My best friend and bravest man I ever knew died a week ago today

Self ^ | 8-10-17 | Wardaddy

[wardaddy]

My best friend since since summer pads training August 1971 at Jackson Prep in Jackson Mississippi died at Driftwood nursing hospice in Long Beach Mississippi on the gulf coast last week.

He'd been in hospice first in Jackson then down there since February and his 6 foot 3 frame had wasted from 180 down to 103 after complications from diabetes and heart failure and pancreatic failure and a fungal cyst in his lungs which was inoperable and of course horrific neuropathy all brought on by alcohol abuse which he'd quit too late a few years ago at age 55

His sister a devoted catholic gal from Pass Christian and I and my family was about all he had or wanted these last months

I'd made the trek from middle Tenneseee ever 2-3 weeks these past six months and it's the best thing I ever did in my life

I wouldn't trade it for anything even though it was often painful to witness his aplomb and bravery in the face of a hard death was inspiring to me and my sons and daughters

He and I had braved many a war zone and dangerous environs through truly serious life threatening cisrcumstance from Sierra Leone to Colombia to Nicaragua to Zaire to Nicaragua and Honduras and El Salvador and Amazonia

He never flinched even when so called professionals ran or broke weak

And he could handle wet work though he tempered my anger gratefully which saved us the consequence that would have wrought

But he loved drink same as all the men in every generation of his paternal line since the Reconstruction

We had parted ways 15 years ago given his lack of appreciation for my newfound domesticated bliss with Wifey

Kind of went off the deep end

But when his sister let me know it was bad I reentered his life and in some ways our friendship became even more really

And he loved my children and vice versa

They had always had heard of him and then got to know him

When I first went to the facility all the nurses and orderlies asked me if he was just making stuff up about his life of exploits and I informed them hell yes he'd did those things and then some....

It took him a while and he faded slowly

Smoked like a chimney..When he could ....Reds naturally

I'd light them for him ....I quit in 1990

His record was 23 end to end ....crazy to any smoker

His last breath was drawn on a Marlboro Red which is just about how I woulda figured it

I think the lung thing got him...

He was a very very good looking young man..similar to Daniel Day Lewis in Last of the Mohicans

Women threw themselves at him all his life but like most alcoholics the love of his life was booze

He did quit eventually all on his own cold turkey and almost died but he eschewed rehab

He did believe in twelve steps though

I've got two stories that describe his crazy fearlessness

Poets bar Jackson Miss in 1985 he spies this lovely blonde who's alas with her husband

He pinches her butt anyhow and grins under the influence

He and hubster take it outside and damn if hubster doesn't take his Bmw 528 and drive into him and EC bounces up and over the hood onto the pavement .....hubster wheels around to now run him slap over

EC is of course defiant holding his ground already beat up with road rash etc. and fortunately some bystanders got him out of he way at last moment

Guy was from the delta and unknown ...he skated

Another time I'm looking for him late at night at the reservoir clubs which stayed open till dawn

I finally reach the edgwater club and I see a crowd circle in the gravel lot

Well we all know what that means I knew I'd found him

There he was same sort of jealous husband conflict and he's beat down bloodied and torn at 2am and folks see me and figure i can get him to listen

His first words are a command to stay away Charlie i got this as he's pulling himself up from the dirt....lol..

His opponent a Jack Lambert lookalike is begging me to please get him outta there....but he wouldn't listen

Fortunately I had my Arkansas cotton farmers daughter girlfriend with me and he adored her

She's out there in her short short cutoffs and tube top and dr scholls wooden clickety clack sandals (the era) begging him to please leave with us

He did finally to the emergency room for stictches and wound cleansing

He was crazy but just brave as hell...

Never whined or feared death....

His sister and I found him almost dead two weeks ago and we both started crying over his bed and damn if he didn't wake up and scold us for being crying assed pu$$ies and he was ready to go smoke..lol

You should have seen me trying to testify to him about salvation at his sisters insistence...i did my best......I ain't no parson

He finally gave in to what he knew was right in his heart and how he'd been reared

And I'm sure glad he did

junior high school and high school and ole miss and a life of adventure together

A helluva ride

Edwin I salute you

Flawed like me but so much braver

Godspeed

[wardaddy]

Yep...I’ve lost 3 of 4 of my best hometown high school and college buds

And I’m 59

[wardaddy]

He was true south...like us.

