# Pictorial Memorial for my Dad...



## 1eyefishing

As some of my friends here on the Forum know, I've been living with my dad for the last 2 years and taking care of him since he had a stroke. He passed away on May 30th. I've been wanting to do this for him but I've been very busy trying to empty and redo his house to sell and then close the estate. I don't ever for see me having enough time to do this thing in one fell swoop, so I'll just do it a little bit at a time...
Dad was raised on the outskirts of Marietta South Carolina in the Northwestern foothills of the state. He was the oldest of five siblings and made a dash from the tough life he had growing up when he acquired a basketball scholarship to Wake Forest University. Dad also had an outstanding outgoing personality that opened every kind of door for him during his life. His roommate in the athletic dorm was mr. Dick Tiddy. Dick was best buddies with Arnold Palmer, who was also an athletic dorm. The three of them paled around for years and dad became a supreme golfer but chose a business career in banking instead of golf. For years he maintained a handicap that was a handful of digits on the other side of zero. Once he played in The Dean Martin Pro-Am in Tucson Arizona. He also had a fantastic head for numbers and a sharp memory which aided him greatly in his banking career and also his love for gambling.
He always live life large and I've always felt that I could never come close to filling his shoes. More about this later, here's a few pics...

And his coach, Bones McKinney. A little more about him later also.


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## work2play2

Looking forward to more. Good start


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## mark-7mag

Very cool !


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## lagrangedave

Looking forward to the journey.....


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## redeli

Interesting


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## Cmp1

Very interested in more,,,,


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## 1eyefishing

After college, he went directly into his banking career and soon became the youngest vice president of North Carolina National Bank. We moved around in the Carolinas, (Aberdeen, Loris, Florence) before he took us to Newport News Virginia to open his first bank which he was also president of. He then moved us to Norfolk where he founded and presided over another 'biracial' (!) bank.
About this time, I remember him making many trips to Washington DC to testify before a Congressional Banking Committee about the need for and the purpose he could fulfill with his new bank. He often took me along and we went to several Washington Redskins games. For some reason he was on speaking terms with Sonny Jurgensen, who had played football at Duke University. Here Dad also introduced me to Bennie McRae, a defensive player for the New York Giants. Dad's bank later financed Benny's business ventures in building and construction (mostly of government subsidized housing I believe).
Upon opening his last bank (Atlantic National Bank in Norfolk Virginia), I remember that he was responsible for transferring cash from the US Treasury on to the Navy aircraft carrier battle groups that were leaving port in Norfolk. I remember once it took an entire weekend for him and representatives from the treasury and representatives from the Navy to count and confirm $7 million in sequential numbered $100 bills to put on one of the carriers. I don't know how he did it, but I remember him coming home with one of those inch thick pads of $100 bills that was glued together on the top side by the red memo glue. He like to make a big show of pulling that thing out and peeling $100 bill off for someone. This was early seventies. That was a lot of money then; just imagine the kind of cash those Navy ships float around with nowadays.


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## 1eyefishing

Click on the numbers under the thumbnail to read....
Having some trouble posting full-size pictures...


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## 1eyefishing




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## 1eyefishing




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## 1eyefishing

... more about his second and third careers soon...


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## westcobbdog

Enjoyed your words and pics. Your Dad wa a baller if he played Forward at Wake Forest. 
Looks like he was a fine man.


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## sinclair1

I was proud of my father, but heck, your pop had it going on.


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## Artfuldodger

Impressive group there at Wake Forest to include your Dad. Basketball was that school's game. Did Palmer get there by way of a golf scholarship or to play golf?
Then Tiddy being the pro at Palmer's Bay Hill Club & Lodge  in Orlando.

I've only been to Winston-Salem once. My sister lived there briefly before moving to Mount Airy.

I would imagine your Dad to be athletic and good enough for basketball or a golf career. Maybe banking was in his blood and his basketball abilities was his ticket to that education and path.
He was definitely a pioneer in the direction of a business of any type for Blacks and Whites.

Love the flat top haircut.


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## Silver Britches

You had a great father. Thanks for sharing his story.


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## blood on the ground

What a great story! Your dad was a mountain of a man and a great American also!


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## 1eyefishing

Artfuldodger said:


> Impressive group there at Wake Forest to include your Dad. Basketball was that school's game. Did Palmer get there by way of a golf scholarship or to play golf?
> Then Tiddy being the pro at Palmer's Bay Hill Club & Lodge  in Orlando.
> 
> I've only been to Winston-Salem once. My sister lived there briefly before moving to Mount Airy.
> 
> I would imagine your Dad to be athletic and good enough for basketball or a golf career. Maybe banking was in his blood and his basketball abilities was his ticket to that education and path.
> He was definitely a pioneer in the direction of a business of any type for Blacks and Whites.
> 
> Love the flat top haircut.



Yes, they were an impressive group. Dad joined the team the year after they won the Southern Conference Championship. So they wern't exactly hurting for recruits, I'm sure. This was either before the ACC or before they joined the ACC.
I'm not sure about Arnold Palmer's scholarship status, but I know he was one year ahead of Dad, so he wasn't there for Dad's senior year in '58. '58 is when Arnold Palmer won his first Masters.
Dad did take me once to Bay Hill and we ate lunch with mr. Tiddy and his wife. Arnold was too busy for lunch and when Dad said he wanted to introduce him to me, they said to get to it because he was on the first tee. We went out there and The King actually stepped down off the first tee to shake my hand!
Yes, Dad was athletic enough for either career, but but he had just started playing golf when he met these guys in college. His main asset was the will and the determination to succeed and a super gregarious personality that everybody just wanted to be around..

Yes, and as somebody else stated he was a real player. I played high school basketball in 10th and 11th grades and I remember once during the summer before I turn 16, we played a game of one-on-one and he beat me. He even marched around me to the hole and dunked on me! He would have been 39yo. We were both 6'3",  but he had about 60 pounds on me.


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## wvdawg

Enjoyed the stories - your dad was awesome!  I always enjoyed my dad's stories of coming back from the military to finish high school and his buddies and him hanging with the coaches after practice in the local bars.  Times were different then.  Your dad made a big difference in the world.


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## Duff

Wow! Great tribute and stories as well!!!


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## 1eyefishing

So while dad was in business at Atlantic National Bank in Norfolk, we actually lived in Virginia Beach, Virginia. I remember we rarely missed a Virginia Squires game, especially when coach Bones McKinney's Carolina Cougars tank came to town. Dad had me down there on the sidelines regularly after the games where I was introduced to coach Al Bianchi, Charlie Scott, Rick Barry and others whom I don't remember their names. I always wanted to shake hands with Julius Erving, but he was always wrapped up in a towel and off the floor before we can get near.

So here comes the turning point in the story that is a little hard for me to tell without saying things that shouldn't be said.
Dad was a womanizer and a gambler. He was a risk-taker! And like everything else he did, he did those things supremely well also. One got him in trouble with my mother, and one got him in trouble with his business. He was indicted for fraud over a $100k loan he made to an individual that defaulted on the loan and let the cat out of the bag that he only got the loan because he owed dad a $100k gambling debt. Dad pled down to lesser charges but lost his banking license in the process.
So that was the end of his first of three careers.(Edit: ...and the end of his marriage to my mother.)
I will tell you ahead of time that the moral of this story is going to be :"You don't judge a man by whether or not he falls down, but by whether or not he gets back up!"
Much more later...


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## mark-7mag

Following this one


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## Da Possum

very interesting.....looking for to reading more


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## notnksnemor

Our prayers are with you and your family.
You honored me by sharing some of your fathers stories as well as sharing your boat this past spring fishing in St. Marks.
Life takes all of us in many different directions. We have control of some, others we don't.
Again, mine and my wife's prayers for you and yours.
If we can be of help, you've got my contact info.
God Bless!


