Thursday, May 9, 2024
Mike, what can I say about him. There are lots of great stories, Mike was in the midst of our family always. Memoires, I remember him and Vickie shagging and thinking wow wish I could dance like that… Tying my children up while he was helping to watch them because they told him they could get out, they couldn’t. And what would Christmas be without the memory of Blue Christmas as sung by Mike and a great backup group. So many great memories…..and yet so little time.
I don’t have any memories before Mike went to Vietnam, I remember mom telling me he was a lot quieter and more reserved; he was “different” I heard a few times after he got back. Mike was a warrior at heart, he didn’t like to see anyone hurt or abused or in need. He once told me he went to Vietnam so I wouldn’t have to. I watched him give most of a paycheck to a man and his family because they didn’t have anything to eat.
I only saw Mike mad once and it was a cold stone quiet, he never yelled but made his point distinctly. Family was his focus, I remember a time when Vickie was out on the porch of his house, some of our cousins were being picked on by bullies and Vickie was “letting them know that wasn’t ok”, when the bullies said they would come up on the porch and hit Vickie, Mike got off the couch and said “they shouldn’t have said that”, he reached to where he had his pistol and tucked in the back of his pants. He walked on the porch and told the “bullies” they needed to leave, when they said that they would come do harm to him, I heard the pistol cock and him saying you can try but you won’t be walking off the porch. They left!
Life lessons, he gave me many, but they were always given quietly and when Mike really thought you needed to hear them. The two that stand out were when I was a young boy on the Mill Hill, I was in a fight with an older bigger boy. Mike was on the porch watching, I got smacked down. Mike came over after and asked what happened, I knew he was watching and wondered why he was asking, I said, “I just got beat up”, his question was why? I said Mike I don’t like to fight. He paused and the line from Road House came out of him even before it was in the movie. He said, brother no one wins in a fight, but I would rather be the one walking away from it than the one carried away from it. He then proceeded to show me how I could have defended myself. Even then it was with smiles and a hug. He once gave me a gun, during a particularly trying time in my life, I ended up selling the gun, and Mike was upset with me. Brother, he said, I gave you that gun to protect you and your family and so that you would have something I gave you if anything happened to me. I wish you would have sold it to me or given it back to me. His lesson was clear to me family and the memories you make with them are very dear and special. He did end up giving me another gun and many knifes which I keep clean and sharp as instructed. I will always have him in my heart and memories, and I’m thankful for his love of family and his smile and love towards me. Mike you’ll be missed, but I will see you again!
