Well this is certainly not easy and I pray I don't simply ramble, but I have to put some words down to clear my thoughts.  There are many things that I will remember and carry with me. Beginning with playing  RISK with friends it wouldn't matter that I was attacking another opponent he was always thinking I was secretly making alliances against him. We enjoyed that game so much we developed a WWIII game out of old pizza boxes that he drew the maps on. It was pretty much the same game however, we added ships and  big missile  attacks if you rolled doubles three times in a row. Then there was scrabble, every game I would have to hear about  how the dictionary just simply wasn't big enough to contain his scrabble words. Then there was everyone's favorite trivial pursuit.  The problem with this game, was the cards were never up to date enough to contain the current information that he always seemed to know. He loved competition in any form. From darts, to horseshoes, to shuffleboard to corn hole. Whenever you would play any type of game with him if he began to lose or you debated something he would give this look of bewilderment, that how could this be, how could anyone bet me. It was also the same look he gave you if he told one of his "fish" stories and you challenged the validity of it.  However,no matter how poorly I may have been in any event he never let me believe I wasn't good enough to always be great at it. Though I clearly sucked at something it was really never my fault the other teams always cheated a little, or the ref had it out for me.

There was once a time I was at a freestyle wrestling event with Cyrus.  There were a few celebrities that attended one of which was the young boy from A.L.F. whom Cyrus actually befriended during the tournament. Michael J. Fox was there and was going to wrestle along with a few of the other celebrities in an exhibition match. Somehow I was selected to wrestle him, however when it was suppose to happen, Michael Fox was actually a no show. My dad would stretch that story to the manager took a good luck at my shoes and because they were so worn, I was too experienced and they realized Mr. Fox had no chance against me and left the show.  No matter, how much he loved to win and be apart of the winning side, and anyone that knows he LOVED to win, he never made me feel bad about not being a superior athlete of any kind. He never let me feel less then anyone else.

Another one of my favorite memories is driving around one winter night pulling people out of ditch in his Chevy Stocksdale. We wore out the 8 track player singing to The Boxer and Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel. I shared this experience from the other side with my youngest son Jeremiah, when I was taking him to High Point to register for his senior year. I played Simon and Garfunkel for him and told him this story. He was singing with me by the time we arrived home.

Another trait was that he was horrible with secrets. I always knew what I was getting for Christmas. Phrases like" if I get you a guitar for Christmas I want to see you play it" could be heard a couple of weeks before it would appear under the tree. Or, one of my favorites is when I got my first TV for my room and it was hidden under a blanket for two weeks in the dinning room. Not the most stealthy person I knew.

These are only but a few memories from a life time of them.  I thank God that I was able to share some them with my father.