Okay, bear with me a sec on this, if you will. In this past Thursday’s Walt Garrison obit, we have this:
Garrison’s pro football career started before the NFL merger. So both the Cowboys and Kansas City Chiefs drafted him in 1966. The Cowboys gave him a convertible and a horse trailer as his signing bonus.
Bold mine, because what should turn up in the comments earlier today but this:
The horse trailer was manufactured by my father’s company: Miley Trailer Company, Fort Worth.
Walt supported a golf tournament recently. When he arrived the folks directing the supporters (mostly ex-Cowboys) to their parking area the attendant commented that Walt didn’t appear to be dressed for golf… His reply was “hell no! I’m here for the PARTY!”…. He was a blast to be around that day.
Now see, there are all kinds of reasons why this makes me giggle like a little schoolgirl upon finding a pony under the tree on Christmas morn. First, a little more backstory.
Yesterday, I received a user-registration request for one SmileyFtW, which got me wondering right away; see, years ago a mechanic at the old H-D shop on S Tryon named Smiley rebuilt my 71 FRLH Shovelhead motor gratis after it had shit the bed not long after I bought it from said shop. HM! I wondered. Could this possibly be Smiley the mechanic, a good friend of mine since the late 70s? What are the odds?
Now bear in mind, several years back I had heard from another Harley-mechanic friend of mine that Smiley, poor fella, was in a bad way; he’d closed his own independent Harley shop and was in the hospital, laid low by some rare form of cancer or other, not doing too well at all. So no, it didn’t seem at all likely that this SmileyFtW personage was my Smiley.
Then the comment was left, and I looked a little closer at CF User Smiley’s nick, noticing that it didn’t say “FTW” (Fuck The World, in the time-honored biker parlance), but rather “FtW,” with a lower-case “T,” doubtless adding up to Ft Worth.
S Miley, of Fort Worth, home of the Dallas Cowboys as well as the venerable Miley Trailer Company.
I ask again: what are the odds?
My ex used to ride me now and then thusly: “Why don’t you just shut that stupid website down? It doesn’t do you a damned bit of good, nobody cares, you don’t really make any money off it. It’s a waste of time. Just shut the damned thing down already!”
This latest crazy-wild slice of cosmic serendipity, from a line 22 years long of eerily similar incidents, that’s why. Though it may seem like much ado about very little to normal people, I don’t see it as a waste of time at ALL, and straight to hell with what money it does or does not make me. Many, many thanks to you, Smiley, for making my day like you did.
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Allow me to attempt to translate from womanese: Why are you spending time on something that doesn’t benefit me in any way???
Heh. We never were exactly what anybody would call a match made in heaven, that’s for sure. How that “union” (HA!) ever managed to produce such a wonderful daughter is something we’ve discussed more than once, and are both totally flummoxed by.