keep the faith.

TK:

* was my best friend’s father.

* was from Iowa.

* was a the only real oil tycoon I ever knew.

* also was, at different points in his life, a bootlegger, a stock-car driver and a salesman.

* was the kind of father who disapproved of using baby-talk around his infant sons, who turned out to be among the most frighteningly smart people I know.

*was blue coveralls and black cowboy boots. And caffeine-free Diet Coke.

* terrorized his oldest son while trying to teach him how to drive. But Juan would tell you now that it was worth it.

* owned more orange trucks than the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.

* was the best storyteller I’ve ever heard. The one about the farmer who shifted his outhouse ever so slightly to leave a horrible surprise for those boys, TK among them, who kept tipping it over. And the one about meeting Louis Armstrong and talking Satchmo into playing with a friend who carried his trumpet with him everywhere. And, jesus, who knows how many more…

* was the soul of the Fraternal Order of the Groundhog.

* used to, in his drinking days, hassle me — good-natured but absolutely without mercy — while I bused tables during lunch in the downstairs bar at DaVinci.

* made it a point, after the drinking days were over, to have just one cold can of beer a year, always on the Fourth of July.

* never really seemed to understand the Grateful Dead thing Juan and I brought into his house. But he did introduce us to the joys of Willie Nelson.

* inspired such loyalty among his friends that when he got sick last summer, someone made up T-shirts, of the same shocking orange color as the vehicle fleet at Berwell Energy, touting membership in TK’s Army. I will proudly wear mine when The Wife and I drive to Columbus this morning.

* had a body that, in the end, gave up on him. He spent most of the last year in a hospital, a physical rehab center or a long-term care facility. Since last June, he’s been well enough to be home for about two weeks.

* is free from all that now.

9 thoughts on “keep the faith.”

  2. I, for once, could not speak. I was moved beyond words at the memorial service for TK.
    Thank you to all who shared stories, wisdom, jokes and sayings from TK and his bigger than life life.
    It was a privilege to know him. A joy to be a part of his family… and fun just “being” while listening to his stories, every one of them.

    NTW, keep the faith and

    …..don’t feed the bears.

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  3. Yes. I had forgotten about NTW. But when The Wife and I called HP on Friday to warn her about the inordinate number of state troopers we saw on the way, she responded with: “Don’t feed the bears.”

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  4. God bless you for your words and your sentiments. Tom loved deeply, as y’all know. You were the recepitents of that love. My heart aches and my eyes fill as I write these words of thanks for your support. But most of all, thank you for sharing your appreciation of a man I hold so dear. As bad as it hurts, it’d be worse to think I was missing him alone.

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  5. My apologies to Crappy, as this directed to Jaun,
    You are not alone, your dad’s influence is wide – he was an intelligent, personal, fun, and entertaining person to be around. Thankfully, those traits have benn to the Klink I know and love. I have not personally experienced the passing of a parent, but I’ve been around a good bit of it, all I can advise is – write a journal of your dad’s stories – the interactions he had with all – that way, his adentures and stories will be memrialiezd in a way that others may learn from dad’s knowledge.

    Ohter than that – all I can say is that it hurts that I can express through the this media – take care o’l boy – I’ll see you in July. Kevin

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  6. My apologies to Crappy, as this directed to Jaun,
    You are not alone, your dad’s influence is wide – he was an intelligent, personal, fun, and entertaining person to be around. Thankfully, those traits have benn to the Klink I know and love. I have not personally experienced the passing of a parent, but I’ve been around a good bit of it, all I can advise is – write a journal of your dad’s stories – the interactions he had with all – that way, his adentures and stories will be memrialiezd in a way that others may learn from dad’s knowledge.

    Ohter than that – all I can say is that it hurts that I can express through the this media – take care o’l boy – I’ll see you in July. Kevin

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  7. Crappy,

    Please pass on my condolences to Juan and family. Remember the good times, for those will help carry you through the bad ones….see you in July.

    Tdogg

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  8. Dearest Uncle Crappy,

    You must have psychic powers. Either that, or your readership is much wider than you’ve been lead to believe.

    Almost every piece of your post was verbalized over the weekend. You and so many others were right on the mark about the amazing life of TK. People like TK never really die because they live on in the hearts and minds of everyone that they touched.

    Which of course illuminates a third possibility, TK’s impact was so universal that lifelong friends and casual acquaintences all shared the same experience. And, what a damn good experience it was.

    God Bless you TK. God Bless us all.

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  9. Dear Uncle Crappy,

    Thank you for posting this about TK. As Juan’s tag along, the “little guy”, it left me without a dry eye to read you memmories about him. Your words reached into a part of my soul that few things have ever done. Thanks for the beers the night before the funeral. That time of fellowship made me far more ready for the trials of the following weekend.

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