i woke up this morning to one of those dreaded phone calls.
My friend's daughter Megan called me this morning to say her dad, Rick Simon, passed away last night from a massive heart attack. Rick lived across from me when I was 2 years old. His mom would sit us in front of the TV to watch "Sheriff John" every day at lunch time. We would play the red light, green light game with milk, and of course, the Maggio Carrots commercials had us wanting to eat more carrots.
At 16 years of age, he started tinkering with window tinting, and I was his helper. Those days, they did not have commercial film, and we had to buy a "flow machine" which drizzled paint tint on the windows of cars, and with any luck, no flies would ruin your work, and the customer had great tinted windows.
He continued for the next 55 years and became one of California's leading window tinting companies, Ideal Glass Tinting. New car manufacturers would hire him to fly around the world, to very exotic islands, where he would tint all the windows in a car, for a 30 second commercial, so you could not see who the driver was, therefore not having to pay royalties to the actor inside the car.
This goes without saying that he was the Best Man at my wedding, and I was of course, his Best Man at his wedding.
One tradition we had for 60 years was to call each other on our respective birthdays. Him being 3 months older than me, I would ask how it was being that age, and to give me a glimpse at how I would feel once I got a year older.
This is something that I will miss the most.
Rest in peace and Godspeed, My Friend
My friend's daughter Megan called me this morning to say her dad, Rick Simon, passed away last night from a massive heart attack. Rick lived across from me when I was 2 years old. His mom would sit us in front of the TV to watch "Sheriff John" every day at lunch time. We would play the red light, green light game with milk, and of course, the Maggio Carrots commercials had us wanting to eat more carrots.
At 16 years of age, he started tinkering with window tinting, and I was his helper. Those days, they did not have commercial film, and we had to buy a "flow machine" which drizzled paint tint on the windows of cars, and with any luck, no flies would ruin your work, and the customer had great tinted windows.
He continued for the next 55 years and became one of California's leading window tinting companies, Ideal Glass Tinting. New car manufacturers would hire him to fly around the world, to very exotic islands, where he would tint all the windows in a car, for a 30 second commercial, so you could not see who the driver was, therefore not having to pay royalties to the actor inside the car.
This goes without saying that he was the Best Man at my wedding, and I was of course, his Best Man at his wedding.
One tradition we had for 60 years was to call each other on our respective birthdays. Him being 3 months older than me, I would ask how it was being that age, and to give me a glimpse at how I would feel once I got a year older.
This is something that I will miss the most.
Rest in peace and Godspeed, My Friend
