1986 GMC C1500 |S:03E.74
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68:44
Car
Ford 72
The speaker mentions their 1972 Ford truck, which is a type of pickup truck made by Ford. It's known for being strong and useful for many tasks.
Car
Ford truck
A Ford truck is a type of vehicle made by Ford that is designed to carry heavy loads and is often used for work or transportation.
Part
steel bumper
A steel bumper is a strong part of a vehicle that helps protect it from damage in case of an accident.
Car
GMC C-1500
The GMC C-1500 is a type of pickup truck made by GMC. It's known for being strong and useful for carrying loads, and the 'C' means it's a two-wheel drive version.
Car
Chevrolet 350
The Chevrolet 350 is a popular V8 engine used in many cars and trucks. It's known for being powerful and dependable.
Term
square bodies
'Square bodies' is a nickname for certain Chevrolet and GMC trucks made in the 1970s and 1980s that have a boxy shape.
Brand
GMC
GMC is a car brand that makes trucks and SUVs, and they are known for their strong and stylish designs.
Brand
Chevrolet
Chevrolet is a well-known car brand that makes many types of vehicles, including popular trucks and cars.
Concept
pickup truck
A pickup truck is a type of vehicle that has a cab for passengers and an open area in the back for carrying things, like tools or furniture.
Car
Volkswagen This Volkswagen
The Volkswagen Golf GTI is a small car that is really fun to drive and has a sporty feel. It's popular because it offers a good mix of everyday usability and exciting performance, making it a great choice for people who want a lively car without sacrificing practicality.
Car
Volkswagen Beetle
The Volkswagen Beetle is a famous small car with a unique round shape. It was made for many years and is loved by many people for its design and history.
Part
transaxle
A transaxle is a part of a car that combines the transmission and the axle into one unit. It helps the car move by connecting the engine to the wheels, and it's often found in cars with engines in the back, like the Beetle.
Car
Chevy Nova
The Chevy Nova is a small car made by Chevrolet, popular in the 1960s and 70s. It's known for being affordable and easy to work on, which is why many people liked it.
Term
307
The 307 is a type of engine made by Chevrolet. It's a V8, which means it has eight cylinders, and it's known for being used in cars like the Chevy Nova.
Part
air cleaner lid
The air cleaner lid is part of the engine that keeps dirt out of the air going into it. Some people think changing it can make the car sound better or go faster, but that's not always true.
Car
Ford Taurus
The Ford Taurus is a big car that is designed to be comfortable and roomy, making it a good choice for families. It's been around for a long time and is often used as a practical vehicle for everyday driving.
Car
Ford Ranger
The Ford Ranger is a small truck that can be used for carrying things or driving off-road. It's known for being tough and reliable.
Part
dual exhaust
Dual exhaust means the car has two pipes for exhaust instead of one. This can make the car sound louder and sometimes helps it go faster.
Car
Ford Mustang
The Ford Mustang is a popular sports car that many people love for its speed and style. It has been around for a long time and comes in different versions with various features.
LIVE
Still remembers fire, grass remembers rain, every scar tells the story, car dials the frame, if you go diggin' some, best mind what you find.
Welcome to the Reckon Yard, I'm Jerry Wayne Longmire, y'all, assembly still y'all.
I'm gonna need to get to mute this.
All are welcome in the Church of Internal Combustion, we just asked that you show up with an open heart.
Oh my goodness, it is about noon on a pretty fine Sunday. Got a little chill in there, it's not too bad outside.
I'm running a little late today because I did what the kids called tying one on last night. I enjoyed the hell out of that myself.
After months of nose to the grindstone, like I don't even know that I can fully encompass all the work we put into this fricking book.
But after months of just grinding it out every day, writing, transitions, all kind of stuff, I finished my book yesterday.
Well I finished the first book, The Reckon Yard, finished it yesterday.
And I mean like finished like the foreword, the acknowledgments, not just the story, like it's finished, finished.
And at least for the ARC.
And now, the next part is, you gotta convince a bunch of people to read it.
We're actually doing something kind of cool that is something our editor kind of invented for a little thing he likes to do with books, he does.
And he calls it book club.
And we just get a couple of voices that we're interested in hearing their opinion.
And we get them to read the book and then we have a little discussion about it.
Just feedback before we send it off for the final ARC and all that good stuff.
So I'm excited about it. There's a new author I just got exposed to a while back named Johnny Bernard.
And we've asked her to participate.
Or at least that's the plan is to ask her to participate in the book club.