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## Jeff C.

Cool thread 1eye, thanks for sharing and sorry for your loss.


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## Nicodemus

A most memorable way to honor your Father.


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## Cmp1

Great right here,,,, wish I had some pic's of my Dad, I know a lot about his life but wouldn't be as cohesive as yours,,,,


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## 1eyefishing

Because he had no means to pay alimony and child support, and in order to escape the vicious wrath of my mother and to find gainful employment, dad wound up with a part time sales and part-time golf pro position at the upstart Carolina Shores Golf and Country Club just outside of Calabash, North Carolina. Mother sent me down there to live with him (for the summer of '74) just to spite him and cramp his single man lifestyle. Dad was then renting a mobile home (sans the mobile home park) on a lot in Little River, South Carolina. Soon, his personality and drive to succeed we're working for him again. He won a sales contest and was awarded a brand new Cadillac Coupe Deville. It was looong and white! With his improved income, we were able to rent a house in North Myrtle Beach a block and a half off the oceanfront for the rest of the summer. Dad's golfing friendships and abilities soon led him to be buddies with South Carolina congressman John Jenrette (Abscam) and his Playboy Bunny wife, Rita. Subsequently, he also began to rub shoulders with a self-made millionaire named Paul Brown and his wife Phyllis George. Paul Brown was soon to become the governor of Kentucky.
Mr. Brown had recently purchased an exclusive establishment (Le Club Internationale) on the Intercoastal waterway in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He needed a membership drive and a personable manager, and decided that Dad was just a man for the job. Instantly, dad was off to South Florida, leaving me with the beach house (he rented the other three bedrooms to three students from WVU) his old beat-up Jeep Wagoneer for the rest of the summer.
This is where I must interject a funny side note about the summer of my coming of age. I was old enough to acquire my learner's permit (15 and 8 months) in Virginia, just before my mom mother sent me to stay with Dad for the summer. In order to get my very first job in North Myrtle Beach (at the Piggly Wiggly), I had to get a state ID stating that I was a resident of South Carolina. I went down to the Sheriff's Department to pick up a form to get the state issued ID. They told me to have my dad sign it and bring it back. He signed it, I filled it out saying my birthday was 3 years earlier ('55 instead of '58, easy typo to make ha!). Immediately had an ID saying I was 18 and could get into all the beer joints up and down the beach. As soon as dad left town for Florida, I marched down to the DMV and traded my ID for a driver's license that said I was 18! Now I was in business with a beach house, an old Jeep, and a fake ID driver's license that said I was 18 years old! I was 15 years old. It was one heck of a summer, mother never even knew that Dad wasn't in Myrtle Beach with me!
Of course, it all had to end at some point and I went back to Virginia Beach for another year of high school.
Unfortunately, few pictures from this era as there was no wife or girlfriend of dad's to take them and leave them behind...
Up next, a few stories about Dad's second career in South Florida...


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## 1eyefishing




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## Cmp1

You've definitely got a good memory,,,,,


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## Dirtroad Johnson

Good story, interesting.


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## mark-7mag

sounds like a potential movie


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## 1eyefishing

Thanks all. Dad had a very interesting life for sure, and I definitely had a lot of fond memories and respect...


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## 1eyefishing

So the very next summer, my mother thought once again she would ruin it for us both again. She sent me down to Fort Lauderdale to stay with Dad for good. But it was like throwing Brer Rabbit back in the Briar Patch. I never wanted anything more than to get away from her and be with Dad. Dad had on several occasions step between me and her doing her vicious belt whippings. She was even known to continue lashing at him with the belt till he physically subdued her


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## 1eyefishing

Didn't mean to hit post before I was finished...


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## 1eyefishing

He had stood up for me on many occasions when I was getting wrongfully blamed. We bonded well.
Anyway, after graduating high school he gave me the valet concession at the club. I heard my friends to park cars and they paid me a dollar per car. Made a lot of money, dealt with a lot of celebrities, and had a great time! A lot of what went on can't be repeat it on this form, I'll just say it was remarkable.
This is where he met his next wife, Sally who was eventually more of a mother figure to me than my own mother.


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## 1eyefishing

Sally was often scantily clad, but those were the times. She was making a living as a dancer (not the naked kind obviously) and a model even though she had an architectural design degree from Smith college up north.
She sure could play pretty and dumb. But she was one Smart and tough cookie.


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## 1eyefishing




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## 1eyefishing

Dad fit right in with the rich and the famous, even though he was not rich and famous.
A few months ago I posted the picture of Dad and OJ Simpson and my back and Nicole Brown Simpson on the tennis courts at the club. Can't find it now...
Liberace like to party with Dad. I recall him and his bunch coming back to our house late night after partying several times...


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## 1eyefishing

Here is dad and Sally with their friends at 'Cowboys' during the Urban Cowboy fad.
On the far right is Glenn Braswell. He was a millionaire with several homes in the Fort Lauderdale area. I was employed for a while as his gopher, groundskeeper, and boat washer. Later he was in prison serving time for mail fraud (man boosting supplements that didn't quite boost your manhood) when Bill Clinton gave him a presidential pardon on his last day in office.
On the left is another millionaire, Barry Paul, who made his money in the oil crisis of the early 70s. When Barry built a waste oil refinery in Fairburn Georgia, he brought Dad up to the Atlanta area to help him deal with financing and bureaucracy and other red tape.
Thus ends the south Florida chapter.
Third career coming up!

PS-Wes and Janet in the rear moved to California to work on her modeling career. Never heard from them again hardly.


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## notnksnemor

Every time I watch an old episode of "In the Heat of the Night" I think about the story you told about the plantation house.


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## 1eyefishing

yep, I think Carroll O'Connor enjoyed his coffee and breakfast at dadd house more than he did at the place he was staying!


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## mark-7mag

If we could still rate threads, I'd give this one 5 stars.


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## 1eyefishing

Think I'll be back at that place this weekend to donate some furniture back to that house.
The house is in the opening credits of every episode of In the Heat of the Night. It has a circular driveway full of police cars with the lights flashing. Night shot.
Also Freddy Krueger on fire fell off the balcony there on Friday the 13th.


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## 1eyefishing




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## 1eyefishing

mark-7mag said:


> If we could still rate threads, I'd give this one 5 stars.



Sometimes I fight back a couple of tears doing this...
You're not helping!


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## notnksnemor

Amazing lives lead to amazing stories.
Thanks for sharing C.


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## dixiecutter

don't stop now 1eye


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## 1eyefishing

I remember when we first moved to Georgia, dad grew his beard. All of a sudden everybody thought he was Kenny Rogers. I remember riding with him in his black Mercedes on the interstate when a car passed us on the driver side. It slowed back down until it was even with us and I could clearly read the passengers lips saying "There goes Kenny Rogers!" as he pointed over to us!
Of course dad's name was Kenny, so when Sally would holler out "Oh, Kenny" and give him a back hand at any old restaurant ,you could hear people all across the place say to their friends things like "See I told you so!  You owe me ten bucks!"
He would reluctantly laugh and sign a few autographs just to get people off his back.
Back about '83, dad won a large lip syncing contest in Lenox Mall looking like that and singing You Picked a Fine Time to Leave Me Lucille. The prize was a couple thousand dollars if I remember correctly. An agent of Kenny Rogers contacted dad and offered him $10,000 to be a body double in one of the movies. Dad turned it down because he was making money hand-over-fist at that time and didn't care about the $10,000. But he really enjoyed winning that lip syncing contest!


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## 1eyefishing

dixiecutter said:


> don't stop now 1eye


Georgia chapter coming up!
This is where he made his real money.


