I used to know a guy. Couldnt forget him if I wanted to. Today is his Birthday

Let me introduce you to a friend of mine. Some folks knew him as James Ronald Miller. Those folks were usually the givers & the takers. Some folks knew him as Ronnie. Sometimes Uncle Ronnie. Some others still, knew him as J.R. And at that point if you werent on the inside then you had at least been welcomed into the fray.

Me? I knew him as Dad. And those that came after called him Paw Paw.
He would be 67 today

My Dad has been alot of things to alot of people. Born into a family of 5 older brothers. He may have been the baby but times were hard & he worked the land just like everybody else in that clan. He grew up a poor Missouri dirt farmer in the rocky hills of the Ozarks & one of the last great things he did before passing was to dine with a Chinese Admiral at his residence in Tokyo. Now it don't matter where you come from or how you got there. That's a helluva jump right there.

I'm gonna share some rememberances of my father. Let you in on the guy I used to know.

Now if you didnt already know this about me I was raised by a mechanic. An exceptionally good mechanic. And from the time Mom would let me in a garage I was the hold the light get me a wrench, no not that one, the other one boy.  But Dad just called me git-wood. Sometimes my sister calls me that to this day.

Dad & I worked on quite a few cars together. Him being an airline mechanic, highly trained & proud of his craft. I, being the molded into his light.....no, damnit. hold the light there. mechanic,son, prodigy. I learned all that from him. I can fix just about anything. Thanx Dad.

About these cars I was talking about. As I & he grew as a team we chose a direction off the beaten path. He had been studying the properties of turbines for 30 yrs & I was becoming a big fan on forced induction. Thats car talk ladies.

Turbocharging was still fledgling at this point. And we put twin turbos on a V8 Ford. 351C to be exact. And stuffed that into a 1970 Maverick. 3100 lbs with me in it.

The Day of the Turbo


We had literally worked for months in our spare time. The technology alone was enough to keep your nose stuffed in whatever you could find to read for a week at a time. It was challenging. And there were failures along the way that caused extensive re-working. But today is the day. Today its buttoned up for the last time. Today we get to see what its got.

Dad takes it out and drives like an old man does. I think he was about 45 or so. We cruise slowly thru town. Make a left onto the highway. Heading west on hwy 70. Next exit, 6 miles. Monitoring gauges, registering the feel of a new machine in the seat of your pants. Everything you've been over at least 3 times during a rebuild & it's brand new. You can feel the engine wants to run very smoothly & cleanly. It acts like a normal car. Very quiet. But theres some rumble. And it kinda tweets at ya thru these mufflers. Down the road we cruise. 50, 60, 65, vac. press. is at 0. almost as peak performance as you can get. It got 22 mpg if you could keep your foot out of it. A tractor trailer in front of us. Paced at 70. Stepped on the gas & this amazing little whistle comes upon you. The turbos turning 60k rpm & past the semi in a blink. More like a hop. Pretty cool. Down the road to the exit. Spin around at the Flying J. Check it all out & I'm in for the drive home.

Sitting at the top of the on-ramp. All systems check. Slow roll to about 25. Hard acceleration but smooth and its at 75 before I run out of lane. Lots of room in the pedal & the tach. And its steady pulling. I'm stabilized in the road. Good light. Empty in both directions as far as I can see. The pedal hits the floor thru high gear. It's a freakin missile. The grin, on my face, is the story that he told about this ride. A great accomplishment for the both of us. He would've called this story "The Grin" He was proud that day And so was I. We were proud of each other..

FIRE!!!


A few months after the unveiling we were trying some new things getting ready for a drag race coming up. We had been playing with fuel system stuff & were taking it out for testing. Close to home, Nothing major.

It coughed & bucked & the damn thing just wasnt right. Tweak here. tinker ther. Try again. We pull over again to make another tweak. Dad pulls the float bowl screw, dumps fuel onto a hot manifold & whoosh.


FIRE!!!

Uh, we're in the middle of nowhere. I run towards a house that we pulled over at. Theres a pump well & a full bucket. 5 gal worth. I RUN carrying a 5 gal bucket of water toward my car. I cant see much of dad but he's there. The fire had melted the fuel pump wires together & the car was pumping raw fuel onto itself. Feeding the fire. Dad stayed in it til he got the wires pulled loose. 5 gal later & a hvy duty extinguisher from a neighbor & it was out.

A few hundred dolars & some thrashing & we'd be ready for the drags. Inevitably on this one we figured out too late that the fire had melted a small piece of the distributor & it wouldnt do the thing til we got her fixed the following week. Bummer. But during that all day thrash we got to within a second of where it should have been & shaved 5 seconds off its first pass of the day. It wasnt right & we both knew it but we busted our asses all day in the hot sun. Perfect teamwork. Father & son shit. A bad day at the races is still a pretty good day with the right company.





