Author Topic: A Celebration of Rich: Tributes  (Read 242346 times)

Offline CellarDweller

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Re: A Celebration of Rich: Tributes
« Reply #260 on: November 02, 2016, 06:13:03 pm »
Thinking of you on your bday, Rich.  Hope you are smiling down on us all.


Tell him when l come up to him and ask to play the record, l'm gonna say: ''Voulez-vous jouer ce disque?''
'Voulez-vous, will you kiss my dick?'
Will you play my record? One-track mind!

Offline CellarDweller

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Re: A Celebration of Rich: Tributes
« Reply #261 on: July 31, 2017, 06:48:54 pm »
Thinking of you today,  Rich.

I try to remember you with smiles.  Sometimes it's hard, but I try.





Tell him when l come up to him and ask to play the record, l'm gonna say: ''Voulez-vous jouer ce disque?''
'Voulez-vous, will you kiss my dick?'
Will you play my record? One-track mind!

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: A Celebration of Rich: Tributes
« Reply #262 on: August 01, 2017, 09:21:18 pm »
Thinking of Rich and his perpetual smile.
"chewing gum and duct tape"

Offline CellarDweller

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Re: A Celebration of Rich: Tributes
« Reply #263 on: July 31, 2018, 07:37:00 pm »



Thinking of you with smiles today, Rich!    :)


Tell him when l come up to him and ask to play the record, l'm gonna say: ''Voulez-vous jouer ce disque?''
'Voulez-vous, will you kiss my dick?'
Will you play my record? One-track mind!

Offline ZK

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Re: A Celebration of Rich: Tributes
« Reply #264 on: August 01, 2018, 02:18:05 am »
Thinking of you today Rich and all the people whom you touched with a kind word, a smile, a message

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: A Celebration of Rich: Tributes
« Reply #265 on: August 01, 2018, 09:25:00 am »
Here is the Christmas card Rich sent me, which I will always treasure.
"chewing gum and duct tape"

Offline CellarDweller

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Re: A Celebration of Rich: Tributes
« Reply #266 on: August 01, 2018, 06:26:50 pm »
One of the mutual friends Rich and I had on FB says he still has Rich's number in his phone, he couldn't bring himself to delete it.

I admit, I did delete his number.  I didn't want to see it in my phone.


Tell him when l come up to him and ask to play the record, l'm gonna say: ''Voulez-vous jouer ce disque?''
'Voulez-vous, will you kiss my dick?'
Will you play my record? One-track mind!

Offline Shakesthecoffecan

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Re: A Celebration of Rich: Tributes
« Reply #267 on: November 02, 2018, 02:12:21 pm »
For months now, I kept the seed in my head, head full of a sorts of life's shits and other detritus. Today is his birthday. I will bring it to the light.

It was back in June of this year. I made the trip to Christiansburg, Virginia, his birthplace. We had spent the day there Valentines Weekend 2008 with my step son and his then girlfriend and I  had seen all those places from his early life. The building that had been the hospital where he was born, the wall he walked on with his grandfather holding his had, the place where "the shack" had been where he and his mother stayed warm by a coal burning stove. Those places come back to me each time I visit. I acknowledge each of them as I pass, recall the ones too far away I may never see again. This is where Richard Wilson was, where he walked, where for a time, he lived.

The purpose of the trip was Dewey, the English Mastiff child of the step son and his now wife. Dewey was 7, and he was dying. A cancer that was spreading over his body, robbing him of his energy, yet he still remained happy and glad to see people come to visit him.

Turning at the former Baptist Church that is now an event center, the one that would not allow Rich to attend Vacation Bible School because he was born out of wedlock, up Hickok Street,  just past the house where his baby sitter had lived, to Dewey's house. If the road had continued it would have come out where his grandparents lay buried. It was a nice summer day and the poor boy used up his energy jumping up on the fence to get closer. He licked me on the face when presented with a rawhide bone.

There we spent the afternoon in idle conversation. Taking pictures and videos, saying good by to the gentle giant. The one who would run to see people he had never seen before and scare them to death. Giving thanks for all things, remembering and committing new ones.

The time came to go, and I was was already beginning to feel sick with what, two days later, would turn out to be Lyme Disease. Headed back down route 8, past the faded folk art mural on the old garage of the rapture, I recalled how amazed he was 10 years earlier it was still visible. Past the the off ramp of I-81 that his grandmother had mistook for an on ramp, leading to disaster. Saying good bye and letting go one more time, and then suddenly there on the right it was.

A field, bathed in the late afternoon sun. A field full of sheep. My head turned and eyes beheld them as long as I could.

No reins, not, not ever.

"It was only you in my life, and it will always be only you, Jack, I swear."

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: A Celebration of Rich: Tributes
« Reply #268 on: November 02, 2018, 02:37:07 pm »
What precious memories, friend. Smiling through tears.

And I just passed through Christiansburg a couple of weeks ago, on our way to Pigeon Forge. Ironic and hypocritical name, if they wouldn't accept Rich into vacation bible school.  >:(
"chewing gum and duct tape"

Offline CellarDweller

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Re: A Celebration of Rich: Tributes
« Reply #269 on: November 02, 2018, 09:56:18 pm »
"Remember me with smiles and laughter,
for that is how I will remember you all.
If you can only remember me with tears,
then don't remember me at all."


Tell him when l come up to him and ask to play the record, l'm gonna say: ''Voulez-vous jouer ce disque?''
'Voulez-vous, will you kiss my dick?'
Will you play my record? One-track mind!