Here's a nice story...
When Dean passed away, Mark and Mark (Riley and Herbert) were entrusted with the task of sorting through Dean's garage at his Phoenix home. I'd met and befriended Dean some years before while researching the Cal Look book and always kept in touch with him and Peggy, swapping stories and drinking his own brew of black coffee (the type you can stand a spoon in and it would either dissolve or stand straight up), while choking on his never ending cigarette smoke.
Anyway, I felt like I had 'connected' with Dean and it really grieved me when he passed away, especially as it seemed that part of it could be blamed on the hospital treatment he got. When Mark and Mark told me they were off to help Peggy go through Dean's stuff, I asked if they could bring me some small memento of this great man. I checked with Peggy and she was cool about it, too, as she said how Dean looked forward to our sadly infrequent meetings.
A few weeks later, when I was next over in SoCal, at a DQ evening, Mark and Mark came up to me and said 'We know Dean would have liked you to have this' and gave me a penknife. Now this was (is) no ordinary penknife. It had a blade worn down to almost nothing and had tiny splatters of purple paint on it. This was the penknife Dean carried with him throughout his racing life, using it to gap spark plugs at the track. It is priceless and the most treasured thing I own and I owe it all to Mark and Mark. Two great people. two outspoken know it alls (
) and two of the most fsacinating people I've met. Mark, Mark, Dean and Peggy, I thank you all. God bless.
The Cal-look Lounge
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