Roll Call
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My neighbor's son is a pastor at a church in Marble Falls. I had a full rack of Mike's clothes that I donated to a community service organization that supplies recently released prisoners and others down on their luck to have a wardrobe for interviews. Some even still had the sales tags attached as they were things his Mom would send for birthdays and he never wore them. I felt that it was the best use and lo and behold one day after doing lab work in Marble Falls last fall I stopped at the local Blue Bonnet Cafe and saw a guy wearing one of his shirts. It could have been that the guy bought it at the store but I just knew it was one that I had donated. Now, most of his hunting gear I did try to sell at the local church garage sale and I couldn't believe that people would want to bicker over a brand new pair of insulated pants that still had the price tag on them would only offer $15 for a $85 a pair. I brought most of the items home. Rather, I gave them to his hunting buddies up in Kansas and Michigan, where they really needed the stuff. It was amazing to me how many people wanted to just be given things after he passed. His nephews drove down from Emporia one Memorial Day weekend a couple of years back with their truck and took home most of the tools and equipment that was just sitting in the She Shed. Cleared out about 6 cabinets worth of nail guns, saws, table saw, etc. They have a classic auto shop there in Emporia and Mike used to work there when their dad, Mike's sister's husband, operated it. They to this day don't ever forget to thank me when they use a tool they got and tell me how it helped in a restoration project. They got Mike's dad's 1973 El Camino and restored it. It's beautiful. Mike was supposed to get it after his dad passed but he never went to get it. We would always take it out for a ride when we went to his Mom's. I still have in the She Shed a 1973 Bronco (that he refitted into a rock crawler) and an original 1974 Bronco that is painted UT Orange. Everytime some guy sees them, they go gaga.
#RCJH GO KU
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That’s a nice story — seeing his shirt put to good use
And those Broncos sound awesome! Love that era. Although I could probably do without that shade of orange…ha.
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@rockchalkjayhawk I want to puke every time I see it. Funny story about it tho. Mike saw the 74 Bronco parked at a local building supply company and waited around for the owner to show up and when they didn't, he put a note on the car's windshield saying "If you ever want to sell it, give me a call." Couple of years later, he got the call and the guy had lost his wife and was doing down sizing and decided to sell it. We had so much fun running around in it and always got HORNS UP every time we were in it.
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@RockChalkinTexas-0 Sounds like "she shed" needs to be renamed "warehouse"! I'm very impressed by all the things you've done to keep Mike's spirit alive for yourself and the girls. So many legacies. Not many people do things for released prisoners who need so much help to start fresh.... When I go, all that will be left are a few dusty legal opinions no one will read. Well, that and a thousand plumbing, electrical, and drywall repairs in our series of fixer-uppers that no one will even notice...AND hundreds of posts here on Buckets, of course!
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@mayjay I call it my own Home Depot. The building is 40' x 60' and there is a section for each: electrical, paint, automotive, air gun nails and staples of every kind, along with a section for his woodworking stuff and 4 different shelves with 5 levels in each that he welded to hold all the lumber. It has a loft which houses all the parts he took off the 73 Bronco and cabinets he built all around it. Has a bathroom and an office. It still has way too much crap in it. He built a warehouse and office space for his friend's landscaping company and the leftover cedar stumps and columns he used to make a bench in his office and an L shaped desk in addition to the paneling and cabinets he built for the office. I know because after he passed, I went through everything to find out just what was in there. I didn't realize he had so much stuff in there. I put a $15K HVAC unit in there to keep the stuff from getting baked. He would open the big garage doors on 3 ends and do his work outside mostly. But I didn't want to have to have the doors open just to be in there, and I didn't want any snakes or other things getting in there, so to keep the stuff from turning to crap, I did that the year after he passed. It has been worth it.
