A 'Bill' story:
My best friend Bill died unexpectedly of an aneurism yesterday.
I posted about that. Thanks for all the kind thoughts.
This is about Bill.
He had an electronics company. When I met him the factory was in Japan. They were making FM radio tuners and color TV tuners. If you had a Motorola radio or a Zenith TV, you probably had one of his tuners.
Bill decided (wisely, so it turned out) to expand into the leisure time market.
He started making fish finders. FishHawk was the brand name.
Of course there was a considerable R&D effort before actual production began.
So Bill called me and Stan (another buddy in the neighborhood) and said "ROAD TRIP! We need to test our new FishHawk. We're going fishing for lake trout in Canada. I'll cover the expenses. You guys are temporarily on the payroll at zero pay, butt all expenses covered by the corporation."
Well hell yes!
It was about a 10 hour drive from our near Chicago 'burb to Thunder Bay, Ontario.
We stayed at a fishing camp in a cabin heated by a wood cook stove. We did have indoor plumbing, but it was pretty primitive.
My best memory of the trip:
I think it was spring. Anyway it was cold and raining.
Bill and I were in one boat and Stan was in the other with our local guide.
I'm soaked through and shivering.
Bill looks at me and says "Are you having a good time?"
"No. You?"
"No. Why are we doing this? Fuck it. Let's go dry out and get a drink."
And we did.
Bill's dad started the company that Bill kind of 'inherited'.
He had worked with Bill Lear at Motorola in the early days.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Your story made me smile and reminded me of some camping trips I've taken.
"Why are we doing this?"
We lived next door to each other.
Bill and I would have a drink (or two or three) over the back yard fence.
One of us would say (didn't matter which one) "What are y'all having for dinner tonight?"
"Tacos."
"We're having Chinese."
"Want to combine 'em?"
"Sure, why not?"
This made for some interesting meals.
What a character he was. He was lucky too, since you lived next door. You've turned into his chronicler, his story-teller.
He will live in all our memories now.
We should all be so lucky, to have someone next door like you.
