vaxjedi | A Toast or Two....

This is a story in two parts. First a memoriam. Then the odd bit of my day that caused it.

When I was around 11 or so, my father worked at a place called Thousand Trails. It was a memebership campground sort of thing, like KOA, but much nicer. He was a salesperson, selling memberships. So, for much of the summer, I would spend time there. My father even worked it into his sales pitch. He told me to come over and ask for money whenever I wanted, even if he was on a pitch. Then he'd work me into the pitch "This is such a nice place. I feel perfectly comfortable letting my son run loose for the day..." etc.

Anyway, while slouching about at Oakzinita campground in Cuyamaca, CA, I met a nice older couple, Art and Regina Burke. Art was a former electrical engineer in the military. Regina always just asked to be called 'Mom'. They kinda took me in. They had a little pickup camper, but it had a TV and VCR in it and they had a bunch of videos and Art has a portable Commodore 64 computer (big as a suitcase with a screen about the size of a CD case, but it was cool). We'd play computer games, watch videos and hang out. Occasionally, one of their niece's or nephew's kids would be there to and we'd mess around.

When my father no longer worked there, I still went to see Art and Mom. Sometimes at Oakzinita, sometimes at their house in San Diego. It was a nice little place. In the back, Art had a bunch of computers and computer parts and dozens of dubbed videos - so many he had to make a catalog and number the tapes to keep track of them.

When I moved from the San Diego mountains to the suburban sprawls of San Bernadino county, I lost track of Art and Mom. I called them a few times, when to see them a few times, but as I grew older and became a teenager, I sort of wandered off.

Art was a mentor to me in some ways. He is the reason I got into computers. He taught me some BASIC. He taught me binary numbers. He got me online - he introduced me to Quantumlink, an online service for C64 users (you may have heard what it turned into - they call it America OnLine nowadays). He gave me my first modem, a 300 baud that plugged into the cartridge port on my C64.

I'd wondered what had happened to them several times over the years. Kept meaning to find out. I thought he would have been interested to find out I got a degree in Computer Science.

I found out today that Art passed away in January. And that Mom had passed away in 96. I wished I'd have known - I would have liked to paid my respects to them properly. I guess I have another person to mourn on Samhain this year.

So, to end my first story, a toast to Arthur and Regina Burke, who took in a lonely little kid and shared their home with him for little bits at a time.

*crash*

Story number 2...

I found this out because of a call today. I had stayed home from work to get some rest. I get woken up by Chris at noon, telling me that I have a phone call from a Life Insurance company.

The person asks me if I know Arthur Burke. I say yes, I haven't talked to him in almost 15 years. She rattles off a list of names and asks me if I know any of them. I tell her I remember two of them, they were kids I used to hang out with when with Art. She asks me if I know where they are. I say no, I haven't seen them for about 15 years either.

She tells me that Art passed away in January. I ask about mom, they say she passed away in 96.

Then she says Art named me as a beneficiary of Art's life insurance plan. And all teh other names she listed were named as well. She has been trying to track down all of us to send out the checks.

I haven't seen Art in 15 years. But he named me a beneficiary. And the other people, they are all kids they used to take care of and entertain. He left his life insurance to the kids he used to watch, even the ones that weren't his family. And the ones he hadn't heard from. They said that I'd hear from them in a week or so after confirming my address. I was so stunned by ALL of it, that I forgot to get their name or contact info. I just hung up the phone.

So, my second toast is to Art and Mom again. To two people who never forgot the people they cared about, even when the people that they cared about had forgotten them. May I have that sort of compassion someday.

*crash*