RIP Larry
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Helluva birthday present, wasn't it?
I'll miss the injun. Godspeed, old friend...
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What a sonofabitch he was...
But, I have to relate a story that he told years ago. I'm going to try to simplify it if I can. Gonna do it first-person, because it'll make more sense that way.
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One day, I was driving around the farm, and I was on a road in the back, where I never go. The road borders my property. I saw a bunch of guys cutting down trees. Oak, cherry, walnuts.
"Hey, what are you guys doing?"
"Harvesting these trees. Gonna sell the lumber."
"Who said you could do that?"
"The owner, she lives right over there."
"I'm the owner, and this is where my property is. The owner lives on the OTHER side of the road."
(lots of hemming and hawing by the guys)
So, I drove over to the owner of the adjacent property. She was an older woman, in her late 70s. She was a widow, and had a really hard time making ends meet. She broke down in tears, explaining that she needed the money to avoid foreclosure on her farm. By the time she finished the story, we were both in tears.
"So, what are we going to do?" I asked.
"I don't know. I feel so bad having stolen from you."
"How much do you owe on the mortgage?"
She told me the amount.
"Here's what we're going to do. I am going to pay off your mortgage. In return, you will sign over the property to me. You can live here as long as you wish, but I will charge you rent to live here, and you'll be responsible for taking care of the place, as though it were your own. When the time comes, and you die, the property will be mine to do with as I wish. I'll probably sell it and make a nice profit.
The rent will be $1 a year."
She lived another 5-6 years, and when she died, I did sell the property, and I made a tidy profit.
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True story? Who knows. He posted other stuff about what he does at Thanksgiving, etc. so I'm inclined to believe it.
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Damn.
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The world is a poorer place. That is tough news to take. The only good I see in it is that he didn't suffer long and for that I am grateful. Still, this world is diminished by his leaving. I always felt Larry was someone who could be trusted. I'm truly saddened to hear this news.
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"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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Steve.
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George - I saw your post on FB so checked to see if I could still log on here. Now that I'm on I see it was Larry. Condolences on his passing. It has been forever since I poked my head in the door and I wasn't connected to him on FB (doubt he was on FB). I do have very fond memories of Larry and Mark & I even had the chance to meet him once IRL when we were visiting some close friends that lived in the neighboring town. We visited the Antique store and got to chat for a bit. Such a great storyteller. RIP Larry
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Here's an archive of his contributions to RMMP that goes back to 1999.
https://groups.google.com/g/rec.music.makers.piano/search?q=larry fletcher&hl=en
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"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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Here's an archive of his contributions to RMMP that goes back to 1999.
https://groups.google.com/g/rec.music.makers.piano/search?q=larry fletcher&hl=en
Wow, Thanks for finding that.
Found the first post of somebody else there, from 2003:
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Actually, I'm on there before that, by another handle.
I was on Mr. Lamb's board, too.
I'm getting old. Or, as one of my friends told me in the hospital hallway this weekend, "We're becoming the people we used to take care of".
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Just a thought...Over the years, I wonder how many piano buying decisions Larry influenced? Not in person, just the internet stuff.
Larry, LB, Rick Clark...Those guys taught me a lot...
