NIC NAMES                                                                                            

Rich had many nicknames over the years:  I called him "Rich";  when the kids wanted to be cute they called him "Boss" or "Cletus"; my mother used to call him "Clara Bell" and my father would some times call him "FT" [The Frequent Traveler]; everyone else in his family either called him "Rick", or "Ricky";  his father once introduced him to a group of people as "Dick"; some of his colleagues at work called him "Stretch", and "Richie"; his friends also had their share of names for him such as, "The Old RB"; and "A.H.".

Whenever he was not traveling, working overtime, or working on the house, he liked to watch television.  He liked the cooking channel, especially Emerl!  He also liked watching the history channel.  One of his favorite weekly shows was Jag.

If you knew Rich, this is an easy question to answer.  One of his biggest enjoyments in life was rooting for the Eagles.  He was a true fan and his loality never wavered. He used to go to the games no matter what the weather, and he would stay until the bitter end. He HATED Dallas. Paatrick would like to cheer for Dallas whenever they played the Eagles just to get on his father's last nerve. Every year he loved to go to the Eagle/Dallas game with his good friend Jimmy MacKelvey. He also liked the Phillies.  In 1980, when we were much younger, we slept over night at the vet [with a group of family and friends] in order to get seats for the World Series. We were there to see Pete Rose make batting history in 1981.  I believe it was August 8th.  I remember that day because it was my due date for Carolyn.  I was nine months pregnant and walking up to the nose bleed seats in the Vet!  

FAVORITE DANCE

Only a select few know the answer to this question.  Rich's favorite dance was the "JAILHOUSE STRUT" appropriately named after the Jailhouse that used to be near Drexel University.  He and his college buddies would frequent this bar and after a few pitchers, Rich would be struting his stuff up and down the bar in and around all of the tables!  His legs used to be very, very skinny. [When I first met him, he was 6'4"  and weighed 130 pounds] so his sweat socks would keep falling down around his ankles.  Imagine a lanky guy with skinny legs and big sweat socks moving and grooving carrying two pitchers of beer.

FAVORITE ACTRESS

Rich's favorite actress was Meredith Baxter Birny.  He even had a nic name for her, he called her "Pretty Teeth!"  

FAVORITE SONG

Rich really didn't have a favorite all time song.  He liked to listen to all types of music.  He liked marching band music since he played clarinet in the Cardinal Dougherty band for 4 years.  He liked to listen to groups like Simon and Garfunkel.  Our song was "You Light Up My Life" by Debbie Boone.  I sang this to him on our wedding day.    

FAVORITE DRINK

 He used to like to drink Scotch [the older the better], but when he was younger he couldn't afford to drink this a the time, so beer became his number one choice. The type of beer changed with his moods.  In the summer, he would like to drink pony bottles of Rolling Rock because this beer was cheap, light, and didn't get warm before he finished it.  One time while he was working in the yard [he LOVED to have GREEN grass] a wasp flew into the Rolling Rock that he was drinkimg. When he took a swallow [Rich could really take big gulps], he swallowed the wasp and it stug his throat. I had to rush him the the ER.He also like Guiness and Bass mixed together.  He liked to try all different types of beer.  He was thrilled when he received a beer maker for Christmas, but he didn't get to make "Cunningham Lager".  When I get time, I am going to make a batch of this beer, if you want me to save you one, just email me and let me know!!  

FAVORITE VACATION SPOT

Rich loved the mountains and HATED the shore!  Guess where we vacationed for 22 years?  You guessed it....the shore.  He loved to hate it the whole entire time!  For 21 years we stayed at the same hotel, in the same exact room, basically around the same time. Our frinds, The Arbeiters. would be our shore buddies for many of those years.[One year we decided to be wild and crazy so we rented a house with Jim and Liz]. Rich's highlight of the entire vacation was when he would sit out on the veranda...tap a minni keg....and eat crabs all afternoon.  This was even more enjoyable when he did this with his best friend, Jim.  

FAVORITE FOOD

Rich loved cooking food almost as much as he loved eating it!  His favorite type of food was seafood.  He enjoyed going to Chickie and Pete's.  Whenever he went on travel to Maine, he would make sure that he brought home lobsters.  He would have lobster races on our front porch.  The loosing lobster would be the first to get put into the pot!  His favorite dish to make was "Concoction".  One night he just threw whatever we had in the kitchen in a pot and cooked it.  Everyone loved it!  Every time he make it, of course it was different depending on the ingredients that we had one had.  He also loved eating his mother's turkey soup and turkey stuffing. 

FAVORITE PHILOSOPHY

Rich had a few favorite philosophies one of which was "It is easier to ask forgiveness than permission."  Another one was:  "Why not?"    He believed that team work was the best kind of work and he never said ......I can't......he believed....."I can't means I won't!"