And so it is reborn once again .. I'll muse for a moment and say : Will the Legacy be around in 50 years .. ?? Will it continue in 100 years .. ?? Whether or not, certainly the bits and bytes will reside somewhere in another time, and perhaps, someday, someone will stumble upon the stories of us, the slices of time that we're all had a hand in .. as long as the baton gets passed .. Salute to the ones that stayed, Salute to the ones that came and left for whatever reason, Salute to the new folks .. Salute to those that left and came back, and certainly, Salute to those that have departed .. Raise a Glass ...
From Thread #2 if I recall correctly .. My feeble attempt to encapsulate the Man we Owe a Debt of Gratitute to ..
"I believe every one should have a lasting Memorial that attempts to capture, in some way, a tiny bit of the essence of a person. So, on the cusp of the passing of our old friend, Randall (txtumbleweed), I have tried to put together a small Tribute to the man that we, for the most part, owe a debt of gratitude for initially bringing us together here. It has been a few moons now, since TX passed .. many have come to the Thread, many have come and gone, some have stayed .. the landscape changes, much like life itself .. so here we go ..
I always figured Randall used the term "Tumbleweed" because it best described his life. He mentioned in many posts that he always wanted to sit down and write a book about his Forrest Gump like life. I don't know if that book ever got fully written, although he did write .. I hope it did get finished, because Randall had a story to tell. One of the reasons I tried to stay in touch with TX both by email and phone, was because, in a way, we were somehow kindred spirits, since both our lives had taken dramatic turns and twists as the Journey unfolded ..
I'm going to just hit what my memory can bring up, I will be brief and I encourage all of you that remember TX to add to the narrative ..
Born in the California San Joaquin Valley, raised in Texas .. As a young man, Randall and his brother rode the rails of America, as a vagabond, as an adventurerer .. he was a proud Veteran of the US Miltary .. his failure at married life left him a self declared bachelor, although he deeply wished that a Soul Mate could have been found, it was not to be. His free spirit was really not designed for domestic tranquility .. even though he had a bit of the Romantic in him (Randall actually
wrote poetry) .. as a child, he and his Brother were swept out to sea on a raft .. and almost drowned. He loved the Redwoods of Northern California and called it his favorite place on Earth. TX lived in a logging camp for four years back in the early 50's.
Randall dated an original Mouseketeer, her name was Margene .. he worked, primarily as a Lineman, for 30 years. Then, at the age of 50, when most men are beginning to think of retirement, slowing down, settling down, etc .. while living in Seattle, he sold his truck and bought a one way ticket to Alaska. Because the Vagabond was still itching .. all his life, Randall had dreamed of working on a fishing boat. When he got to Alaska, he landed a job on a trawler out of Dutch Harbor and spent 10 (that's ten) years working on the Northern Jaeger fishing all the way from Siberia to Northern California and the Bering Sea .. what man does that at 50 .. ?? And for 10 years, no less ..
And he danced .. a self declared bonafide avid, wood floor, honky tonk line dancer that would tell us about the many pairs of cowboy boots he wore out and the ladies he used to swing around the floor ..
What I remember most, though, about Randall is the fact that he never had a bad word to say .. sure, like all of us, he had his ups and downs, but no one that visited the old threads got anything from TX other than a warm welcome and an encouraging word .. that and his Faith .. you see, when TX initially went in to have a lump on his neck area diagnosed, all of us back then went on the Journey with him .. he kept us updated, but most importantly, he stayed strong, he never let his Faith waver, his optimism was and is an example even to an admitted Faithless man, such as myself. His postings got to be fewer and fewer, yet almost had a palpable feel .. you could sense things were not going well as time passed, yet he believed, to the End, that whatever lay in store for him was just another part of the Story he had lived .. and TX considered us his Friends and Confidants so much so, he brought us with him on the Journey.
So let us rejoice a Life Well Lived, from the man that was instrumental in many of us joining hands here in our small corner of the CyberWorld. The final two slides reflect Randalls posting tag and his favorite saying as he approached the end .. "