BROTHERS

Brother Bud loved school, and did very well in math and science. He liked the whole experience. I cannot remember him having any problems from start to finish. He loved junior and senior high school with a passion. The cadet band and school orchestra kept him busy as a bee and happy as a skunk. There were two years between us in school, so having him in the 9th grade when I started 7th grade and again (he in the 12th and I in the 10th) protected me. For some strange reason, all my best friends were in his class. By the 9th grade, I was full grown, 6' 1" with big blue eyes, a widow’s peak and a trace of a wave in my beautiful brunet hair. A 180 lbs of hunk, with a ruddy complexion with few zits. I was beautiful even then.

Poor Bud was 17 years old, a senior in high school and would tip the scale at 115 lbs and stood 5' 10" if he were wet and stood on his toes. He was blonde headed and fair skinned and had acne problems that left scars. He was so skinny that to pass the physical for the Navy he had to stoop and shrink as short as he could to pass the weight to height requirements. His heart always raced and the doctor had Bud sit and rest to the point of going to sleep so that the heart could slow down enough to pass the physical. His waist was not more than 22" if that. Clothing was passed from younger to older.

I was fearful of Bud going into the Navy at 17 1/2 years of age. How well I remember that time in our lives with Bud fast talking for all the reasons he had to go and Mom and Dad making sure he was not being their flighty 17 year old. Bud was so single minded about flying that there was no other choice for Dad but to sign his enlistment papers for the Navy V-5 training program. WW II was almost over, and I am sure Dad thought that would be the safest place for his namesake and eldest son.

V-5 Program was a Navel Reserve program that gave Bud a two year Georgia Tech college program, then on to flight school and chance to get his wings and a commission in the Navy Reserves. He remained on active duty in the Reserve for the next 27 plus or minus years. That must be a record for a reservist to remain that many years on active duty. He had to give up his active flying and go into the active Navy in order to be promoted to CAPTAIN his final years to the big 30. He was Commanding officer of the Naval Air Reserve Unit at the Naval Air Station, Alameda, California. 1976 was his retirement year, and the beginning of a new life as a retired gentleman on the sometimes slippery hill side of one of California’s slippery hills in LaFayette CA.

I remember going to school and crying for the next 16 years. I did not like school and school did not like me. I was always the big kid in class and got the B’s and D’s mixed. Then they called it dumb, so I was the big dumb kid in class. The teachers were not helpful until 6th grade when I had Miss Dolly Smith. She let me ring the bell and help the janitor. For that I had to work and try harder. She also told me that I could at least be on time and not miss any days. From that day on I had perfect attendance and was on time for the next ten years. And somehow got through it. I still remember as I packed the car to leave Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) for the last time how happy it was to be free at last.

The best description that I can give of our difference is our approach to the edge. When we were Boy Scouts, (he was 14 and I was 12), we went on a hike along the Potomac River. When we had climbed to the top of the gorge Bud would walk out on the edge of the ledge and hang his toes off into space to get the best view. I was so afraid he would fall to the rocks below and end up hamburger that I never went on another hike with him. I was not afraid of heights but only got six foot close to the edge, so that if I tripped my head would not hang over into space. Besides I did not know if that solid rock ledge would not fall due to my weight. All the rocks below came from above sometime in the past. How many reasons do you want? I thought of those too. But BUD never had a thought like that in his life. He knew that solid rock ledge had always been there and would always be there, and those rocks at the bottom were created at the bottom. I believe he could have flown without an airplane.

For years, I had a running dialog with Bud. Whenever we got together, I’d always say, “You have always been luckier than me our whole lives.” I don’t remember how many years, but it was many, it took for him to ask why I always said he was luckier than me? I said, “Because you have me for a brother and all I have is you.” Talk about devious little brother--I was it.

Bud kept growing long after his enlistment. Eventually he reached 6 foot and the waist never stopped growing until it reached about 36 to 38 inch. But he never was as handsome as I. But then he was luckier than me.

He died at 63 from Colon cancer. It was a long battle, and he fought his best in good spirits. It would have been so much fun to become old together. We had a lot of fun and good times as kids and would have had more fun as old kids.

I miss him more each year.