Fred Preston.....

[MarketHunter]

I had a message the other day that Fred Preston had passed away. Did anybody make it to his wake?

Last time I saw him in person was at Roger Giles wake, we had a little drink in the parking lot afterwards out of Roger's last bottle of scotch.

Time before that was when we planned to head down to the Southern together, I'll remember that till the day I die. I made the drive to his house in Ohio for an overnight then a planned early leavetaking to North Carolina the next morning. We got deep into the brown liquor that evening, finished a partial fifth of Early Times then he produced a backup which we finished as well. Fred was a pretty dram proof character and I ain't no slouch myself so we just stayed at it till the booze was gone.

We were both gloriously hung over the next morning, but Fred far worse than myself. He felt so poorly he asked if I'd take him to the hospital just as we were about to get on the road. Made me swear I wouldn't call his wife! He had a cross breed lab that was mean as a striped snake which somehow got into the truck with us as we were leaving. We got to the hospital and they decided he was dehydrated from drinking so they put him on an IV and wouldn't let him go for hours. The nurses all gave us "that look" every time they came into the room I can tell you. Every half hour or so he would want me to go check on his dog. I'd troop out to the parking lot and as I walked up to the truck he would give a snarl like a grizzly bear so I knew he was ok. It was a cool day so there was no threat to his health. I stayed there with Fred for hours because I couldn't get back into the truck without risking my health and I wouldn't have left him anyway.

Finally they decided he was fit for discharge so we strolled out like we owned the place and had a bite of dinner nearby. He decided he should just go home, that he'd had all the excitement he could stand. We rolled into the driveway and his wife was mighty puzzled by our return. He sheepishly gave her the short version of the tale and she proceeded to decide I was a bad influence so I quickly made my exit.

I didn't know what to do, it was late in the afternoon and I was still 12 hours or so from my destination. At the end of his driveway it was left to NC or right back to MI. I lit my pipe and thought a minute, then decided what the Hell and turned left. I knew I wouldn't make it all the way so I called an old ladyfriend that lived about 3 hours from Sanford, she was warm for a visit so I pushed through to there and spent the night. She cooked me breakfast the next morning and I finally arrived at the Southern around noon none the worse for wear.

He and I would laugh about his "hospital hang over" every time we talked after that. I'll miss knowing he was in the world for sure, I wish I'd have kept in better touch with him. After Roger's death we just never seemed to get together anymore as Toledo was about halfway for both of us so a good destination for an afternoons shooting.

Seems like all I do anymore is hear about friends dying or go to their wake. I just went to one on Friday for another shooting friend.....