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## FootLongDawg

More pictures of Sally please


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## Dirtroad Johnson

mark-7mag said:


> Following this one



x2


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## Artfuldodger

1eyefishing said:


> Georgia chapter coming up!
> This is where he made his real money.



When in Ft. Lauderdale did you ever make it to the Candy Store nightclub. My submarine stopped at Port Everglades for a few days. We all headed to the Candy Store to watch a wet negligee contest.
Would of been in the late 70's

Your story and your Dad's is quite interesting.


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## King.Of.Anglers.Jeremiah

He lived one heck of a life! Sounds like something you'd see in a movie


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## 1eyefishing

Artfuldodger said:


> When in Ft. Lauderdale did you ever make it to the Candy Store nightclub. My submarine stopped at Port Everglades for a few days. We all headed to the Candy Store to watch a wet negligee contest.
> Would of been in the late 70's
> 
> Your story and your Dad's is quite interesting.



Thank you.
Yes I remember the Candy Store well. Right on the beach. It was a good spot to snorkel! It was not dad's kind of place but I dropped in there every now and then. I did a stint working for Jax Beach service on the beach right there renting Cabanas & rafts and umbrellas, cetera.
Us Surfers had a little break right there on the north side of the port Everglades in the spoils shoals. It was good on the winter time cold fronts and when a submarine came through there it was game on!


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## Dirtroad Johnson

1 eye put down yo fishing pole & .


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## 1eyefishing

Dirtroad Johnson said:


> 1 eye put down yo fishing pole & .





FootLongDawg said:


> More pictures of Sally please



Sally was a Firebrand of her own. Whatever she thought she was saying. It dropped out of her mind on to the back of her tongue and out of her mouth it came. She was quick to criticize, but always on your team.
She died in 2014 of metastasized cancer. I got to tell her on her deathbed that I was proud to have her as a mom. And that she was the glue that held this family together. No telling where the Cox father and two sons would have wound up without her.
I also promised I would do everything in my power to keep dad in his house as long as possible.


For Dad and Sally, it was all about enjoying life... They loved a good party, especially a costume party or the couple's drag party! (Pre P.C.!)


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## 1eyefishing




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## lagrangedave

Great thread...…………...


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## 1eyefishing

I remember, at my (2nd) wedding reception at the Atlanta Athletic Club where Dad and Sally were members, Sally met my wife's nephew for the first time in the receiving line. After being introduced, she put her thumb right on a nickel sized hairy mole he had just about between his eyebrows and said, "Oh, darling, you have to get that removed!"
He was 10 years old.
Next in line where his mother and father, who she was meeting for the first time.
Within a year, that mole was gone!


Without dad and Sally, my wedding never would have looked like this...


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## 1eyefishing

Still more to come on Dad's Georgia career.
I have a giant mess of photos from his house we cleared out.
Each one I post is a picture of a picture and then resized individually...


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## 1eyefishing




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## notnksnemor

I move the mods make this a sticky (at least for a while) so we don't have to chase it around to follow.
Do I hear a second?


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## Nicodemus

NOTNKSNEMOR said:


> I move the mods make this a sticky (at least for a while) so we don't have to chase it around to follow.
> Do I hear a second?




Done.


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## notnksnemor

Nicodemus said:


> Done.



Dang!!!!
That was fast.
Thanks Nic.


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## 1eyefishing

NOTNKSNEMOR said:


> I move the mods make this a sticky (at least for a while) so we don't have to chase it around to follow.
> Do I hear a second?





Nicodemus said:


> Done.


Friends, I'm truly honored.
 It gives me a lump in my throat to think that my dad's story could be have such interest here.
I am honored to tell it...


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## notnksnemor

1eyefishing said:


> Friends, I'm truly honored.
> It gives me a lump in my throat to think that my dad's story could be have such interest here.
> I am honored to tell it...



Well, don't just sit there, get jiggy with the story....


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## 1eyefishing

The Georgia chapter is good.
It is the most recent and freshest in my mind.
It is somewhat complicated and covers the longest amount of time.
For these reasons it is hard to condense to just a few paragraphs.
This has been churning in my mind for over a month and a half. Hope you don't mind that it takes a few days to complete the entire story...
Back at it tomorrow...


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## 1eyefishing

Dad and Bones at Dad's 50th graduation anniversary. 2008.


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## Silver Britches

You have a lot of great pics. Again, thanks for sharing with us.


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## crackerdave

You are a gifted writer,Corbett!


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## Browning Slayer

crackerdave said:


> You are a gifted writer,



He's not a bad fisherman either!

Good pics brother, keep em coming! Got your text last night. Didn't get home until dark and still had to unload the truck. I'll give you a shout later.


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## Cmp1

crackerdave said:


> You are a gifted writer,Corbett!



Yes he is,,,,,


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## 1eyefishing

crackerdave said:


> You are a gifted writer,Corbett!


Thank you, but...
Not really, I just use a lot of complicated sentence structure that makes the reader go back and read it twice so he can better understand it! Ha!

Okay, I got the thinking machine back up and running, and I'm starting to smell the wood smoke.
It'll spit something out here in a minute...


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## 1eyefishing

So I guess it's time to move dad and Sally up here to Georgia from Florida. This is really when he started to develop his Midas Touch. Everything he did turned to gold.
He came up here


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## 1eyefishing

Oops. Continuing....


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## 1eyefishing

He came up here initially to help Barry Paul (mentioned earlier) build a waste oil refinery in Fairburn. I looked for it recently on Google Maps but couldn't find it. It was Just north of Highway 74 and east of the tracks there in the industrial neighborhood. They collected waste oil from around the town, service stations, oil change places, fleet service shops, anywhere there was used oil. It was refined in a small distillery in about 5,000 gallon batches. It sold as a fuel oil that fueled those giant asphalt turning machines you would occasionally see around any highway build that mixes and melts the asphalt.
He 'traded equity' in the house he had bought in Fort Lauderdale for $80k for a house on Peachtree Battle Circle. In the heart of old-money Buckhead. The couple who live there moved to live in his house in Fort Lauderdale.
This is about the time he called me to Georgia. February 1983. I had fallen out from under his wing for a few years and worked odd jobs and moved up to Indialantic and Melbourne, Florida, and then to Virginia Beach again furthering my infamous and highly non-lucrative surfing career.
Dad wanted me to learn the business, get my own waste oil truck going and help him build a business.
I figured if I made a little money real quick I could go back to the beach and surf for a good while before I had to get the next job. Ha! Small world I lived in!


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## 1eyefishing

But Dad bought a 4000 gallon tanker (straight rig).
I got a class B CDL.
While Barry Paul's bunch were playing small ball chasing waste oil out of 55 gallon drums and small tanks behind the service stations,  dad acquired large reserves of fuel and oil from industry, the military and other large sources. I drove that truck all over the southeast. I got really good at reading the old-style paper road maps. We had contracts with sources like Georgia Power, the Marine Corps logistics base in Moultrie, Starving Marvin, Southwire, TVA, etc. I was regularly in South Carolina, Savannah, Moultrie, Bainbridge, and Eastern Tennessee. I may have been gone a full day or three to pick up a load, but when I came back we had more oil than a waste oil truck could produce in a month.
As dad's business relationship with mr. Paul fizzled, we had to come up with some place to store the oil. Dad leased a small tank farm from Southwire in Carrollton. We had three 30,000 gallon upright tanks and two huge pancake style tanks of about 500,000 gallons each. It was all connected by pipes and pumps and including a loading and unloading dock for tanker trucks. Perfect. I moved from Buckhead to Carrollton to do the work. I based the tanker truck there, lived in a small apartment just off the West Georgia College campus. Also met my first wife here.


