April in My Rearview Mirror

I have always said Shirley is a very good girl and she is. She is not cheap though. As we were coming into Atlanta I smelled hot brakes. I thought it was a truck up ahead of me but the truck turned and the smell didn’t. Shirley was lame in the left front. Now she is a good girl because she hides her pain until she knows she is near a medical facility. She knew today was a no driving day and she could get into a clinic. I was meeting Marty Huczek, a Navy buddy I hadn’t seen since ’69, so I called him and let him know the situation. He suggested a few places within a couple of miles and I said I would get her to the doctor then call him. I took her to the Meineke Brake Clinic and Dr. Robbie and his medical staff made her right. The caliper had locked up and generated significant heat so some major work had to be done. Her front end is the heavy duty variety and the medical bill was heavy duty also. Just my luck, the universal medical care program does not apply to RVs.

Marty picked me up and sure enough, he hadn’t changed a bit in 40 years. Maybe hehad face whiskers and his hair was white but he had the same old “I know something you don’t” look on his face. We spent the day catching up on old times. I met his wife, Charlotte, who is a firecracker and keeps Marty in line. He doesn’t deserve her. He does some extremely intricate woodworking and I was fascinated by it seeing as I do a little wood butchery myself. He has a shop in the basement and uses a scroll saw to do most of the work. He likes the scroll saw because he can enjoy a Manhattan while he works. Manhattans don’t work well with table saws. Marty is the Vice Commander of his American Legion Post and we visited their museum in the historic government center in Lawrenceville. The museum is nicely done and the Post is deservedly proud of it. On the way back we stopped at the Braves’ Triple A park, the home of the Gwinnett Braves. Marty had asked me if I wanted to go to a game but I elected to catch up on laundry instead. Bad choice, the park is beautiful.


Around 5 we picked Shirley up and took her back to Stone Mountain Park. She smelled nice and stopped even nicer. Marty picked me up and we went to the game. Turner Field is very nice and the Braves were winners. I lucked out again and had great seat mates in addition to Marty. Adam and Doug were from Portland, Oregon and were on a mini-vacation. Doug (L) is a big Braves fan so they saw this game and then were heading to Fenway to see the Sox. Adam (R) was hard of hearing, I guess, because the sound system garbled the non-stop, between-inning yammering of some dude on the big screen and every time I would ask him what the dude said, Adam would say, “I dunno.” Must have been important stuff ’cause the dude sure did a lot of garbling. The weather was spectacular, a perfect night for baseball. It was also Little League night at the park. Richard the vendor was great to the kids. He leaned over the rail and high-fived the kids while saying “Welcome to the Bigs” meaning the Big League. The kids loved it. Another investment in future fans. We need more Richards.

I hope Marty realizes how comforting he was. It is very stressful when Shirley has mechanical problems so far from home. Marty entertained me and kept my mind off silly things like repairs. Thanks Marty.