[wardaddy]

Thank u MG999

[wardaddy]

Appreciate it

[wardaddy]

Thank you sweetie !

[Vaden]

Great tribute to a great friend. Sad his addictions had such a hold but I have many loved ones in the same boat. Drink took several of my uncles and the heartache they left behind was pitiful to behold. Some of them irreparably damaged their relationships with their own children.

I noted that you said you didn’t post here much anymore. What a pity. I hope you don’t leave. Looking back through your posts it seems you know what the stakes are.

God bless in your time of sorrow.

[wardaddy]

I’m going to a family reunion at lake bruin Louisiana tomorrow

We had a family lake house and deer camp there for 50 years

It’ll be nostalgia

My dad sold the place in 77 and the deer camp is Buckhorn nationa wildlife reserve now

Geaux country....

[wardaddy]

Thanks nifster.

[wardaddy]

Tks...

[wardaddy]

I'm telling you girls in that era wore those wooden doctor scholls sandals in navy with the buckle and you could hear them coming a mile away

That girl in question was cousin to Sheryl Crow and was from Marmaduke Arkansas and looked like her cousin and Olivia Newton John mixed

Fetching with huge blue eyes

High waisted with legs to forever ...she was way too hot for me but I got lucky after she rejected me the first two times

I dumped her in time from wanderslust and inexperience and then tried to retrieve her too late

Broke my heart but good

Taught me really beautiful women have options and move on quick.....a lesson I still remember even now when I look at over at the beautiful woman sleeping next to me....push come to shove she can get scooped up much faster than I...

That Arkansas gal would call for what they now call booty callls for a few years and I'd come running usually to meet her in New Orleans or Houston

One day we met and I called her when I got back to Miami on my way south after a weekend in the quarter with her

She informed me that was our last rendezvous...she was marrying a lawyer from New York in two days

I asked her well does he know where you've been and what you've been doing past three days dear heart?

She says he's sitting right here and understood I needed to see you one last time and now I'm all his

I was just like damn.....I couldn't of done what he just did

I hung up and flew to Barranquilla where there was plenty of reasons to forget about her....but I still think about her

One of 3 loves in my life and she still looks good on Facebook for 55

Several husbands later.....

[wardaddy]

Thanks

I’ve just been swamped with business and family stuff and Edwin till of course now

God bless

[LongWayHome]

Sorry to hear this. It’s amazing we can stand all the loss that this world brings us....happy you had time to spend with him at the end.

[wardaddy]

Thanks

[wardaddy]

Thank you

[wyowolf]

sort of reminds me of Clints character from Heart Break Ridge movie...

[Pelham]

“High waisted with legs to forever ...she was way too hot for me but I got lucky after she rejected me the first two times”

Man, you are making me think of one of the loves of my life... at least I wasn’t fool enough to dump her. Kinda went in the other direction, lol.

[Ammo Republic 15]

“Lord I hate being old”

You just a youngin...I’m 61!

[Ammo Republic 15]

Yeah, terrible about Wayne...he was always nice to me.

One story, Wayne would often come into the studio sometimes around 3:00 am and always had at least two gorgeous ladies with him.

I never met Sergio or Dave Adcock. My show usually followed Perez’s. He was an asshole at first but got to know him later on and he wasn’t so bad.

Some of the oldies from the WJDX FM era were still around like Bruce Owens, Keith Carter and Alan Perkins.

Nice chatting with you wardaddy, your the only Mississipian Freeper that’s ever answered any comments I’ve made.

[wardaddy]

Yes Wayne’s murder was kind of foreshadowing of Jackson proper eminent cliffdive culturally and demographically

I first grew up in west Jackson off Clinton blvd

My grandfathers estate by those eras parameters is now the Reformed Theological Seminary out towards Lakewood cemetery where I know far too many kin and friends buried

I lived the Riverside Park scene from 71-76 after having experienced the Westland Plaza scene first

The Park was fun

Let’s Eat and Strawbridge and Larry Raspberry and Coon Elder band were regulars as well as the hippie band from Stephen Gaskins commune in Summertown TN when they would pass through in their Keseyesque bus

It was a blast of a time to grow up

Oblivious

We moved to the end of Meadowbrook in mid 72 when the projects came to Country Club drive formerly called White Rock road....

And West Jackson died.

[Daffynition]

Condolences and prayers wardaddy.

In the end, only kindness matters.