Rip

On Thanksgiving my uncle Wayne White passed away. It was unexpected, though his health hadn't been very good for the past couple of years. Our family was around, which was great and if he'd had a choice I think he would have been okay with the circumstances.

Wayne was a character straight out of a movie, a charismatic person in in cowboy boots, a fast car, and more tall tales than I had ever heard from any ten sources before. I would come to know in later years that many of them were true. Though at face value it was almost impossible to say witch.

He was a restless person and didn't like to stay in one place all that long. He stayed with us often when I was a kid and had a toothbrush at our house for years. As a little kid I would wonder into his room and wake him up, he's always get up and play with me whether he wanted to or not. As soon as he stood up I would say "boots!" and he would put on his boots, hand him his watch "tick tock!" pull him into the bathroom and say "teeth!" and after he brushed his teeth I would pull him off to play in my room or to go watch cartoons . At this point he would be wearing only his boots, watch, and underpants, but went along with me anyway laughing the whole time.

As I got older he didn't stay with us as frequently, but we remained close. My family always went on at least on trip a year with him and his wife Janice. It could be Helen, or the mountains in North Carolina, or even Mexico Beach Florida to the Driftwood Inn, witch will always have a place in my heart. Mexico Beach became something of a ritual and every year from ages 11-15 we went with Wayne down to the gulf and we would eat shrimp and oysters, and go to Tyndall air force base to find shells. To this day all over the Driftwood Inn grounds if you know where to look, you will see two W's with a circle around them.

He knew people everywhere, or so I thought at the time. This was often true, but as often as not his "friends" were perfect strangers. He treated nearly everyone like a friend and could strike up a conversation with a rock. It didn't even need to be a particularly bright rock.

Wayne was bigger than life in a lot of ways, he had been on a NASCAR pit crew and knew Richard Petty and Dale Earnhart. He claims to have changed tires for both during races, because at that time he was the fastest. I have heard from other sources than him that this is true, so it could be. He also would tell of how they would bend the rules to get an edge, I won't get into details and risk incriminating anyone but I will tell you this NASCAR is the 1970's was probably at least as ingenious as NASA in the same era.

What most people remember about Wayne is the flash, he loved effect it may have been what he was best at. He wore two tone shirts before Garth Brooks, had fast cars and had a dramatic flair unrivaled by all but the most over the top Hollywood actors.

He let me drive his Camero on an actual road when I was eleven, a move that no other adult I know would have made, but he did. Often we would get a phone call from a strange number,invariably it would be Wayne saying, "guess where I am." He could be anywhere, but it was always somewhere you wanted to be. The beach, mountains, wherever.

 I tried this same thing my sophomore year of college to equally dramatic, but disastrous results. My parents still groan about it three years later.

All the things I remember most about him are just scratching the surface. In more recent years I would discover he was intelligent, thoughtful, a pain in the ass, and one of the most genuine people I have ever met. If Wayne didn't like you there was probably a good reason for it and it was your loss. If he made you mad it was probably because you loved him.

A few years ago, I think it was Easter, the year after my Gran-Gran passed away I was walking out to his car with him because he "had to go" which he often did. After saying our goodbyes he turned around gave me a hug, and said, "I love you buddy" with a sheepish almost embarrassed grin.

He will be sorely missed by everyone who knew him friends, family, all of the customers of his extermination business who he would surely count as friends also,and everyone else who knew\\
 and I think he would be happy to be missed. At his memorial yesterday there were few dry eyes and I think he would have approved.

So I titled this post Rip but it is not by any means "rest in peace", Wayne was known as "Rip" by many people though I never knew how he got that moniker. Never thought to ask, it just fit. Sort of how like you don't think of why we call automobiles "cars". He has peace now, but I doubt he would be happy resting.

 As I write this I can hear him saying to someone right now, "well, I gotta go".