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## 1eyefishing

Meanwhile, dad struck up a deal to trade equity again. This time for the 15,000 square-foot Antebellum mansion in Covington. Just when I was getting in stride an hour west of Atlanta, he moves an hour East!

Now it's time to go get a few pics ready...


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## 1eyefishing

I saw and openen this book for the first time today...
The first paragraph in the chapter about dad's 'Whitehall' begins:
"Covington's most monumentally imposing house is a Greek Revival Mansion fronting upon Franklin Wright Park and located almost opposite the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd."it goes on to describe the chain of ownership from the original Flanagan family and then was part of the John Harris and judge John P Harris all pre Civil War.

Here are a few paragraphs and the following page.
I didn't believe in ghosts before I spent a few nights there, but I believe there is something there.
And I don't believe there are ghosts anywhere else...





The single widowed lady who I believe was a descendant of the Harris's moved into my dad old place in Buckhead. She had been living here alone with her dogs.


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## 1eyefishing

My pics are better than those in the book.
Dad and Sally renewed their vows there.

The mirror on the left side of the foyer is about 8 ft tall with hand blown glass. The ceilings on the first two floors are 12ft.
Upstairs there was an older less glamorous mirror attached on top of a giant foot locker. It was also eight feet tall by 4 ft wide. Pretty sure it was original to the house and it just gave me the absolute heebie-jeebies when I looked in it thinking of all those who had looked in it before me.


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## 1eyefishing

My first son helping me mow the four acre yard...


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## 1eyefishing

Dad bought a semi-tanker and a tractor to pull it, and hired a class A CDL driver to come on board. He also picked up a vac truck that would suck the sludge out of tanks and retaining pits and drainage boxes, etc. We diversified into tank cleaning and other industrial services.
Dad, being in Covington and almost a 2 hour drive from Carrollton, purchased a couple of properties in Newton County so he could base his heavy equipment closer to home. My wife was getting tired of him having his thumb on me and convinced me to stop working for him and enter West Georgia College (age 32). I worked for him part-time through school and on Saturday's mowing his giant yard.
I guess about this time the Superfund was created by the government to clean up contaminated sites. He diversified more into pulling unused petroleum tanks from defunct service stations and Industrial sites. I believe the Superfund paid for 90% of the cost.
These sites often had a lot of contaminated soil around the leaking tanks and piping. Engineering companies would come and bore and drill holes in a grid pattern at every 5 ft deep to determine where the plume of contamination had drifted into the soil. Dad was making more money digging out the contaminated soil and hauling it to landfills. Soon instead of hiring contractors, he had his own equipment such as backhoes, excavators, bobcats, and dump trucks. And he was rolling in even bigger contracts and making bigger money!
One year he produced more contaminated soil into Georgia's landfills (legal at the time) than all other entities put together. He was charging $40 a ton to dig it up and haul it, but had to pay $20 a ton to get rid of it at the landfill.
These were years of great income and great personal expenditures on his part. He gutted most of that giant house and modernized it. He begin to take nearly hundred-thousand-dollar vacations nearly every year. The first of which was to Italy where he purchased 3000 square feet of Italian marble tile to ship back home for the redo of his kitchen. He spent a month in South Africa. He stayed for two weeks at 'Skeebo' (a Scottish Castle that Madonna had one of her weddings in) while playing golf in Scotland and Ireland. Gambling in Monaco, Sapporo Olympics, Super Bowls, he was on the move!
But he never took his eye off the search for a deal. And he could turn a deal into a better deal the way a criminal can turn a stolen car into a bigger crime.
He was about to come across another deal that would once again exponentially grow his business and his income.!


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## notnksnemor

Great story C.


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## mrs. hornet22

Really enjoying this! Good stuff!


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## 1eyefishing




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## 1eyefishing

For my first son, CJ...


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## dixiecutter

Still tuned in here


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## 1eyefishing

dixiecutter said:


> Still tuned in here


Thank you, I'll break another one off here in a little while. Couple more oughta wrap it up... ?


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## Cmp1

1eyefishing said:


> Thank you, I'll break another one off here in a little while. Couple more out of wrap it up... ?


You're a really good writer,,,,, wish I had your skill,,,,,


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## 1eyefishing

Thanks, Cary...


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## Cmp1

Definitely,,,,,


----------



## 1eyefishing

So as I said earlier, dad was a gambler and a risk taker.
I do remember twice in my life when he came home from Vegas with over a hundred grand in winnings. I don't doubt that it happened more; I only know about these because Sally let the cat out of the bag a couple of times. He came home ahead 10 grand or so numerous times. I remember once a helicopter picked him up at Peachtree DeKalb airport and flew him to the Mississippi Bellagio. I'm guessing he had a couple of his high roller buddies with him also.
He was smack in the middle of his Golden Touch era, but all of a sudden the big house was up for sale.
He had worked up trading equity in his original $80,000 house in Fort Lauderdale to this mansion. He spent $100,000 in the kitchen. $100,000 in the mahogany study. I'm sure that he had spent over a hundred thousand on the rest.
At one point, dad and Sally had visited Graceland in Memphis. They saw a piece of furniture they like they're so they commissioned High Point Furniture in North Carolina to make them a replica of a china cabinet. It was 11 feet high (to go along with dad's 12 foot ceilings) and over 20 feet in length. I'm remembering that the cost including shipping and installation was between 70 and 100 grand.
When the house sold, it was for $1.65 million. He got an extra $200k for the furniture and the Waterford Crystal chandeliers inside.
He's rich right?
Nope. He immediately turned around and wrote a check to the IRS for over $900k.
Now he needs a house. We had done quite a bit of contract work with Gold Kist chicken plants in Alabama. He purchased house in Duluth from the CEO who was retiring.
The house overlooked one of the tees and the golf course at Atlanta Athletic Club.
He also purchased 60 acres in an industrial zone off of Marietta Road across from the CSX rail yard in Atlanta.
It had a 100,000 square foot Warehouse. With a thick reinforced concrete floor that heavy equipment could work on and a ceiling high enough for tandem dump trucks to dump inside. I think it was formerly a building materials warehouse set up for loading trucks under the roof. This place was HUGE.
Now he has a place to stick all the dirt that he is digging up for $40 a ton from all over the southeast. All of it contaminated with gasoline, diesel, fuel oil and other petroleum contaminants.
Instead of paying $20 a ton for it, he had to figure out something better.
He picked up on a process that had only been used a little bit along the Gulf Coast around Texas. the technology had been used mostly to treat oil spills while floating on the ocean surface. It involved introducing microorganisms that actually eat petroleum to the contamination. A second requirement was the addition of nutrients (fertilizer) to the contamination and then several weeks of turning, agitation, and aeration.
Dad pretty much pioneered this technology on dry land in the southeast. He no longer had to pay $20 a ton to get rid of the contaminated soil; he was treating it, within 6 weeks to 3 months time, for about $7 per ton.
He purchased screen machines to screen the soil and shakers to shake out the rocks and the largest reticulated front end loaders made to move the product around the property. The contaminated and treated soil was moved inside the warehouse and stacked in long rows about 6 or 8 feet high by about 20 ft wide. The warehouse was large enough for about a dozen 100 + yard long rows and another 4 or so 50-yard rows. Also purchased was a Caterpillar 'Skat' machine that was basically a moving conveyor belt that moved up and down the rows picking them up on the treadmill and throwing them back out the back in the same row but now mixed up, upside down, and aerated. The soil had been inoculated with the 'bugs and fertilizer on its way out of the screen machines. After 6 to 15 weeks, the soil was testing free of petroleum contaminants. It could then be sold out is screened Phil, which is desirable because of its compaction qualities.
Since the contaminated soil had a chain of custody attached to it when it left a contamination site, the state always kept tabs on what was happening to it. It couldn't just disappear.
When the state EPD found out what was happening to the soil, they were elated. Very soon, the state disallowed contaminated soil going into their landfills. The only other option for other contractors was to haul the soil out of state, or bring it to dad. He had every other contractor in the state shipping him soil. He was charging $20 a ton! As his business built, he went from taking in a couple of dozen tandem loads a day 2 up to 150 tandem loads in a day.
About this time he was featured in the Atlanta business Chronicle. I can't find the archives, but if I remember correctly his picture was on the cover. The caption read, "THE DIRT MERCHANT."
Dad always had his feelers out still to make more money. When the Fulton County Stadium was destroyed, something needed done with the concrete. My uncle, who had had a small logging business for a while came down to cut and cleared a large part of the property. After that we had space to take in all the waste concrete from the stadium and we also started a large green waste recycling project on the property. The concrete was crushed and separated from the steel rebar reinforcement and sold out as an aggregate. Several municipalities and large commercial operations we're bringing in green waste and a tub grinding company was grinding the waste and selling out the product as mulch and fuel. Dad was making money coming and going on three different operations on the property. But he would not settle. The one thing we tried that did not work out was a remediation project on sewage sludge from the nearby waste treatment plant. That was one stinky fail, and I believe everybody involved was glad it was a fail.
Then came the last and probably the greatest windfall for Dad. He had set himself up perfectly to be in the right place at the right time.
Colonial pipeline (which runs from Louisiana through Georgia and on up to the northeastern states) ruptured underneath a local landfill at Morgan Falls.
Dad took in all the contaminated soil and trash (mostly C&D debris), screaned out the trash, sprayed it with the microorganisms and fertilizer and sent it right back to the landfill. The soil was treated over a 9 month period. This 9 months work brought in about $6 million.
Now dad would finally allow himself to look for an exit plan.


