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In Memory Of Gary Barr


other dog

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When I left Sunday headed to Erie,Pa. I called Ma to tell her I wouldn't be in the Christmas parade this year. She said ''you knew Gary Barr died didn't you?". No, I didn't.Gary was an old friend,been knowing him since high school.Been driving a truck all his life practically-he changed the date on his license to run double to California with me in 1979 because he was too young to run out of state, and he had been driving for several years then,even owned his own truck and leased it on with H.H.Moore Jr. Trucking Co. in Appomattox,Va. hauling wood chips to Covington,Va. Was an old 7400 White daycab, with a 220 Cummins and 10 speed. We ran together until I quit, and soon after they caught up with the license deal so the let him go,but told him to come on back when he did turn 21 because he must know what the hell he was doing.Years later Barry Warner and myself were on the way to Boston one night loaded with structural steel and ran across him on 95 between Washington and Baltimore. Gary was driving for P.L.Duncan then,Barry and I drove for H.H.Moore. We stopped in Baltimore and "hung out" for a couple of hours( you could do more,or 'get away with' way more then than now!), then Barry and I rode the rest of the night to be in Boston by 7 am...but we made it.

When I stopped at his house and took the pictures of the Diamond T it was the first time i'd seen him in years. He was driving for Abilene, had been with them a pretty good while.We talked in his shop,and he showed me the truck and told me how he'd found it in N.Y. and brought it back in an Abilene van. I printed the same 2 pictures I posted here full page size on my best photo paper and mailed them to him.When I saw the parade entries listed in the Farmville Herald, I noticed one said "In Memory of Gary Barr" but it just didn't register-I thought he had the Diamond T in the parade in memory of his Dad or something,but no,it was him. His Mother called him to come eat dinner last Monday night and when he didn't answer she went out to his shop and found him dead of an apparent heart attack. He was only 49,and a truck driving son of a gun!

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Well damn, never easy to lose a friend that you go back a few years with. Especially one that is fond of the same things as you through the years.

Sorry for the loss to yourself, and the family.

Rob

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It seems that no matter how bad things in our lives look -

we don't have to look far to see someone with worse things

to deal with.

At least your friend passed quickly, and doing what he loved.

Sorry for the loss.

Paul VS

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It seems that no matter how bad things in our lives look -

we don't have to look far to see someone with worse things

to deal with.

At least your friend passed quickly, and doing what he loved.

Sorry for the loss.

Paul VS

This is true. Of course we have no choice in the matter, but I told Jeff i'd rather go out like Gary or my best friend David,who died of a heart attack at the wheel several years ago (also 49!), than like my wife died, suffering with cancer for 2 years.

Gary and I hadn't been real close or anything over the years,but we went back a long ways, and I had just stopped to see him and took a couple of pictures of the Diamond-T a couple of months ago.

...and he was 3 years younger than myself.

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Well, if anything, it gives you a sense of your own mortality. From the inside, looking out through my own eyes I'm still 16. What a shock and a disappointment when I see myself looking back in the mirror. I like 16, I thought I would live forever. Unlike Hank Jr. whose rowdy friend's have settled down. All of mine are checking on out. Since growing up is not an option, I refuse to do so, I guess I'll have to start looking for some younger friends. I am sorry for the loss of your friend Gary. I learned early on that in order to have friends , you have to show yourself friendly. You certainly do that. To have really close friends requires a bond of trust and fellowship. That comes a little harder, and makes such a loss hurt even more. James

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Well, if anything, it gives you a sense of your own mortality. From the inside, looking out through my own eyes I'm still 16. What a shock and a disappointment when I see myself looking back in the mirror. I like 16, I thought I would live forever. Unlike Hank Jr. whose rowdy friend's have settled down. All of mine are checking on out. Since growing up is not an option, I refuse to do so, I guess I'll have to start looking for some younger friends. I am sorry for the loss of your friend Gary. I learned early on that in order to have friends , you have to show yourself friendly. You certainly do that. To have really close friends requires a bond of trust and fellowship. That comes a little harder, and makes such a loss hurt even more. James

I know what you mean about that mirror. I feel pretty much the same as I always did, but see an old gray haired fellow in the mirror all the time. :lol:

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