Feeling Lost

BillW

BillW

TJ Enthusiast
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Joined
Feb 6, 2022
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301
Location
West Central Ohio
My best friend of 61 years passed away last Wednesday....He is the guy that got me into Jeeps way back probably when I was 15 and he was 13. That was the year he got his first Jeep. It was an old CJ2A that had a full metal cab on it....From there he had a couple of the old station wagons. We redid the body on one of them. The bottom half of the body was rusted and gone. So we pop riveted sheet metal to what was good and covered it all up.....He sold it and the guy that bought it drove it to Florida and back.....There are stories for every week of those 61 years, if not every day.....He was my brother from another Mother

Thanks for letting me ramble on..........
 
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BillW said:
My best friend of 61 years passed away last Wednesday....He is the guy that got me into Jeeps way back probably when I was 15 and he was 13. That was the year he got his first Jeep. It was aan old CJ2A that had a full metal cab on it....From there he had a couple of the old station wagons. We redid the body on one of them. The bottom half of the body was rusted and gone. So we pop riveted sheet metal to what was good and covered it all up.....He sold it and the guy that bought it drove it to Florida and back.....There are stories for every week of those 61 years, if not every day.....He was my brother from another Mother

Thanks for letting me ramble on..........
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Sorry for your loss.
 
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Bill- I lost a best friend - It will be three years this summer. One of the harder hits I have taken in losing someone close. like you said, like a brother. We just could hang and could do anything together. Totally get the “ramble”. - prayers and thoughts for you. Sounds like you got quite a few years and many good memories- I can only offer to count those times as blessings, in times when you feel the loss.
 
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JustDandee said:
Bill- I lost a best friend - It will be three years this summer. One of the harder hits I have taken in losing someone close. like you said, like a brother. We just could hang and could do anything together. Totally get the “ramble”. - prayers and thoughts for you. Sounds like you got quite a few years and many good memories- I can only offer to count those times as blessings, in times when you feel the loss.
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This has hit me harder than losing my parents......I don't remember choking up and getting misty eyed EVERY time I talked about them......But that was over 20 years ago.....Yes, the last 6 months will not erase the 61 years of memories, good and bad......Thank you for the help......
 
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Squatch said:
My thoughts and prayers are with you, my friend. A 61-year friendship is a blessing for any individual, as you know. Unfortunately, it makes the loss all the more painful. I hope you find some peace in looking back at your time with him.
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Thanks,Right now it is hard to see the silver lining, but I know he is without pain.
 
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ColoJeep said:
Sorry for your loss.
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Thanks, Colojeep... I had a CJ-5 with stock tires and my friend was going to Colorado and used my wheels and tires on his CJ-5. Mine were newer and in better shape, so at least my tires got to go to the Rockies..... That is a bright spot in my memory bank....
 
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BillW said:
Thanks, Colojeep... I had a CJ-5 with stock tires and my friend was going to Colorado and used my wheels and tires on his CJ-5. Mine were newer and in better shape, so at least my tires got to go to the Rockies..... That is a bright spot in my memory bank....
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It is a good thing when you can look back and have lasting memories that are a positive in your life!
 
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Condolences, BillW. A good friend like that is better than money in the bank, and rarer than a million in the bank! Fortunately, you've got 61 years worth of great memories to keep him with you.
 
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Seems like many of us on here are around sixty. I never though I would be thinking of death they way I have been lately. Many people I know have died lately, and the worst part is wondering what I would do if my time was coming soon. My wife feels bad all the time. It's mental anguish from Covid. Still around everywhere.
 
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BillW said:
I can sympathize with her..... Hard to lose the person who may be the only one who knows ALL about you.....
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Yea - but sometimes something happens to put things in perspective. Googled an old acquaintance's name last nite - came up with a webpage created for him called "daddy needs a kidney". Haven't communicated with him in over a decade - he can be an insufferable asshole - but I reached out now.
 
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Squatch said:
My thoughts and prayers are with you, my friend. A 61-year friendship is a blessing for any individual, as you know. Unfortunately, it makes the loss all the more painful. I hope you find some peace in looking back at your time with him.
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Nailed it- 61 years is a good run.

Death is hard if relationships were good or if things weren’t.

The older we get the more of this we go through.

Brighter days do come.
 
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Steve's formal Funeral is tomorrow...There will be a "party" next fall near his birthday to spread his ashes on his farm.....

I don't think his family knows just how many people he influenced/touched in some way over his lifetime. He worked at the state fairgrounds for about 20 years, then drove a school bus for 5 or 6 years, and then was the Vocational Agriculture teacher for a few more years. In all of those jobs he came in contact with many, many people....

This is/was Steve's Pride and Joy....It is a 1965 Jeep CJ-5 Tuxedo Park. After this picture was taken, the summer of 1976 or so, Steve tried to pull a gravity bed wagon fully loaded with soybeans out of the field with it and blew out the front axle.....Then we took it apart, body off apart, to be fixed and reassembled when funds and time allow....Unfortunately, it is still in pieces in his barn at the farm......I hope his son and I can get it back together in his honor....

His son has been bitten by the Jeep bug,, so it may happen......

Coop's Tuxedo Park1024_1.jpg
 
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Potomus Pete said:
Seems like many of us on here are around sixty. I never though I would be thinking of death they way I have been lately. Many people I know have died lately, and the worst part is wondering what I would do if my time was coming soon. My wife feels bad all the time. It's mental anguish from Covid. Still around everywhere.
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I am 70, Steve was 68.....
 
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Well, it has been a week since Steve's funeral.... I saw so many people from Steve's and my past....Several had to introduce themselves because I did not recognize them....Others we have made plans to see each other in the future in happier circumstances...

I have been assured by the family that I am still part of the family.....We are making plans to reopen the trails in the woods that have been dormant for about 20 years or so....Where Steve and I originally did our 4 wheeling. Steve and I had discussed this before he was diagnosed with cancer, and everyone still wants to do it....

Also, Amanda, Steve's oldest daughter and her husband want to get her Jeep back on the road and trail, and she wants me to help....I can't remember what year it is but I think it is a late 80's CJ? I will have to investigate further....
 
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BillW said:
Well, it has been a week since Steve's funeral.... I saw so many people from Steve's and my past....Several had to introduce themselves because I did not recognize them....Others we have made plans to see each other in the future in happier circumstances...

I have been assured by the family that I am still part of the family.....We are making plans to reopen the trails in the woods that have been dormant for about 20 years or so....Where Steve and I originally did our 4 wheeling. Steve and I had discussed this before he was diagnosed with cancer, and everyone still wants to do it....

Also, Amanda, Steve's oldest daughter and her husband want to get her Jeep back on the road and trail, and she wants me to help....I can't remember what year it is but I think it is a late 80's CJ? I will have to investigate further....
Click to expand...

Talked to Amanda after posting about her Jeep. It is a 1985 CJ-7. It will be a winter project.....
 
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