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## 1eyefishing

And that's the short story!
More later...


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## 1eyefishing

Like I mentioned, it was long and complicated. I hope it was fairly cohesive. I tried to skeletonize and condense things as best I could. There is so much I left out...
I do all this through speech to text function on my phone, but it doesn't translate Southern very well.
Now I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!


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## notnksnemor

In some pictures your Dad looks like Kenny Rodgers, in others he favors Ernest Hemingway a lot.


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## Cmp1

Your father was blessed,,,,


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## 1eyefishing

Dad sold his million dollar property for 4 million dollars. He settled in at home for a few years with Sally and she got sicker and sicker. He had had a knee replacement and t i a stroke, so he's golfing and gambling days were over. He had a bad case of CRS (can't remember snot). After Sally passed, he was too proud and stubborn to accept regular help and company around the house. He lasted on his own about 2 years until he had a substantial stroke. The doctor had given him a couple of sample bottles of Eliquis to change over his blood thinner from Warfarin. He took them home and started taking the Eliquis but did not quit taking the warfarin. The stroke did not affect his physical movement too much but gave him a real case of word salad. He could say lots of words, but could not string together anything cohesively. Immediately moved in on him to take care of what the doctor call ' four M's'. Money, Meals, Medication, and Mobility. I added a fifth M, Mutts! Dad had two Shih Tzus that it been with him a long time. Their care was probably the toughest part of my 2-year stay. (I looked it up;  their Chinese breed name means 'eat ****s for dessert'!) Dad remained extremely pleasant and jovial. He was never angry or sad or cross in any way. He thanked my wife and I for what we were doing regularly. He also told me that he was tired of the waiting and just wished he could go on. His stroke effects of gradually subsided and left him with virtually zero effect after a few months. But he still couldn't remember who he just talked to on the phone or who was playing the ball game he just finished watching.
In February, he took a bad fall in the early morning while trying to manipulate the TV buttons because he couldn't find the remote. He broke his shoulder and fractured his pelvis. Then spent a week in the hospital and three weeks in rehab. In the hospital, he was diagnosed with stage-4 cancer on his liver and his lungs. Cholangiocarcinoma had originated in his bile duct. He decided that he did not want to treat, but let things take their natural course. He had a well-thought-out will and living will. I was his medical power of attorney.
Although he had bought that the idea for 4 years, we were finally able to convince him to enter an assisted living facility. This was necessary it's Dad and I have had a verbal contract that stated that when he could no longer do the paperwork in the restroom, it would be time for more professional help than I could give. (Ha.) Even though he was virtually bed-bound, he did enjoy his new place. He could barely transfer from his bed to his easy chair once every day or so. I was there daily, breakfast, lunch, and dinner/bedtime to make sure he was well taken care of. Fortunately for me he was able to easily afford this expensive care (and afford for me to pay outside help to come in and relieve me on weekends during the entire 2 years). In May, he had a second stroke very similar to the first that he never recovered from. During therapy, I'm nurse therapist asked him if he could remember his name. He had a confused look on his face as he shook his head 'no'. When the nurse asked if he remembered who I was, he croaked out the words, "My son,"and gave a little smile. Other than "thank you for what you are doing," these were the last cohesive words I ever heard him say.
But his easy going and jovial personality never faded. ALL of his doctors, nurses, and caregivers always adamantly remarked about his attitude and that he was their favorite patient. After returning to his bed in Assisted Living from the hospital stay with the recent stroke, my wife and I were bedside taking off the plastic hospital bracelets and a half dozen or so bandages did he had stuck on his hairy arms. My wife was carefully and slowly peeling the bandages out of his hair and I told her to "just snatch those things off! That's the way Dad would do it!" As she scoffed at me and continued her slow process, dad let out of painful gasp. She jumped back raising her hands and saying, "I'm so sorry! I'll try to be more careful!" Dad immediately starting in with a belly laugh that was so ferocious I thought he was going to hurt himself!
He passed on May 30th with my wife and his other daughter in law and myself outside of his room. I had arrived on the scene upon the hospice nurses notice to find those two tearing and whining around the room as dad was obviously down to his last minutes. I am out sadly that we had to give Dad some privacy and not stand around there watching him draw his last breath. The three of us retired to the waiting room. Within 5 minutes the hospice nurse came out and said that he had passed. She said that as soon as we left the room dad came out of his three-day state of non-responsiveness and asked if everybody was outside. She said that when she told him yes, he seemed comforted and relaxed, and took his last few breaths.

Never ones to be mourned, both dad and Sally had asked for a celebration in their memory instead of any types of formal services at funeral homes and grave sites, etc. Sally had an 'A-wake' party at the country club before she passed. It was a real shindig. Tonight we are having another celebration at the club (tears now) for Dad.
The theme of it will be...



Sally and Ken, together again!


