Tales ‘ Such – Views
When Ted was 3 he was as my friend Mike Vancil would say a real Giggle These
are just several of some of the more funny things that happened to him.
I was working at my auto repair shop one day and Ted came in and asked me Dad
do you have 48 cents I said yes I do, then Bub said will you give me that 48
cents and I said sure you can have it. Then he said well you give me that 48
cents but you keep it and I will give you 52 cents then you give me a dollar? Well
what do you think of that!!!!
Some time later maybe weeks later I had bought
Bub some caps for a cap gun he had and as I was working he was firing this cap
gun repeatedly over and over again. Well I thought I should investigate so I
went out side and confronted him I said Bub if you use up all those caps like
that you wont get any more, I wont Dad he said so I went back to work, then I
heard this big BOOM and I looked around the building and he had a big rock and
was smashing a whole roll of caps at a time, Soon the noise stopped and as I
worked I soon noticed two little eyes peeping around the corner of the door
that opened in to the shop. When I saw him I said hi and he said I aint got no
more caps dad, I said well that is to bad. About that time my brother Jerry
came driving in to the yard and Bub said OH boy there is uncle Jerry, I yelled
at him as he ran to the car don’t you dare ask uncle Jerry to buy some more
caps and he said I wont dad. The next thing I new Bub and uncle Jerry went into
the small grocery store that was in front of my shop in about 20 minuets they
came out and Bub had a whole carton of caps. I looked at him and said Bub I
told you not to ask uncle Jerry to buy you more caps, he said I didn’t dad, I looked
at Jerry and the clerk and they were rolling on the steps next to the store
laughing there heads off, when Jerry stopped he told me what had happened. It
seems when they went in to the store Ted was just tall enough to get his nose
up onto the counter and look into a large box of small cartons caps and he
said!.Uncle Jerry if you was to buy some of these caps and you didn’t want ’em
I’d take um? At only three. God I miss him.
Some place between the age of 2-3 Bub was fascinated with cars or any thing that moved made a noise or made a sound or wiggled, shimmered, was shinny or made something move like all the dials and leavers in a car. I had a terrible time with him when he was in the car he would turn on the radio move all the vent leavers try to shift or roll down the windows, I thought I might have to tie him to the seat, (as my old 49 Buick convertible had no seat belts at that time). One evening the five of us were just parking at the local convenience store and we had to park on a steep grade going up to the store just off the street, I parked put the big Buick in reverse (as there was no park in that year car) and we went into the store leaving the kids in the car. After about twenty minuets the girls came running in the store screaming that Bub was driving the car in trying to calm them down to tell me what happened my father in law came in shouting what the hell was I doing driving like that he had to swerve to miss me as I came out in to the street. Well I am no dummy it didn’t take me long to figure something was not right and I ran out to the car. Bub had pulled the car out of reverse and it had backed down the drive way and in to the street and Bub had steered it back into the parking lot where it stopped. I knew the girls were in the store but where was Bub he was now where in site had he ran away, a hundred thoughts ran through my mind, I searched all over the parking lot and the car where was he. His mother was going crazy she ran up the street calling she was frantic. I thought and I thought where could he be so I took one last look in the car behind the convertible top no not there, under the seat how could he there the seats had all the power seat hydraulics under there but I looked any way but could not see any thing, it was dark so I got a flashlight
and stood on my head and looked and there was a tuft of blond hair under there I said bub are you under the seat and in a little squeaky he said yes and BOY was I relived. So I surveyed the situation trying to figure out how he had gotten under there maybe we would have to remove the seats. There were no paramedics then so we were on our own. After surveying the problem I determined that if he got under there he had to come out the same way so after some time of wiggling, squirming and a little crying we got him out and I was never so happy to see him in my whole life. (OH he never touched the buttons or the leavers in the car again)
Ted was only 8 years old at the time
IN 1968 Ted was hustler he worked on every bicycle and motorcycle in the
neighborhood, When his friends could not make it go they would come to our
house and Ted would fix it for them and I mean he would make them run. Well one
day when I was in Detroit at one of our sponsored riders who just happened to
the world famous pitcher for the Detroit Tigers, winner of 21 games and the
world series that year and my friend Micky Lolich. I was delivering the Mick a
new bike that we had made just for him. Then I left and went home and upon
arriving home and parking I turned off the lights then I realized there was
something wrong so I whipped the lights back on and that is when I saw the big
burned spot up the side of the of the house and I jumped out of the car and ran
to the house and looked in side, it smelled and looked a burned house. Well
about that time the girls came running from the neighbors house and told me
that Bub had burned the house down, Then they waited for me to get after Bub
for what he had done, but I was just glad that every one was all right. Now for
what happened well it seems that Ted was going to fix a friends 175 Kawasaki
motorcycle that was not running right so they took it in the basement that was
just off our drive down under the bedroom garage. They decided that they need
to take off the gas tank and unbolted and pulled it off the cycle but failed to
remember to remove the leveling tube under the gas tank, that keeps both sides
of the tank level with gas. As you can guess when he set the tank down on the
floor the gas ran down and under the hot water heater and when it ignited the
gas on the floor went up in flames. The kids ran out of the house and made sure
that no one was left in the house. The fire got so hot it melted the gas meter
off the wall and the raw gas was roaring in to the basement and almost burned
the house to the ground.
Well some brave firemen came and saved the basic structure and we were able to
rebuild. Our Friends and my boss at the time Dave and Linda Mehney of Kawasaki
Midwest who I worked for as the District Manager for Kawasaki Motorcycles took
Ted for two weeks while we looked for a place to live and rebuild our house. I
really miss good people like that.