Friday, June 15, 2018
Mikey and I were life-long friends. He lived on Wakefield Ave. and my family lived on Northside Dr. just down the street from the Shepard family. As kids, we used to play all kinds of kid games, like, cowboys and Indians, “monster catch me,” and lots of war games. We loved playing touch football with all the neighborhood kids and my cousins. Mikey was always on my team, and most of the time we won. Trick plays were what we did best. He and my brother would play with model soldiers, tanks, and airplanes, even up until our teens.
I can remember one event in our lives that is hysterical to this very day. It all happened one evening when Mike and I decided to go to Shreveport to play “Putt-Putt” golf. On our way, I noticed that we didn’t have enough gas to make it. For some ungodly reason, we decided to play a prank on my mother and Mrs. Shepard. We stopped at Sammy’s Grocery and bought some ketchup, not knowing it was the hot kind. Sammy asked what we were up to and we told him what our plan was. He laughed and said, “here is a counter rag, use this.” So Mikey and I opened the bottle of ketchup and put some on the rag. Mikey put it on his head. The ketchup really looked like blood. He looked at me and said, “Man this stuff is hot, and I got it in my eyes. Let's get to the house now.”
So, we pulled up in front of Mrs. Shepard’s house. She and mother were sitting on the front porch steps when we pulled up. I yelled out the window, “ Mom call the ambulance, Nolan hit Mike in the head with a golf club!” All hell broke loose as soon as I said that. I opened the car door and pulled Mikey out of the car and dragged him to Mrs. Shepard’s front yard and pretended to give him first aid.
There was this guy driving by, and he stopped, got out of his car, ran across the yard and tripped over a small metal stick that was protecting a little tree. In the meantime, Mrs. Shepard ran next door to "Red" Estess’ house and started pulling on the air conditioner trying to get them up. My mother started running across the street to Mr. and Mrs. Stephens’s house, Mikey’s house. We both started laughing, and the guy that had stopped cussed us out and left. Needless to say, we were grounded for at least three weeks. It was funny at the time, but we could have gotten in a lot of trouble.
After I joined the USAF and was pipelined to Lowery AFB for tech school, I found out that he was in Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Denver, Co. I went to see him, we talked a bit and caught up on things. I did not see him again until about 2004. Tommy and I stopped by to see him. I had not heard from him again until 2016 when I friended him on Facebook. I just found out today that he had passed. I always loved Mikey like a brother. I will miss him, his mischievous grin, and his laughter. He always seemed to have a smile on his face.
Farewell Bud, I know we were brothers in arms and someday we will be brothers again.
