S.R.G.

A Prince, by Character of Heart Not by Birth

They say a friend will bail you out of jail, a really good friend will be setting there next to you. The first time I went to jail as a young dumb kid, I was 16 and didn’t have my license yet. A buddy and me worked on his car one Saturday, trying to get it ready to go cruising town that night. We put a used Holley 780 cfm carburetor on his Red ‘75 Pontiac Formula Firebird (the picture is a '76). It was an older model carb and did not have the correct vacuum line hook up for the “Power Brakes”, I told my buddy we could just block it off and worry about it later. He said, “but it’s the brakes, you know… the stopping kind!” I assured him that all we needed now was “Go” we could worry about “Stop” later. We got the car running and it ran pretty good and it would stop as long as you weren’t going too fast. So we got cleaned up and headed up town to cruise. Somewhere along the way we picked up another friend and the three of us drove around town acting like idiots, stopping and talking to friends, girls, and so on. I talked my buddy into letting me drive, he knew I didn’t have my license yet but he also knew I’d continue to pester him until he let me. To make a long story short, at one point I was doing 85 or 90 mph in a 35 mph zone when we passed a cop. I hit the brakes and I swear the car speeded up a little. So this shows you a little bit of the mentality of the way my mind functions. If you are in this predicament and can not stop, go faster. So I punched it and we left the cop far behind and went through the middle of town at world record speed. After a while of cruising around back roads, we (probably more I than we) figured it was safe enough to go back up town and find a place to just sit and park. So we did and 20 minutes later the three of us were sitting in jail in Muskogee Oklahoma and I was calling my Dad to come get us, not a good moment at all. We were lucky enough that my older brother and a friend drove by and saw us being “Cuffed and Stuffed” and the cop was cool and let them take the car home to save it from being impounded. So I’m setting in jail with my buddy and I don’t believe he looked at me and said, “Man that was cool” it was more like, “You’re a Friggin’ Idiot!” If I recall correctly.

Anyway my buddy (SRG) of over 26 years, who I’ve drank a butt-load of Jack Daniels with, hunted with, camped with, cried with, been at way to many funerals with, and have spent the best times of my life with. He came by yesterday on his lunch break and gave me enough cash to pay my bills and get by for a couple of months. And he did it without shaming me at all, he shook my hand, said, “Don’t I owe you some money?” I tied to say “no“, but he just dropped the money on the table shook my hand again, and said he had to get back to work. I didn’t even think he knew how bad off things were getting. I have a sneaky suspicion that he reads my blog.

His character does not surprise me at all, I’ve always known what a Prince among men he is, I hope he knows that I love him and I wish I had treated him half as good over the years. He truly is my Best Friend.