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Admin
Posts: 2297
Location: Renton, WA | Subject: Missing Cowboy and others....
I find myself missing the ol' cowpoke... and his generosity! Most don't know how generous the Cowpuncher was! Bob Harrison was the guiding light for me in the early days... and now his calming voice is all but gone. Mr. Parks is one I never had the pleasure to know but I chatted with him some on occasion to keep the mututal; familiy websites going. There are many others... that's what make this place worth hanging out, I guess.
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Plankowner
Posts: 9165
Location: Upper lefthand corner of the map. | Subject: RE: Missing Cowboy and others....
Too many holes poked into this and other BBS over the years. I still read Bob Harrisons poems an wonder, for a skimmer, what kind of boat sailor he would have made and I still miss his wit and charm . Going way back, for those of you who were on and remember the CAUSS BBS, John Sluski, another who wrote prose with a fine hand, many of us were chatting with him when he passed sitting at his keyboard. We wondered why he stopped typing when he did. It was later we learned why. It was my pleasure to be befriended by him at the '97 Mobile convention. He gave Denisse the tiny set of dolphins he was wearing as a earring when she commented on on it. I still wear them on my vest. Ol'Gringo was a great guy and a shock to us all when he left on patrol, Hand Salute sailor! Cowboy! What can be said? I pull the Bash tape out and view it from time to time and a tear rolls down my face when I think of his passing too soon. (Also for those 3 really terrible idiots in grass skirts who couldn't sing their way out of a wet paper bag.) Ms Lumpy Bumps sent me and the other two idiots a framed copy of "Cowboys Last Kiss" and I look at it everyday. There have been a number of others that have left holes as they have left us. John Patterson was so sudden and he left us before we know there was a problem.
Hand Salute Shipmates!!! I will remember you at today's Tolling Of The Boats I will be going to.
COWBOY'S LAST KISS (little did we know)
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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 2561
Location: Rapid City, SD | Subject: RE: Missing Cowboy and others....
Remember Dakota Slim today, also, Ric.
Cora |
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Great Sage of the Sea
Posts: 811
Location: NW Connecticut | Subject: RE: Missing Cowboy and others....
I never had the honor of meeting "Cowboy" but he was among the first to welcome me to the BBS world of Sub Vets.
For the year or so that we exchanged posts and emails I grew to become very fond of him and felt as though I did know him. I couldn't make the Blast and I am really sorry I didn't. He is missed..Especially when the boards get quiet and suddenley he would post up at around 2am EST starting an entertaining tread that would carry on for hours.
A rare and unselfish man for sure.. Nice reminder Don... |
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Plankowner
Posts: 9165
Location: Upper lefthand corner of the map. | Subject: RE: Missing Cowboy and others....
I did |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1405
Location: Houston, TX (Best state in the US) | Subject: RE: Missing Cowboy and others....
ya know, Ric, I'm glad you said "the other two idiots" which means you still consider yourself as one of the three idiots! (And I wouldn't argue, hee hee hee.)
Good post, Don....Never had the chance to meet Ol Gringo.....would have loved to......Thanks to some recent emails, I'm finding that it's best to look at what things we have in common with each other rather than those things that separate us......
I might draw the line, though at Doc Gardner rummaging through my wife's dresser and my liquor cabinet! Somethings you just shouldn't do.....
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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 3202
Location: Alexandria, Virginia | Subject: RE: Missing Cowboy and others....
I have all of the Sons of the San Juaquin albums and play them all the time...never play them that I don't think of the Old Cowboy.....and Old Gringo's son Jim Parks was kind enough to send me a framed picture of his Dad standing topside watch on the old S-39 swinging the hook in Cavite. It's one of my most wonderful treasures.....I agree, there isn't a bad gene in either Harisson....they'll both qualify for the "fifteen sins or less" speed line at the Pearly Gates. It's wonderful to have a seat in Gentry's Magical Mule Train.....DEX |
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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 3202
Location: Alexandria, Virginia | Subject: There are exceptions...Doc Gardner being one of them.
Doc got totally and irretrievably contaminated by serving in close proximity to jarheads...You remember the old,"I'd rather have a sister that was a whore, than a brother in the Corps"...Doc was a Corpsman attached some kind of frontline Marine outfit...slept in locations self respecting snakes stayed the hell away from...ate artificialy created food out of rusty cans...sitting in a swamp...in the rain...and what did the Marines do for Doc? They got the poor bastard shot at alot...They hauled him out to where he could have become badly hurt or rendered totally and absolutely DEAD.... Then Doc got this lung powered noise machine, that wakes up small animals at eight hundred yards and triggers armadillo erections. Doc is beyond salvage...Dave you should have told your bride to keep her undies in a Mosler Safe and you should keep a couple of cotton mouth snakes in your bar locker. Remember, If you feed Doc...he'll hang around your backyard and bark all night. DEX |
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Old Salt
Posts: 431
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Ill miss Cowboy with a tear and smile until its my turn to slip mooring lines and sail off on Eternal Patrol.
Edited by Boy Throttleman 2008-08-16 5:23 PM
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Great Sage of the Sea
Posts: 561
Location: Belleview, Fl | Subject: RE: Missing Cowboy and others....