----------



## TurkeyH90

1eyefishing said:


> Dad sold his million dollar property for 4 million dollars. He settled in at home for a few years with Sally and she got sicker and sicker. He had had a knee replacement and t i a stroke, so he's golfing and gambling days were over he had a bad case of CRS (can't remember snot). After Sally passed, he was too proud and stubborn to accept regular help and company around the house. You lasted on his own about 2 years until he had a substantial stroke. The doctor had given him a couple of sample bottles of Eliquis to change over his blood thinner from Warfarin. He took them home and started taking the Eliquis but did not quit taking the warfarin. The stroke did not affect his physical movement too much but gave him a real case of word salad. He could say lots of words, but could not string together anything cohesively. Immediately moved in on him to take care of what the doctor call ' four M's'. Money, Meals, Medication, and Mobility. I added a fifth M. Mutts! Dad had two Shih Tzus that it been with him a long time. Their care was probably the toughest part of my 2-year stay. (I looked it up;  their Chinese breed name means 'eat ****s for dessert'!) Dad remained extremely pleasant and jovial. He was never angry or sad or cross in any way. He thanked my wife and I for what we were doing regularly. He also told me that he was tired of the waiting and just wished he could go on. His stroke effects of gradually subsided and left him with virtually zero effect after a few months. But he still couldn't remember who he just talked to on the phone or who was playing the ball game he just finished watching.
> In February, he took a bad fall in the early morning while trying to manipulate the TV buttons because he couldn't find the remote. He broke his shoulder and fractured his pelvis. Then spent a week in the hospital and three weeks in rehab. In the hospital, he was diagnosed with stage-4 cancer on his liver and his lungs. Cholangiocarcinoma had originated in his bile duct. He decided that he did not want to treat, but let things take their natural course. He had a well-thought-out will and living will. I was his medical power of attorney.
> Although he had bought that the idea for 4 years, we were finally able to convince him to enter an assisted living facility. This was necessary it's Dad and I have had a verbal contract that stated that when he could no longer do the paperwork in the restroom, it would be time for more professional help than I could give. (Ha.) Even though he was virtually bed-bound, he did enjoy his new place. He could barely transfer from his bed to his easy chair once every day or so. I was there daily, breakfast, lunch, and dinner/bedtime to make sure he was well taken care of. Fortunately for me he was able to easily afford this expensive care (and afford for me to pay outside help to come in and relieve me on weekends during the entire 2 years). In May, he had a second stroke very similar to the first that he never recovered from. During therapy, I'm nurse therapist asked him if he could remember his name. He had a confused look on his face as he shook his head 'no'. When the nurse asked if he remembered who I was, he croaked out the words, "My son,"and gave a little smile. Other than "thank you for what you are doing," these were the last cohesive words I ever heard him say.
> But his easy going and jovial personality never faded. ALL of his doctors, nurses, and caregivers always adamantly remarked about his attitude and that he was their favorite patient. After returning to his bed in Assisted Living from the hospital stay with the recent stroke, my wife and I were bedside taking off the plastic hospital bracelets and a half dozen or so bandages did he had stuck on his hairy arms. My wife was carefully and slowly peeling the bandages out of his hair and I told her to "just snatch those things off! That's the way Dad would do it!" As she scoffed at me and continued her slow process, dad let out of painful gasp. She jumped back raising her hands and saying, "I'm so sorry! I'll try to be more careful!" Dad immediately starting in with a belly laugh that was so ferocious I thought he was going to hurt himself!
> He passed on May 30th with my wife and his other daughter in law and myself outside of his room. I had arrived on the scene upon the hospice nurses notice to find those two tearing and whining around the room as dad was obviously down to his last minutes. I am out sadly that we had to give Dad some privacy and not stand around there watching him draw his last breath. The three of us retired to the waiting room. Within 5 minutes the hospice nurse came out and said that he had passed. She said that as soon as we left the room dad came out of his three-day state of non-responsiveness and asked if everybody was outside. She said that when she told him yes, he seemed comforted and relaxed, and took his last few breaths.
> 
> Never ones to be mourned, both dad and Sally had asked for a celebration in their memory instead of any types of formal services at funeral homes and grave sites, etc. Sally had an 'A-wake' party at the country club before she passed. It was a real shindig. Tonight we are having another celebration at the club (tears now) for Dad.
> The theme of it will be...
> 
> View attachment 936651
> 
> Sally and Ken, together again!


Wow! Well told story. Enjoyed it immensely.


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## notnksnemor

May God bless and keep them both.


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## Keebs

I am totally enjoying!


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## Cmp1

Amen brother,,,,,tears welling up in me now,,,,, Wow, what a great tribute,,,,


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## 1eyefishing

Thanks to all for their interest in this story. I have a few more comments, antidotes, and pictures to share. But I have to let this settle a little bit for the moment. Gotta party to be ready for!


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## Cmp1

Wanted to mention to you that we used a bacteria that ate petroleum in our well tanks, it was called Liquid Alive,,,, kept down on the smell of the Drip,,,,, highly flammable mixture byproduct of the wells,,,,, worked extensively well,,,,, these were gas wells but produced drip and oil,,,,,


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## mrs. hornet22

Wow! That last part hit REAL close to home. 

Thank you for sharing your story. I have completely enjoyed it.


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## Dirtroad Johnson

What a story, your Dad had a bountiful life.


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## Patriot44

Fantastic story and remarkable life. Thanks for sharing brother.


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## mrs. hornet22

1eyefishing said:


> Dad sold his million dollar property for 4 million dollars. He settled in at home for a few years with Sally and she got sicker and sicker. He had had a knee replacement and t i a stroke, so he's golfing and gambling days were over he had a bad case of CRS (can't remember snot). After Sally passed, he was too proud and stubborn to accept regular help and company around the house. You lasted on his own about 2 years until he had a substantial stroke. The doctor had given him a couple of sample bottles of Eliquis to change over his blood thinner from Warfarin. He took them home and started taking the Eliquis but did not quit taking the warfarin. The stroke did not affect his physical movement too much but gave him a real case of word salad. He could say lots of words, but could not string together anything cohesively. Immediately moved in on him to take care of what the doctor call ' four M's'. Money, Meals, Medication, and Mobility. I added a fifth M. Mutts! Dad had two Shih Tzus that it been with him a long time. Their care was probably the toughest part of my 2-year stay. (I looked it up;  their Chinese breed name means 'eat ****s for dessert'!) Dad remained extremely pleasant and jovial. He was never angry or sad or cross in any way. He thanked my wife and I for what we were doing regularly. He also told me that he was tired of the waiting and just wished he could go on. His stroke effects of gradually subsided and left him with virtually zero effect after a few months. But he still couldn't remember who he just talked to on the phone or who was playing the ball game he just finished watching.
> In February, he took a bad fall in the early morning while trying to manipulate the TV buttons because he couldn't find the remote. He broke his shoulder and fractured his pelvis. Then spent a week in the hospital and three weeks in rehab. In the hospital, he was diagnosed with stage-4 cancer on his liver and his lungs. Cholangiocarcinoma had originated in his bile duct. He decided that he did not want to treat, but let things take their natural course. He had a well-thought-out will and living will. I was his medical power of attorney.
> Although he had bought that the idea for 4 years, we were finally able to convince him to enter an assisted living facility. This was necessary it's Dad and I have had a verbal contract that stated that when he could no longer do the paperwork in the restroom, it would be time for more professional help than I could give. (Ha.) Even though he was virtually bed-bound, he did enjoy his new place. He could barely transfer from his bed to his easy chair once every day or so. I was there daily, breakfast, lunch, and dinner/bedtime to make sure he was well taken care of. Fortunately for me he was able to easily afford this expensive care (and afford for me to pay outside help to come in and relieve me on weekends during the entire 2 years). In May, he had a second stroke very similar to the first that he never recovered from. During therapy, I'm nurse therapist asked him if he could remember his name. He had a confused look on his face as he shook his head 'no'. When the nurse asked if he remembered who I was, he croaked out the words, "My son,"and gave a little smile. Other than "thank you for what you are doing," these were the last cohesive words I ever heard him say.
> But his easy going and jovial personality never faded. ALL of his doctors, nurses, and caregivers always adamantly remarked about his attitude and that he was their favorite patient. After returning to his bed in Assisted Living from the hospital stay with the recent stroke, my wife and I were bedside taking off the plastic hospital bracelets and a half dozen or so bandages did he had stuck on his hairy arms. My wife was carefully and slowly peeling the bandages out of his hair and I told her to "just snatch those things off! That's the way Dad would do it!" As she scoffed at me and continued her slow process, dad let out of painful gasp. She jumped back raising her hands and saying, "I'm so sorry! I'll try to be more careful!" Dad immediately starting in with a belly laugh that was so ferocious I thought he was going to hurt himself!
> He passed on May 30th with my wife and his other daughter in law and myself outside of his room. I had arrived on the scene upon the hospice nurses notice to find those two tearing and whining around the room as dad was obviously down to his last minutes. I am out sadly that we had to give Dad some privacy and not stand around there watching him draw his last breath. The three of us retired to the waiting room. Within 5 minutes the hospice nurse came out and said that he had passed. She said that as soon as we left the room dad came out of his three-day state of non-responsiveness and asked if everybody was outside. She said that when she told him yes, he seemed comforted and relaxed, and took his last few breaths.
> 
> Never ones to be mourned, both dad and Sally had asked for a celebration in their memory instead of any types of formal services at funeral homes and grave sites, etc. Sally had an 'A-wake' party at the country club before she passed. It was a real shindig. Tonight we are having another celebration at the club (tears now) for Dad.
> The theme of it will be...
> 
> View attachment 936651
> 
> Sally and Ken, together again!



