CAC Benevolent Fund

Keelie Minnick One Year Old

This past weekend, I had the pleasure to drive to Lynchburg, Virginia to visit with my granddaughter Keelie Mildred Minnick and celebrate her first birthday. It's hard to believe that a year has passed since I wrote of her birth.

The weekend began on Thursday after an eight-hour day at work. I was eastbound at roughly 4 p.m. and headed towards Winchester, Virginia, home of Big John Studd and Patsy Cline. I pulled into the Red Roof Inn at 11:30 after I had put just over 400 miles on my body. I had been up since 5 a.m. that morning.

I was very happy to hit the mattress and count sheep. Friday morning, I rose at 7 a.m. and was on the road by 8:30, headed southbound on Interstate 81. As the miles clicked away towards Staunton, I began to think about all the 18 good summers my family had spent with The Statler Brothers. I also thought of all the wonderful friends that came our way every year to help us celebrate Happy Birthday U.S.A. with the folks of Shenandoah Valley, Virginia.

As I passed the exit at Bridgewater, the wonderful college that Steve and Teri attended, I got a big smile on my face. It was there that Teri and Steve graduated together and began their life into adulthood.

I suddenly looked down and saw that I needed to stop for fuel and pulled off at the Staunton exit. I was very familiar with this road, as I had traveled it many times coming to Virginia. I began to wonder what had happened to my friends the Halls and the Trayers and a few more that lived in the greater Staunton area.

I was soon off again and headed east towards Charlottesville, where I would pick up old Route 29 toward Lynchburg. Highway 29 is a laid back expressway of yesteryear, and most of it is governed by a 55-mile-per-hour limit. The 60 miles between the turnoff at I-64 and Lynchburg take as much time as the 100-mile drive from Winchester and Staunton.

The road winds through majestic countryside filled with many farms. Some have cattle and some horses; some even raise the finest grapes in that section of the country that make into the best wines.

As we pulled into Teri and Steve's drive, I was very happy to get out of the car, as was Cubby, my Sheltie dog. He had most of the back seat to himself the entire trip and is getting to be a great traveler.

We visited for nearly eight hours before falling asleep watching a movie in the basement theater that Steve designed. Saturday morning, we were awakened by Keelie, who let us know that she wanted attention and was not going to wait much longer. After breakfast, Teri and I went to get some shopping done before the party.

At roughly noon, Tom and Eileen Minnick, Keelie's other grandparents, and their daughter Lisa arrived from Maryland. It wasn't much afterwards that the party began. Keelie was having the time of her life, going from person to person and getting all the attention she could muster.

After opening all her presents, we cut her cake and gave her a chance at eating it any way she wanted to. Needless to say, she had it in her hair, all over her face, and all over her mom and their clothes as well. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.

Before you knew it, the party was over, and Lisa had to leave for college at Virginia Tech near Shawsville, Virginia, where I would be the next morning. We ended the evening about two hours later and retired to bed.

This is a day that I will remember for a long time to come. Keelie is getting to be a beautiful young lady, and I am so happy that she came into my life in 2003.

To be continued...

Percival A. Friend, Retired
The Epitome of Wrestling Managers