By Neal Wooten
One of the worst things about getting older is how often we seem to lose people. Sometimes it’s a family member, sometimes a close friend, and sometimes a person who touched our lives for a short time.
Roger “Bud” Sims passed away on April 21, and I have only great memories of him. When I was 13, I bought a 1970 Yamaha 175 on/off-road motorcycle. And that’s where I drove it: on the road and off the road. I rode that bike so hard for many years. That’s how and why I knew Bud. You couldn’t own a motorcycle and not know him. He was the go-to guy for motorcycles.
My bike must have broken down dozens of times, and I would haul it to Bud. Every time he would tell me the same thing: “Neal, I think it’s ready for the graveyard.” And every time, he’d call in a few days and say, “I don’t know how, but I got it running again.” Some of my fondest childhood memories are just hanging out in his shop and hearing his jokes and stories.
Last month we lost Weldon Parrish, who was the principal at Sylvania when I was in school. He was a great principal and a great guy. No matter how often I found myself in his office sitting on that cold leather sofa across from his desk, he was never angry, upset, or demeaning. He treated me the same as he treated everyone, then gave me three swats with his paddle, of course.
Sadly, it isn’t just the older people but folks my age as well. In September of last year, we lost an old classmate – Regan Dove. As unique and intelligent a person as you could meet, Regan lived in NYC for many years, performed comedy, wrote books, and was even on several episodes of a major soap opera.
A few years ago, we lost Gary Hicks also. Gary and I went to Sylvania together from the first grade. Unlike me, however, Gary was not vertically challenged and was always the tallest guy in our class. By sixth grade, he was already six feet tall. I didn’t have the chance to know him after school, but as a classmate, he was a great guy.
In February, we lost another Sylvania guy: Troy Bell. Troy was a year younger than I was, but we were great friends in high school because we played baseball together for many years, even before he came to Sylvania from Henagar. I know you’re supposed to only remember the good things about people, but that’s easy with Troy.
Time flies. Go see whoever you need to go see.
