My friend vRichard

Marshal Tom said:
I feel compelled to tell you all this story. Dick is my long time friend and neighbor. I met him in the early years when I was the Chief of Police here in town. Dick is now 100 years old. He is a WWII Vet. He was a long time Harley rider and sold his last Harley when he was 91. He has lived alone since I met him all these years ago. He has mowed, cut and stored wood, burned it in his wood stove, plowed snow with his tractor and bobcat all these winters and still drives at 100, to go to town when needed for groceries and such.He has bought, sold, and collected S&Ws for many years and has many that are NIB with all the original paperwork! He learned to work on a computer well into his 80's and has posted several times on the forum. He just posted about a 2.5" 66 VS. a 3" 66. He is an example to all of us of how to keep going, moving and learning as we get older. His family was just here for his 100th birthday. They tried to supply him with things that they thought he would need but he rejected all of it, saying that he has it covered. I am proud to say that he is my friend.
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He probably has some interesting perspectives on all the cultural and technological changes he has seen over the years; and which have been improvements and which have not.
I am 69, with my ancestors all growing up and living in the rural Ozarks in SW Missouri, and had grandparents that lived into their 90's and still had good minds and generally pretty good health up until a few months to a year before they died. 2 of them were born in the 1880's and 1890's.
I spent a lot of time with them over the years, and have told people I chose my grandparents well. All 5 of them were kind, loving, honest, and a pleasure to be around.
I asked each of them at various times about what was the best thing to come along in their lifetimes; as far as technology goes. All said electricity was the best, and good cars the next best. 2 listed medical advances as third. No one mentioned television, even though they all watched it some. This was in the mid-'70's and early '80's.
These were people whose lives spanned the changes from horse and mule power to gasoline engine and electric motor power, and from kerosene lamps and lanterns to 110 volt lights, flashlights, and space travel. I asked my great-grandfather (who was born in 1886, I think) one time when he was in his early 90's if any of this stuff ever kind ever worried or scared him a little. After several seconds of deep thought, he admitted that some things did, but did not elaborate. In retrospect, I wish I has asked what they were.
As a far gone history buff from childhood I always thought it was pretty neat that these grandparents that I knew and talked to were people who also knew and had talked to and worked with many Civil War veterans, Union and Confederate.
I was very close to all my grandparents. All are long-gone now, and I still miss them almost every day. I am getting a little teary-eyed just thinking about them now.
 
Marshal Tom said:
As a followup, I was just on the phone with him and visit him frequently. He will be 101 in August. Still talks motorcycles, S&W's and politics. He is still doing all sorts of stuff around his place that he shouldn't be doing like working on his well pump yesterday! the VA recently had a ramp put in for him and the installers did a poor job. He was not satisfied. He reworked it on his own and it is much better!
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Good for him!
 
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