Havenview School.  He was working on his bike in the driveway and I said hello and for the next 65 years we were best friends.  You have heard about that friend that knows where the bodies are buried.  Well Ricky helped me bury a bunch of those bodies.

He went to St. Paul elementary.  I went to Havenview.  Then we both went to Whitehaven High School and that my friend is where all the trouble started!!!  Ricky’s father, Googie, drove the bus we rode to school.  He was a riot.  About as tall as he was big around he was just simply a hilarious man.  I got to know Googie and Bobbie Fay his Mom over the years an unusual pair for sure.

Ricky was the best man at my first wedding.  He was a major part of a night that will remain in one of the craziest of my life my Bachelor party.  Which it took about a month to recovery from.  Another story for another time.  Let’s just say my new bride didn’t speak t him for many, many months!!

He was always there for me. Good times and Bad always right there. I could pass on many examples but that’s not the reason for this writing.

You see I lost my best friend yesterday and I needed to let folks know the world lost a good guy.  Yes, he was strange.  He loved burnt bacon and steaks.  I never understood that until I had a taste of his Moms cooking if you could call it that.  WOW!!  He also was hard headed. He loved his wife and family more than anything else in the world.  He told me that many times as we talked about this and that.  He loved the Memphis Tigers. He loved to talk to his buddy Goose during all of the games.  I was always out being” social” as he called it.   He also loved to play golf back in the day and we would all go on these crazy golf trips down to the gulf coast. Lot’s of memories there as well.

Well if you knew him there is a good chance you either loved him or did not care for him.  That never bothered him at all.  You see Ricky was Ricky and that is what made me love him.

Rest in peace my friend.  You will be missed, but never forgotten.

 

Peace,

The Blessed Man