Drawn Up to the Lord

Dave got drawn up to the Lord.  Old Dave Smith finally took off for Heaven.  Long ago and far away Kadizzle had a coal mining career.  Kadizzle mined it under the ground, and on the ground.  Back at the Glenharold Mine Kadizzle met Dave Smith.  Smith was a big man then, his recent bad health shrunk him to half his size.  Dave was an inventive guy.  For a long time Dave was the oiler on the loading shovel.  The oiler had a lot of time on his hand, and you probably did not even really need and oiler.  There was not much an oiler could do when the shovel was working loading trucks, so Dave made do dads and invented things with the crap laying around on the shovel. Dave was mechanically inclined although he did not have much education.  Dave came up with a lot of clever stuff.

Dave had a special way of seeing the world.  Somewhere he always came up with jokes you had not heard before.  A story Kadizzle has told about Dave many times is how Dave got his foot under the 150 ton shovel.  One day Kadizzle was parked near the 190 loading shovel.  It was time to move the shovel closer to the coal so the loading could continue.  A job of the oiler was to move the large electric cable for the shovel as it moved.  By hand Dave acted as a human mule and grabbed the big electrical cable.  As Dave pulled on the cable Ron Hummel moved the shovel forward.   The steel tracks on the shovel were as tall as Dave.  Dave was not paying attention, but looking at Hummel for directions.  When the shovel crept forward it ran over Dave's foot.  Fortunately for Dave he was wearing the required steel toed shoes.  The 150 ton shovel track pushed Dave's foot into the mud.  Dave was trapped under the shovel with his foot.  He was unhurt, but was unable to extract his foot.  Hummel had to back the shovel up so Dave could get his foot out.  Kadizzle always told the story at safety meetings to explain why people needed to wear steel toed shoes.

Dave had to retire early because of a heart problem.  A heart implant kept him alive.  Almost on a daily basis Kadizzle would ride by Dave's garage.  Dave would be out there tinkering with the old hot rod he loved.  His ability to invent things never ceased to amaze Kadizzle.  Dave could take one thing and make it into another.  Kadizzle would stop and exchange insults, pleasantries, and just plain bullshit with Dave.   Dave was on the daily ramidigus route.   Dave was known locally as a character.  Dave was never the man you would suspect to be an artist, but he did take some art classes from Shiny.  Dave belonged to Rita's Crazy club.   Recently Kadizzle told Rita she needed to recruit.  Rita is very low on hard core crazy people.  With Dave gone to Heaven, and Crazy Bill out of town she has no hard core crazy people.  Somehow crazy people are like magnets they attract each other.   Rita and her gang will draw in some more crazy people.   Trump is great at attracting other crazy people like himself.  Hopefully Trump will invite all the crazy clubs to Washington for a convention.