Re: Remembering My Dad

2008-8-10 23:07:00

Matthew wrote:

"So is your Uncle Ray still around? Interesting character that one, always seemed to be out for himself in your Dad's story of his life. Although I liked Dell much better, he and your Dad must have been very close.

"Did you spend a lot of time with him at all?"

JJ:

Yes, my Dad and his brother Del were very close. They were always planning to make a million or conquer the world together. Del had a mine cave in on him that lead to his death and that really took the wind out of my Dad's sense of adventure. From that time on his adventures were in his stories instead of real life.

I spent a reasonable amount of time with both of them when I was young. Del always seemed to have more money than my Dad for some reason and always bought a new Oldsmobile every year. My Dad told me that Del sometimes used questionable methods to get money that he did not go along with -- like some shady deals with gold my Dad did not explain.

Sometimes my Dad would be gone up to a year at a time and we would not hear a word from him and had to fend for ourselves. One time when he was in Nicaragua we received word that he had died. That's all. We had no way of verifying this and we figured we would never find out what happened.

Then one day he showed up as if nothing had happened. I told him that we heard he was dead and asked him where that came from.

He said he came close to death several times one being that when he came out of a bar he was hit over the head and woke up with only his underwear on. He said he was robbed of everything. Losing his money and clothes did not bother him nearly as much as his false teeth. The robbers had even taken them and he could not get them replaced until he got back to the states.

My Dad had some bad blood with Ray because of the real estate double-crossing when he was young. Ray was very active in the church and known far and wide as a great speaker with a huge selection of inspirational stories. He was a little pious and my Dad could not stand anyone who was pious.

Ray had his faults but I liked him okay. He died a year or two ago.

My Dad died about 18 years ago.