I was listening to one of my son's CD's this morning and the lyrics in one if his songs says, "When I go out, I wanna go in style. No sad faces or slow paces just party like it's another night". Reminded me of this post.


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## brandon

I really enjoyed your story about your Dad. Thanks for sharing


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## Big Foot

Sorry buddy for your loss, just saw this.


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## Duff

Unbelievable life your dad lived and told amazingly well. As I said in jb’s Cross country thread, 2 of the best I’ve ever read here!!


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## OmenHonkey

Awesome story!!


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## elfiii

1eyefishing said:


> Here is dad and Sally with their friends at 'Cowboys' during the Urban Cowboy fad.
> On the far right is Glenn Braswell. He was a millionaire with several homes in the Fort Lauderdale area. I was employed for a while as his gopher, groundskeeper, and boat washer. Later he was in prison serving time for mail fraud (man boosting supplements that didn't quite boost your manhood) when Bill Clinton gave him a presidential pardon on his last day in office.
> On the left is another millionaire, Barry Paul, who made his money in the oil crisis of the early 70s. When Barry built a waste oil refinery in Fairburn Georgia, he brought DadView attachment 936059 up to the Atlanta area to help him deal with financing and bureaucracy and other red tape.
> Thus ends the south Florida chapter.
> Third career coming up!
> 
> PS-Wes and Janet in the rear moved to California to work on her modeling career. Never heard from them again hardly.



Holy Carp Corbett! I knew Glen and his brother Rod too. Small world!


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## 1eyefishing

elfiii said:


> Holy Carp Corbett! I knew Glen and his brother Rod too. Small world!


When dad first moved up here to Atlanta, he stayed in one of Glenn's houses over there off of Northside that overlooked I-75...


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## elfiii

1eyefishing said:


> When dad first moved up here to Atlanta, he stayed in one of Glenn's houses over there off of Northside that overlooked I-75...



Glenn got back in the magic hair pill and shampoo business over in Doraville shortly after the last time he got run out of it. He was living down in Ft. Lauderdale and pretending he didn't own the business.

That was right before Clinton gave him his pardon.


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## dwhee87

I had the pleasure of meeting your Dad once, and sent many cubic yards of contaminated soil to his facility over the years. Never knew the history. Thanks for sharing such a personal story.


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## Milkman

Sorry for your loss. 

Thanks for telling his story.


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## 1eyefishing

So, after thinking a while on what was the next thing to say, here is what I want y'all to know.
If you think I am the lucky, economically spoiled brat son of a rich man, you'd be wrong.
Dad was a man for whom it was impossible to ever speak the words 'I love you'. Not to any of his family, his children or even his wife. Ever. Sally used to lament about this fact occasionally. She would be the one to reassure me that he loved us both but he could not bring himself to say it. Not that this killed me, but I reassured myself that I would and did be different when raising my family.
Also, even though he was usually in the catbird seat financially, he  never gave me any preferential treatment or any more compensation than the next guy on the job with us. In fact, he was usually harder on me than anybody else around. I remember once making a big mistake pumping a tanker load of diesel fuel into the wrong tank, where it would be hard to separate from other product that was in the tank.(fortunately, we had our methods.) This was not even my job, it was the tanker driver's responsibility to empty his own load, but I had to do it the next day to keep the show rolling. Dad hit the roof and docked me two weeks pay that he had been remiss on paying me already. Less than two weeks later, the tanker driver made the same exact mistake. Dad slapped his knee and laughed about it and said, "Haha, my son did the same exact thing 2 weeks ago!" No repercussions at all for the tanker driver.
When I was in college, I'd spend an entire day every Saturday mowing and taking care of the grounds at his big house in Covington. I was paid $100 for the full day, every week. Then he would generously take me and my wife out to dinner with him and Sally, but make a big deal out of tipping the waitress a hundred bucks! As you can imagine, that did irk me more than a little!
And dad was always somewhat distant with me. He never seem to want to sit down and enjoy a conversation with me until the last couple of years when I stayed with him. It was always ask the question, and get an answer, and be done with it. Until the end, it seemed as though he never really enjoyed my company. At least it changed in the end.
While dad lived on the extremely large scale, all my life, I've been in the cheap seats. But I've always prided myself on having the most fun with what was available to me. I've become a champion at that...

One more thing worth telling is the remarkable thing that Sally did with the will. (Even though dad did lose about 4/5 of his wealth during the stock market crash of 2008, there was still a few zeros on the end of his net worth that the rest of the family will inherit.)
Her oldest son, (Tony, 7 years older than me) had accidentally fathered an illegitimate son before he finally settled down and got married. He never took responsibility, acknowledged, or even spoke of his son. Sally frequently and openly derided him about not having a relationship with his first born son. She was very regretful about not having a relationship with her firstborn grandson. She never knew him. Never met him.
But she put him in the will. He was one of  nine benefactors. Of course, to execute the will, we had to find him. Tony was killed 10 years ago in a single car accident (dodging a deer, we believe). Luckily, Sally had a name and the last town her unknown grandson lived in, so we were able to track him down.
He lives in a rural Eastern Tennessee and has worked in the food service industry all his life. A waiter, maitre de, chef, and such, I'm not sure. He and my wife both shared a few tears when she finally got ahold of him to tell him that his grandmother had passed and that she had left a substantial inheritance for him. He said that of course not having a relationship with his father was difficult, but he had always missed having a relationship with a grandmother. He had always wondered about her. My wife reassured him that Sally always wondered about him also, and was very disappointed in her son for not having a relationship that she could join.
My wife reassured him that Sally always wanted that relationship with him, even though she was far from a conventional 'grandmother'. She always told my wife and I that she didn't want to babysit our kids until they were old enough to mix her a cocktail! Ha!
But she did have a heart of gold. Without her, my relationship with my dad would have not been even what it was through the years.
Even though I've had a very tough life (quite a few years in there where I had no parental or familial relationships at all), I realize now that I am blessed.
My share of the inheritance can now be used to make up a little for said difficult life. I plan on fishing and hunting and loving everyday until I can no longer participate in the things I love.
If I have the time left after I can no longer get in and out of a boat or the woods by myself, I might just reintroduced myself to the arts and music. Maybe I'll try to learn a little guitar...


