Nice Guys Don't Always Finish Last

This morning I read the paper as is my usual way of starting the day.  The front page, the funnies and then the Obits.  I check the last one to make sure that I'm not there.  This morning I saw that a great friend to the Guard and fellow Guardsman Chief Master Sgt Melvin Simpson passes over the weekend.  He was one of the people that adopted the idea of a National Guard Museum and helped us make it happen.  For a long time, there was a vision of a museum dedicated to our history but there was just not anyone that could make the ideal and the money happen at the same time.  It is only fitting that the viewing tomorrow and the Funeral on Thursday will be held at the Museum.  I'm sure that a lot of the younger soldiers have no clue how hard he worked to make it happen.  In spite of the fact that there were always potential blockers to the Museum, I never heard him say a bad word about those people.  RIP Chief Simpson.


Reading about a departed friend always makes me wonder what really will be my legacy.  I'm sure that there are people that will say good things and some that won't.  One of my best things was to find and marry my wife Barbara.  I have often said that there are a lot of guys that would have benefited from having someone as strong as her in their life.   Can you imagine a Guy like Ex President Clinton if he had a wife that kept him in line?  If he had given up those cigars, he might have made it.   What would we have to say about Nixon if Barbs' sense of fair play had kept the Watergate idea in check?    Just how many damn toys and how broke would I have been without her guiding light.

The absolute bottom line is that if I were to die today, I hope that everyone would know how full a life I have lived and how I want Funny stories and not tears over my passing.  I don't want a funeral, but I sure do want a wake.  I want people to gather and laugh at the smiles in my life.   No, I don't want to go right now, but I don't fear death.  I have been shot at, shit on, poor, sick, healthy and wealthy.  Just remember my motto- Smile and make the Bastards wonder what you have been up to.  

MUD