The days when CAUSS was up in running were some of the best, a lot of friends were made back then and I have met some of them and others that have been on this and other BBS's and it was an honor to be called a shipmate by those whom have passed. Cowboy was a man that was my friend that I never met face to face but talked to once or twice on the phone and he had a heart of gold, Bob "spider" Spide sadly passed in a D.C. retirement home when Katrina mowed the place that he had called home for a number of years, Gringo was another whom I looked up to and sadly never met before he left us too early. How many of you remember the name of the Brat's bar that she had set up for us on the internet??? a lot of fun was had there and I had the honor to meet her here at Eustis when she was brought up here on active duty and then talked her (didn't take much) into going back to the Torsk and bringing some of her detachment with her for a work weekend and then finally meeting her dad and working with him during last years work weekend and setting down and having a nice tall cool one was an experiance that I will never forget. Because of this and other bbs's I have made numerous friends and shipmates and it has rekindled a part of me that I thought was gone a number of years ago.
Thanks Don for keeping this bbs up and running for us miscreants of the deep, don't know what I would be doing these days had it not been for this and other bbs's..
Darrin |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 2254
Location: Foothills of the Ozarks | Subject: RE: Missing Cowboy and others....
You can put me in the category of having become good friends with people I never met in person. Cowboy and I used to talk on the phone regularly but I never had the chance to meet him in person; I did get the chance to meet Bob Spider at the convention in Saratoga. Like many of you I have read Bob Harrison and "Ol Gringo's" posts but never met them and came to the BBS after they had "slipped their lines" for the final time. But their writing and photos live on thanks to the magic of the BBS.
It's real quiet here in "The Big Mitten" this morning and a good time for quiet reflection.
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Senior Crew
Posts: 102
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I have a weather site bookmarked, and within that site my "favorite" locations appear each time I open the site. Of course, Raymond is still on the list. I check that site at least twice per day, so . . .
Today we are a month from the third anniversary of losing the Cowpoke. I miss him more as time goes on. Your class act the morning you left the last Bash remains inspiring, Don!
Wish we all weren't so far apart. I've not yet been able to bring myself to open the bottle of Remy that Gary gave me. As long as it is sealed, I have his spirit trapped in there, I guess. Maybe next time a few of us can get together we'll share it.
Bill
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Plankowner
Posts: 9165
Location: Upper lefthand corner of the map. | Subject: RE: Missing Cowboy and others....
I don't drink Bill, (my choice, my wife was a recovering drinker so I didn't either), but I'll take a sip with you to honor Gary when you do.
Ric |
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Admin
Posts: 2297
Location: Renton, WA | Subject: RE: Missing Cowboy and others....
...I'm finding that it's best to look at what things we have in common with each other rather than those things that separate us...... Words to live by Dave... thanks! |
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Great Sage of the Sea
Posts: 602
Location: Visalia, Ca. | Subject: RE: Missing Cowboy and others....
Bill Linne - 2008-08-17 6:31 AM
I have a weather site bookmarked, and within that site my "favorite" locations appear each time I open the site. Of course, Raymond is still on the list. I check that site at least twice per day, so . . .
Today we are a month from the third anniversary of losing the Cowpoke. I miss him more as time goes on. Your class act the morning you left the last Bash remains inspiring, Don!
Wish we all weren't so far apart. I've not yet been able to bring myself to open the bottle of Remy that Gary gave me. As long as it is sealed, I have his spirit trapped in there, I guess. Maybe next time a few of us can get together we'll share it.
Bill
Bill, you should know by now that that ain't how it works!
Cowboy was a free spirit, you could never bottle him up like a genie, no matter how good the liquor in it.
I felt his presence there at the Last Bash, heard him whispering to me every time the breeze rustled the oak branches. For each of us whose lives he touched, a part of him still lives within us, in our memories, and in our hearts.
For Cowboy, and all our Departed Shipmates, we may not feel the handshake, nor share the hearty laughter, but as long as we remember, they are not truly gone from us. And in due course, when our Final Orders are written, we will set sail for that Final Anchorage, and be reunited with them again.
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New on board
Posts: 3
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Thought I would respond . . . . I miss them also. We had a wake for Old Gringo in So Cal . . . . . oh how we laughed and cried! Cowboy and one other gal attended . . . . I cannot remember her name . . . . had a relative perish on the Thresher I think. Anyhoo, Cowboy was there, drove quite a piece to honor OG even tho they never met. Tom's family and friends sure did enjoy their presense.
I have said it before, and I want you to REALLY understand how much all of you and these boards ment to Tom in his last years. He didn't savy computers all that well anyway, and to reside in the Yucatan and have to get his machine worked on in another language was head banging frustration at best. Tom's final couple a years were GOOD active years, and you folks were so good to Dad . . . you were a huge part of his life, just as his mates on S39 and the Sailfish were back then.
JG Parks |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1814
Location: Boydton, Virginia | Subject: RE: Missing Cowboy and others....
WOW!! What a thread you created, Don! best I have read in years! It has brought out the silver tongue best in us. (Didn't I predict that Jim Parks' posting would wake up ol' Dex?)
I miss the Cowboy, Old Gringo, Bob Harrison and others who have gone on final patrol, but we have the watch now and there is a lot of talent among this watch station if we care to listen and enjoy.
Thanks for being SHIPMATES, one and all!!
Steamboat sends |
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Missing Cowboy and others....
