Bill Long. Living in Las Vegas, I was attending UNLV, and attending to completion of our nice new custom home, as well as my numerous projects, mostly car-related. I had advertised some item in our "Nifty Nickel" free ads paper, and a guy came out to the house: mountain of a guy, younger than me, 1974, I was 32, he was perhaps 26, single, at least 6 feet four, lean, strong as an ox. He asked if I had done all the rockwork on the house. Told affirmative, he said he thought so; he knew of no one in the valley who could have done it. I showed him my old '55 Ford pickup, with it's modern V-8 engine. He liked it. He respected me for what I could do! We got to know each other pretty well. Born and raised in Reno, his mother still lived there, he yearned for the cooler weather, but his living kept him in Vegas. He worked for a lumber yard downtown, Von Tobel's, a monument in Vegas from early in the century. In addition, he had a shop of his own, in a rented commercial building on Industrial Road, where he repaired vehicles. He also had machinery similar to my own, and had self-taught himself how to use them. Just like me! He had expensive welding equipment, far surpassing my little "buzz-box". He was the epitome of "self-made" individual, I realized. Not highly schooled, but he respected me for pursuing an Engineering Degree, though he disliked "Engineers in general", he conceded I would not be like them. He regarded "John Q. Public" as a bunch of "helpless A-holes" from whom he made a good living fixing their cars. No advertising, strictly word of mouth. Once at our house, it was very hot, and I offered him a beer. Turning it down, I sensed he would tell me why: once in a bar, some guy had really gotten his goat, took a swing at Bill, who then decked him. He said at that moment he realized that drinking might allow him to kill someone; he never took another drink! Self-made man, indeed! I took my new wife to meet him at his shop when we flew to Vegas from Indiana, to be married, in 1979. He was very polite, for him, and my wife liked him! I have not seen him since, nor made contact. Bill Long is/was one of those things keeping me "in the past". Frank
Sometimes the memories are better left that way. If @Frank Sanoica looks him up now, he might find a sick, feeble old man who bears no resemblance to the man he remembers.
I'm sure he's not young anymore, neither is Frank! Ive looked up some HS classmates on Facebook ...they've all aged, lol....what a surprise. Some better than others. I am friends with two.
When I see pictures of people who are 60 and look 90, it just upsets me that they could let themselves age like that. You will probably say "They can't help it,Hal!" But I say they could have helped it by living smarter, unless they were genetically cursed. Hal