Dec 20 2013
Christmas brings out the giving spirit more than other times of the year. Sometimes when you give you actually end up getting back more. Here are a couple of stories where I think I got the better end of the deal.
Living here over 40 years I have had two great neighbors, both have passed away. The first was a salesman for the local Chevy dealer and I worked for Ford. We sat out back a lot enjoying some good beer and talk. He and his wife were great friends to have next door. A few years after Harold had died his wife was going on some one day bus trips. I worked for a great foreman at Ford, he was a widower too and I found out he was also doing the bus trips.
One week I discovered they were both taking the same trip. I told my neighbor lady what Addison looked like and told her to introduce herself and tell him she was my neighbor. They hit it off and started going together on these trips. They both kept telling me now we’re just friends. After 3 or 4 months they came over and told us they were getting married and asked if I would be their best man.
Ad, what we called him, moved in next door after they were married and sold his home. They were great neighbors and really enjoyed each other. Ad and his one son did a lot of Lake Erie walleye and perch fishing through the summer. On Labor Day Ad had an all afternoon fish fry for his whole clan and we were invited too. He was using an electric deep fryer. His wife wanted to buy him a gas friar and ask me what she should get. I told her not to buy one, I had one setting in my shed I hardly used and he could have it. It was a Monroe gas friar with a basket.
I think I got the best end of that deal, for eight or more summers on Labor Day I got to eat all the Lake Erie walleye and perch I could eat and enjoy some good company. I miss Ad, he passed about 4 years ago and his wife passed away about a year ago.
My second story is about Pierre. Pierre was from Canada and we met on a photography site, treklens.com. We got to know each other commenting and critiquing each other’s photos and through e-mail. Pierre also played guitar and had a small band playing blues in local places. He had a nice collection of some good guitars. I have owned three acoustic guitars, the first I bought while stationed in Turkey, USAF. It got busted in shipment home. The second was a nice Gibson; I sold it to one of our baby sitters for half of what I paid for it. I found out later she made her living with it, playing and singing in clubs on the east coast.
I should have given up after I sold that one; I have no rhythm and can’t sing! Then one day a guy showed up at my door and said I need some money and have this guitar to sell for $120. I took it out of the case and it looked nice; Martin & Co. on the neck; now anyone who knows guitars knows what a Martin is. The neck looked old but the body was new. I bought it and found from the label inside it was redone by a company in the Philippines using an old Martin & Co. neck. It had a nice sound. If it had been an old Martin complete it would have been worth several thousand dollars.
So once again I was determined to play and whale away. The wife and kids would not let me play so when they left I got it out. As soon as my Dalmatian seen me with it she crawled under a chair! I finally gave it up and it hung in the garage for several years.
One day I looked at it hanging there and took it down, it had a crack in the back body. I was going to throw it away then thought maybe Pierre would like to have it. Having a partial old Martin was better than having none. I e-mailed him and told him what shape it was in and said if he wanted to pay the shipping I would send it to him. He said yes he would like to have it. I wrapped it good with bubble wrap and boxed it up and sent it. I think it cost me $35 to ship it but I wrote and told him not to worry about the shipping cost.
He wrote back and said he had received it and he would make me a leaded glass piece for payment. He had taken some lessons and had a computer program that laid out the pattern from any photo. He used two of my hummingbird photos to make the piece. I received it after a few months, packed well in a plywood case. It was beautiful and I know it cost him more to ship it than the guitar I sent him. It hangs in a window in our living room. I get to look at his artwork every day and remember my good friend!
Pierre's is on the top
Smokin Don