----------



## Cmp1

1eyefishing said:


> So, after thinking a while on what was the next thing to say, here is what I want y'all to know.
> If you think I am the lucky, economically spoiled brat son of a rich man, you'd be wrong.
> Dad was a man for whom it was impossible to ever speak the words 'I love you'. Not to any of his family, his children or even his wife. Ever. Sally used to lament about this fact occasionally. She would be the one to reassure me that he loved us both but he could not bring himself to say it. Not that this killed me, but I reassured myself that I would and did be different when raising my family.
> Also, even though he was usually in the catbird seat financially, he  never gave me any preferential treatment or any more compensation than the next guy on the job with us. In fact, he was usually harder on me than anybody else around. I remember once making a big mistake pumping a tanker load of diesel fuel into the wrong tank, where it would be hard to separate from other product that was in the tank.(fortunately, we had our methods.) This was not even my job, it was the tanker driver's responsibility to empty his own load, but I had to do it the next day to keep the show rolling. Dad hit the roof and docked me two weeks pay that he had been remiss on paying me already. Less than two weeks later, the tanker driver made the same exact mistake. Dad slapped his knee and laughed about it and said, "Haha, my son did the same exact thing 2 weeks ago!" No repercussions at all for the tanker driver.
> When I was in college, I'd spend an entire day every Saturday mowing and taking care of the grounds at his big house in Covington. I was paid $100 for the full day, every week. Then he would generously take me and my wife out to dinner with him and Sally, but make a big deal out of tipping the waitress a hundred bucks! As you can imagine, that did irk me more than a little!
> And dad was always somewhat distant with me. He never seem to want to sit down and enjoy a conversation with me until the last couple of years when I stayed with him. It was always ask the question, and get an answer, and be done with it. Until the end, it seemed as though he never really enjoyed my company. At least it changed in the end.
> While dad lived on the extremely large scale, all my life, I've been in the cheap seats. But I've always prided myself on having the most fun with what was available to me. I've become a champion at that...
> 
> One more thing worth telling is the remarkable thing that Sally did with the will. (Even though dad did lose about 4/5 of his wealth during the stock market crash of 2008, there was still a few zeros on the end of his net worth that the rest of the family will inherit.)
> Her oldest son, (Tony, 7 years older than me) had accidentally fathered an illegitimate son before he finally settled down and got married. He never took responsibility, acknowledged, or even spoke of his son. Sally frequently and openly derided him about not having a relationship with his first born son. She was very regretful about not having a relationship with her firstborn grandson. She never knew him. Never met him.
> But she put him in the will. He was one of  nine benefactors. Of course, to execute the will, we had to find him. Tony was killed 10 years ago in a single car accident (dodging a deer, we believe). Luckily, Sally had a name and the last town her unknown grandson lived in, so we were able to track him down.
> He lives in a rural Eastern Tennessee and has worked in the food service industry all his life. A waiter, maitre de, chef, and such, I'm not sure. He and my wife both shared a few tears when she finally got ahold of him to tell him that his grandmother had passed and that she had left a substantial inheritance for him. He said that of course not having a relationship with his father was difficult, but he had always missed having a relationship with a grandmother. He had always wondered about her. My wife reassured him that Sally always wondered about him also, and was very disappointed in her son for not having a relationship that she could join.
> My wife reassured him that Sally always wanted that relationship with him, even though she was far from a conventional 'grandmother'. She always told my wife and I that she didn't want to babysit our kids until they were old enough to mix her a cocktail! Ha!
> But she did have a heart of gold. Without her, my relationship with my dad would have not been even what it was through the years.
> Even though I've had a very tough life (quite a few years in there where I had no parental or familial relationships at all), I realize now that I am blessed.
> My share of the inheritance can now be used to make up a little for said difficult life. I plan on fishing and hunting and loving everyday until I can no longer participate in the things I love.
> If I have the time left after I can no longer get in and out of a boat or the woods by myself, I might just my tree introduced myself to the arts and music. Maybe I'll try to learn a little guitar...



Nice,,,,reminds me a bit like the relationship between me and my Dad,,,,


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## 1eyefishing

elfiii said:


> Glenn got back in the magic hair pill and shampoo business over in Doraville shortly after the last time he got run out of it. He was living down in Ft. Lauderdale and pretending he didn't own the business.View attachment 937465
> 
> That was right before Clinton gave him his pardon.



So I guess I'm probably wrong about him being in prison at the time of the pardon.
With all the legal trouble that was surrounding him and his propensity to play hide and seek with a half a dozen different houses, I guess he outsmarted me too...


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## realityvideoman

What an amazing story


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## joepuppy

Very good read. I enjoyed every post. Thank you for sharing with us.


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## 1eyefishing

Just another small footnote:

After more conversations with Dad and Sally's friends (the kind of conversations you never have with your parents friends until after they are gone), I've learned that it was the June Taylor Dancers (The Jackie Gleason Show, filmed in Miami) that brought Sally from her Connecticut roots to South Florida.


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## jbogg

I read it all start to finish Corbett and enjoyed every bit of it.  Very nice tribute to your pops.  He sounds like a real likeable character, and I don’t think the Apple fell far from the tree.


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## 1eyefishing

Thanks, jb.
But I didn't do anything to deserve that!
Just wait till we have to argue over who drags which end of the bear!
?


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## NE GA Pappy

1eyefishing said:


> Thanks, jb.
> But I didn't do anything to deserve that!
> Just wait till we have to argue over who drags which end of the bear!
> ?



which ever of you that loses the coin toss, please let us know if it is indeed fact that a bear does poo in the woods.


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## 1eyefishing

NE GA Pappy said:


> which ever of you that loses the coin toss, please let us know if it is indeed fact that a bear does poo in the woods.



I've already had first-hand experience with that...
The answer is yes, yes indeed.
Even a dead beer poos in the woods!


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## bany

I just stumbled into the fire and found your story Corbett! What a memorial to your dad and mom and you! Thanks for sharing, I’ll have more fun painting a house today! AND probably remember my dad all day too.


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## 7 point

1eyefishing said:


> View attachment 935890


Horry county south Carolina. I got kinfolk in socustee s.c.


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## Madman

Great tribute.


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## Core Lokt

I've been on this site a while now and just now seeing and reading every post. 

Man, I don't know what to say other than you have a way wit words and your dad was a go getter and while I'm sure there were hurting times along the way for you I betting it made you one heck of a man and father!


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## 1eyefishing

Core Lokt said:


> I've been on this site a while now and just now seeing and reading every post.
> 
> Man, I don't know what to say other than you have a way wit words and your dad was a go getter and while I'm sure there were hurting times along the way for you I betting it made you one heck of a man and father!



Thank you, sir...
It's been a while but your recent post made me review this a little again. Bringing more tears now than it did when I wrote it…


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## TJay

Wow what a great story!  I just found this thread today like some of the other members.  Great tribute to a life well lived!


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## hawkeye123

Just now seeing this, best post & tribute to a great man that I've ever read!


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## Jim Thompson

Spent a while today reading this. Had to log off and back on several times over the day, but each time I wanted to come back to see the next chapter like in any good book.

Great read and a heckuva life lead.

Thanks for taking the time @1eyefishing


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## antharper

I’m not sure how I’ve missed this but glad I found it . Very good read 1eye , you mentioned if you ever get tired of hunting and fishing or unable to enjoy it ...I’d suggest writing a book ! Thanks so much for sharing !


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## tad1

Thoroughly enjoyed the ride, thank you for sharing, and I wish you nothing but the best?      JT


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## Guitar Guy

Wow - stumbled on this and it really resonated.  Thank you very much for sharing.  I don't know if it's the same between mothers and daughters, but even under really good circumstances, the relationships between fathers and sons are complicated.  Those waters run deep.  Glad that you decided to share this.  I think everyone who reads it will benefit from it in some, way, shape or form.  All the best to you.


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## slow motion

All I can say is WOW! Your Dad lived quite the life. Thanks for sharing such an intimate glimpse into his and your lives I thoroughly enjoyed it brother. I know you enjoyed reliving it but could also feel through your words it was painful to tell at times.


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