My friend, Dick Edmonds, died about 2.5 years ago. We knew each other from Banker's Life Nebraska and rode together to work and argued about Richard Nixon, it was the early 1970's.
Every year, the first weekend in October, we would travel to his cottage, later his house, at Battle Lake, Minnesota and prepare for winter. His cousin from Wayne would often go with us, and sometimes others. Always work and good food. This went on for over 20 years.
Dick was 10 years older than me and his son, Rick, described his death to me as "his body and mind just wore out." So true for a lot of us. Dick had an affinity for Battle Lake that was similar to my connection with the farm where I grew up. His family lived in Cincinnati, and that was the source of some of his stories.
One of my favorites was about the mother of a friend who was having trouble with her garbage collection. She lived in an older section of the city with alleys, and the garbage men came early, about 5 AM. In order to communicate her wishes, she arose at 4:00 AM, put on her best dressing gown, pinned a broach that always caught attention, and waited. Soon enough, they came by, she went to the alley and talked to them about her problem. Not well-received. Promptly at the time when city offices opened, she called the man in charge and told him that she had explained her issue to the garbage collectors and they sassed her and just didn't act like gentleman. In a tired voice (delivered with Dick's characteristic grin) the supervisor said, "Madame, you can't imagine how difficult it is to get gentlemen to pick up garbage."
Another favorite involved Kentucky, right across the river. He worked in the mortgage world all his professional career, and they had a customer there who required a visit. Evidently, the first name "Turley" is common among the old-time residents, and in this case, it was coupled with the last name "Curd." Again, the grin, then "You had to be careful."
I visited him at his residence in an assisted living facility about 6 months before his death. He had trouble finding words and would pause many times in a sentence to find it or move on to another topic. One time this happened and the pause lasted until he said, "Man, you've gotten fat." Which is true, but not often spoken so clearly!
Every now and then I run into a quote or story that I know Dick would have liked. And I tell it to him.