The Splash


I had gotten a new rod & reel for Xmas. We were fishing in early March. It was kinda cold. Me on the rear deck. Mom in the middle, Dad in the front. It was his boat & all. "One man's junk" He had built this boat from a 16 ft V bottom hull that had been caved in from a tree falling on it in a Missouri tornado to the point that it was now a functional bass boat in Georgia. I was about 15. We're in a quiet little cove I'm hosing down my plastic with the original greasy assed Fish Formula. It got on my hands.The instant I realeased the cast I saw the rod & reel combo leave my hand. And I went after it.

The way dad told this story went something like this.

"Aw, I don't know what the hell happened." One minute we're calm in the water & the next the boat is leaning forward & then rocks back & almost knocked me outta my damn chair" And when I came up, Ther was a huge splash & Gregory was gone."

I dove off that boat arms wide open, full spread belly flop. I wrapped my arms together around the rod as the reel was pulling it to the bottom. But I got it. I break through the water with my parents looking at me in one of the more strange ways that they ever looked at me with. But I got it. Quickly it begins to dawn on everyone involved as to what just transpired & the laughing started. But I got it.

Dad asked later why I went in. I said cuz I knew how much that thing cost & Dad woulda killed me. He just laughed at me.

Now remember I said it was cold?  So I get dragged toward the bank & now must strip in the wood line. to get some warm clothes. But we dont really have any. We got some rain suits though. So I'm about naked now while Mom goes to digging in the compartment under the drvivers bench And comes up with a rain suit & without even thinking she hands it toward me. I look at it & say" Mom! That damn suit is clear"

Eventuall we found a brown one to cover my droopy drawered naked ass. I can't remember another time we laughed so hard or so long. Just me with my folks. "Yeah." Dad said. "Just a big fuckin' splash & you was gone."

Hockey???

I was makin some money. Following in the footsteps. For his Birthday I'm gonna take him out. Just him & me. Dinner, drinks, take in a Blues game. Thats the St. Louis hockey team if you dont know. We get settled in the cheaper seats of the old barn. Beer, Pretzel. It's all good. After the game gets started Dad says to me, Of all the damn sports how'd you pick hockey? It was the one sport he knew nothing about. Maybe that was why. Dunno really. But I was the coach & he was the student & it was great. During the game in walked a couple of nuns & sat down right in fornt of us. They werent there at the start of the game. It is a Catholic town. Hmmm, different. A fight on the ice breaks out & the guy across the aisle Screams out, "Kill the bastard!" And then immediately realizes his faux pas & says "I'm sorry sister" To which she replies " Thats OK I think they should be hittin the sonsofbitches more anyway." The whole section fell out laughing & my dad says while chuckling. "Hey! This is cool."

A few years later. He saw another hockey game with me. He had always been my coach growing up. Today he watched his son coach a Varsity High School hockey game.

A couple weeks after that I came to work after my weekend & brought with me the State Championship trophy into work. I took it back to my Dad's office & went to my duties. Around break I went back to his office & found him sitting with his back to me, one hand on my trophy. Kicked back in his chair. I've seen that big grin before. When he saw me he says, " So you won it huh?" "Yep dad, sure did.""Well damn son! Thats really something."" Yeah dad, I think so." "Hey guys." as he springs from his seat. "Look at this, My boy is the head coach of the State champiuon high school hockey team." "Thanks" to the guys But my dad was proud. Almost as if he won it. He did. He did it through me. And what I taught came at least partially from him.
 I'm glad to have been a part of it. And I'm glad my Dad got to experience that too. It was a neat thing to have as a grown man with his father.

 

The day I got the news my father passed is now a blur for the most part. I'm sitting in an empty home. A couple days after Thaksgiving. This was the first holiday alone for all of us. My sister had lost her husband. Died in Feb. My Dad had lost his Wife, my mom, in Jul. I lost my mother in law to be in Aug, & my fiancee left in Sep.. We were together & we had a good time but we were distant & alone. Constant shell shock. Like living thru a frosted piece of glass. A dream world. It's all going on around you but you're not really there.

Anyway, just home from that by a couple days & sitting in an empty home my doorbell rings & the door is being banged on & I leap from my nest & open the door to have my nephew collapse in my arms. Sobbing.

It takes several tries before I can understand the words. Grandpa's dead. What?!? A Ga. state patrol car had stopped at my sisters & she wasnt there. Neither was my nephew. But my 12 yr old niece was. Alone & this cop gave her the info that her Grandfather had died. And you wonder why I don't like cops.

She relayed it to him & he drove to me. I called & confirmed everything & then I had to call my sister. One of the tougher things I've ever had to do. Apparently he died in his sleep & when the guys at work couldnt get him on the phone they came lookin'.

The rest of the evening is drug induced, alcohol fueled, surrealism to the point of blackout.

I made it through the day. I had one little crack but made it through the day. Once I started the drive home in my dad's old truck & got thru the toll booth the tears streamed the rest of the way home.

I miss you dad. Happy Birthday. I'll always try to make you proud.