Time
No one knows how long they have on this earth. I have met a lot of great people over the years from different jobs and the military. People that you would see everyday you don’t think about them not being around once you leave. One such person was Gary Burgess. I knew his dad from the Naval Reserves. His dad was a salty sailor, a Boat’snmate, a WWII Boat’snmate. Those white uniforms those old guys wore never lasted till the end of drill without looking like they had rolled in the dirt out in front of the reserve center. I met Gary when I started working at KTHV-11 on Nov 1, 1987. I was the new production assistant, low man on the totem pole. What I had learned in college wasn’t going to help me much when I was stripping the floor, waxing the floor, moving sets or doing whatever gofer work needed to be done.
Gary was the studio supervisor, great title but it didn’t pay very much. He had worked at KARK-4 and was the studio supervisior over there making ten bucks an hour, he had been there for ten years and was only making ten dollars an hour. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised since I started out at $4.75 an hour with a college degree in television no less. He and Beth Ward had been at KARK-4 at the same time. She was the noon day host and Dailing for Dollars host at KARK-4 and when she moved to KTHV-11 she started dialing there as well. Most people weren’t home in the late 80’s they were at work, they got a nice consellation prize if they were lucky, a certificate for 1 gallon of Yarnell’s Home Made Ice Cream.
Since I didn’t have a lot of money to begin with I didn’t need the added expense of having to buy a push mower to mow the grass at this rinky dink duplex we were living in. I mentioned it to Gary in passing and he said, Come by and get mine. I hadn’t known him for very long so I was waiting on the other shoe to drop. Seems this gruff, grumpy old guy is a bear on the outside and a marshmellow on the inside. We became really good friends. I learned a lot from him about different camera angles, lighting angles, how to set up shots for commercial’s that we were putting together. We got along really well since both of us had been in the Navy at different times in our lives. He spent a year on a ship in Vietnam. He didn’t talk about the war much, he just mentioned that he got drunk one night and fell off the ship into the water. I bet his white uniform looked really nice after that. He joined the Arkansas National Guard later in life, working with the Public Affairs Dept. He knew a lot of politicans and he introduced himself to everyone that came through the door into the studio. He was the studio supervisor after all. His home life must have been really tough. His drinking I am sure had a lot to do with it. The madder he got the more he drank. He was a big guy so he could put away some beer. Everytime I went to borrow his mower and weed eater he wanted me to drink a beer with him. I felt obliged since he was loaing me his stuff for free. My wife would call over there looking for me. I asked her why she kept calling over there to give me a hard time. She knew that I would drink one beer with him and then I would come home. I had a higher tolerance for alcohol back then. I quit alcohol on the 20th of July 2020, I was going to have open heart surgery at the end of August and figured it was as good as time as any to quit.
I left the mighty land of KTHV-11 in July 1993. I had my hopes set on driving a truck for a living something I had wanted to do since I was a kid. Jamming gears, talking on the CB Radio, eating greasy food in the area where only truck drivers got to sit. That was a long ways down the road. I went to go check on my buddy Gary at KTHV-11, seems they had new owners, Gannett. Daisy the lady that always answered the phone and stuff at the entry way into the station was gone. I asked her about Gary and she said that he was sick. I ran into one of the engineers and he told me that Gary had Cancer and had been off work for over a year. I felt like I had been kicked in the gut. I felt like I had let him down, he was my friend, a shipmate and I wasn’t there when he needed me the most if nothing else for moral support. I tracked him down to his new address and we had a long talk about his health, the family, why he was living where he was living and so on. I got invited to his birthday party. Mainly just family. I had known him for almost 6 years. We promised to stay in touch but that didn’t happen.
I happened to catch the 6pm newscast that day from KTHV-11. It was a tribute to a long time employee that had died. I was curious as to who it might be. I didn’t have to wait long as they flashed Gary’s picture on the screen a few seconds later. I was numb. I made it to the funeral, barely. His wife told me she that she had tried to find me. I was living in Conway, AR by then and was wrapped in my new job. You never know how much time you have for family and friends. If you think about them, give them a call or go see them if they live close. I lost my dad on April 11, 2023. I tried to go see him when he was alive as much as I could, his health hadn’t been very good for the last several years.
I saw a guy at the gym today. He cut my hair for over 16 years in downtown Conway until Covid shut him down and just when he was ready to come back to work he had a stroke. He had been cutting hair at that location for 56 years. I thought about going to say hello but he was busy riding the bicycle and I didn’t want to interuppt him. I went over to see him anyway. He is in his early 80’s. His wife told me they recently celebrated 61 years of marriage. Super nice people. I told him to keep up the good job he was doing working out at the gym, maybe it will keep him active for a few more years.
