Life at 707

Time slipping away….

13 Apr 2008 1 Comment

by thepaleone in Ricky Jesus, Tater Town

This has been a very interesting, dramatic few days. My cousin Ricky passed away yesterday. He was only 47 years old and had four kids. who are in their late teens early 20′s, just getting started with life really and now they don’t have a dad. It is very sad to me.

I haven’t spoke to Ricky in awhile, probably before I got married, things happen, people change, relationships stop, and people drift apart. From what I understand he has been wrestling some demons lately, we all do, some of just don’t want to admit it. Seems Ricky lost his fight with the demons and they got the best of him. I don’t think any less of him although some might, I have heard the back hand comments already. This is what I know, Ricky was always nice to me..always treated me like there was nothing different about me (he was my “step cousin”). I have a lot of good memories with him in them, we spent a lot of time around him and his brother Randy when we were little. Some summers when I was allowed to go to Florida his wife or him would take us to the movies or the beach. The last time I went to Florida we actually went to see Barry Windham at a wrestling match that was at a fair, that was the first time I ever road the ride that is a ship that just swings back and forth.

Ricky’s death was a shock to me, he was someone I just assumed would always be around, you know I thought I would run into him at some family get together in the future, catch up, re-connect, but now I can’t. When I heard the news I started thinking about growing up in FLA, and hanging around Tater Town, his families business, I then “googled” Tater Town, and actually found a couple stories about the old place, and how much it has changed, and how the city wanted to shut it down but people were protesting it. That somehow made me proud, to know that a family I loved so much actually had a effect on others in the neightborhood and how they wanted Tater Town to stay.

But Ricky is not the only person who was a major part of my “growing up ” years that I have lost touch with, drifted apart from. When I was telling James about Ricky dying and how I feel bad for not contacting him, James told me, “you know what you have done, is made yourself a hermit so you won’t get hurt again” and he is right (he usually is). I really need to make an effort to re-connect with them and catch up, you never know when someone time is up, and then all you have is memories and ” I wish I would have dropped them a line”. So if anyone is reading this and have lost touch with someone who meant a lot to you at one time, make an effort, call, email, drop by their house, don’t let time slip away and you get the call that they have passed away.

R.I.P. Ricky, thanks for all you done for me, I love you and will miss you…