Rush

I lost a good friend today.  Rush Limbaugh died from lung cancer.  He was a good friend that talked to me almost everyday since sometime in the very late 80s.  Sure, I never met him - never called his talk show - but I felt he was a friend.   I will miss what he has to say.  Someone will replace him.  That will be a very hard task.

I can still remember the first time I heard Rush on the radio.  We were living in Gainesville out at Moss Lake.  It was hot summer, and I was down working on our dock.  The dock in itself would be a long stone.  We had just moved out to that lake.  The spouse was in the kitchen, and I was down at the dock.  I always carried a portable radio with me.  We had another radio in the kitchen setting on the window sill. These were not boom boxes.

I had turned the radio to 820 and was listening.  This guy came on about 11 and started his talking - along with extra things.  I had never heard anything like it.  I listened.  He said what I was thinking.  That didn't happen.  At noon (lunch time - never miss lunch time), I ran  up the hill and asked my wife if she was listening to this guy.  I couldn't even figure out his name.  It didn't compute.

From that day on, when I could, the radio was tuned to Rush.   I have to admit that recently I have been unable to listen to the entire 3 hours.  The news was just too depressing for me.  I could listen for a while, then go read a book.   I will miss Rush as a part of my life.

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I lost another good friend several years ago.  Every night as I prepared myself for classes the next day, I watched Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show.  I was there when he started the first night; and, I remained when he said farewell.  I turned off the TV late at night after he left.  I never watched Jay Leno - and, that was dumb.   I enjoy Jay's car show when I can find it.  I was hooked on Johnny Carson.  I decided to not let another person consume so much of my time.

The Tonight show lost me when they started spending the final segment bringing in rock bands.  Demographics, I believe is the word.   I no longer fit in their targeted audience.   The show had been cut to an hour (incl commercials), the guests were unfamiliar to me, and, then, the rock band full of noise and unknown faces.  I moved on.

As I sit and think about this, I am sure that I will remember another good friend that I have lost.  A good friend that I never met or talked to.   Perhaps Regis Philbin .... Kelly was funny when she fed off Regis.  He left.  I con't watch that show anymore.  Junky.

I suppose I felt the same way when I sold my blue 1964 Pontiac - or my 1973 red Mercury - or, yes, this past week when my 2014 Ford Flex moved on to another life.  Little things.

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Report as I close:  My daughter seems to have only a very mild case of Covid.  That is good.  If it transfers to her husband, I pray it goes okay there too.

mtz