And then another really good friend of mine that I've known for many, many years, probably close to 20 years.
My friend Elizabeth Redman, she is an author in Ireland and she's going to read the book and give us some feedback.
So that's kind of the next step.
And then I started last night.
So one of the things, one of the initial things we thought would be really cool in the book is if I drew like a Tokian style map of the Wrecking Yard.
Go to accompany the book. So I started working on that map last night.
It actually come out the first draft looks pretty cool. I was like, oh man, this is a lot of fun.
I'm also doing a family tree in the front of the book that will just kind of be like a quick primer to tell anybody who's who in the book.
And I think that's going to be pretty cool.
Yeah, man.
Yeah, I finished the last 25 pages yesterday. I mean, just buckled down strapped in and
I'm cooked.
I had a few drinks size now, boy.
Woo, son. I sat up there in that porch till I was cross-eyed.
Felt good. I enjoyed the piss out of it.
Did not make it to the gym this morning.
I decided I'm going to go as soon as I get this uploaded.
Not hungover or nothing professional, but I did sleep in a little late.
Oh, hope things are going well for y'all this weekend gearing up for Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is my favorite. It's probably my favorite holiday.
I just have so many wonderful memories of Thanksgiving over the years with my family.
And since me and my little family have been doing our own Thanksgiving for a good 15 years now.
And since I always enjoy, I usually try to do something different or interesting with the turkey that I haven't done before.
I've done it so many different ways.
I can't even, I've, you know, we've fried it, injected it, dry-brined it, wet-brined it,
spatch-cocked it, not spatch-cocked it, beer-canned it.
I mean, there's just smoked them and grilled them.
I've just oven fried everything you can think of I've done with Dagum turkey.
I decided this year to keep it simple.
We've got kind of a small turkey.
There's only three of us adults here that are going to be eating turkey.
Me, my sister, Rachel.
So, decided that I'm going to do it my little Easy Bake, my little electric smoker this year.
And I'm just going to do it beer-canned style.
I always appreciate the way that makes a bird stay juicy in taste.
And I can always crank it up at the end and crisp that skin up.
I'm going to do a little, little beer-canned turkey.
And just dry-brined it.
In fact, I'm going to go look for some smoke for some rubs this afternoon.
I asked for some advice on the internet and a couple people named off some ones that seemed pretty good.
And I think I'm going to run over to the academy and just see what they got.
They usually got a pretty decent selection.
This cheap little pocket knife that I keep in my car.
I like to have knives around it.
They're very rarely used, but I have all kinds of knives around.
And I keep this little pocket knife in my car.
I went to try to cut something the other day with a duller in hell.
Yeah, the book thing has been weird.
So the problem is I have a hard time compartmentalizing.
I really struggle with that.
And when I get locked into a project and this is what I'm doing and this is the project.
There comes a point towards the end of that project where I get into a feverish pitch.
And everything outside of that project, I have a hard time prioritizing.
So the last, I would say the last two months have just been me really just all I can think about is the book.
And it affects my other content, stuff like that.
Like it's just hard to keep up with everything when you're burning all your daylight on one thing.
So looking forward to the break, kind of getting back into my schedule, releasing content, writing other stuff.
I've had a couple screenplays, ideas I've been working with and looking maybe diving off into one of them.
I mean, it's not going to be very long.
We're going to start working on producing the audiobook.
And that's going to take a few months.
We're going to have to get to some point where I can read parts of this book without balling like a baby.
There's a couple parts in there about my dad that I still can't choke it up and get through.
So yeah, that's the work to do still.
It's also, it's crazy to like, like, so I've read it a couple of times now.
I like to sit on the porch at night, read through it, look for, you know, any kind of thing I think I missed or ideas or whatever.
And so many stories got cut.
My editor has another document called the Wrecking Yards Wrecking Yard.
And that's where all the stories we cut go in the Wrecking Yards Wrecking Yard would also make just a fun book of collection of short stories or something like that.
You know, we may do something with it later on or I don't know.
But it's wild to see how much we cut out.
But also how much is still there?
Like, I'm pretty proud of it.
I think the book's good.
I think this work I've done with Adam may be some most important work I've ever done.
If not, it's second right here to the podcast.
This podcast has taken a turn.
We've moved into a different space and that's okay.
I stopped trying to dictate the podcast and the podcast has kind of taken a life of its own.
I'm enjoying.
Not everybody's going to stay on the ride, but a lot of people have and we get new people every week.
So it's those two things probably the most important work I've done so far.
And also it's a two-book deal.
So in most of the next book is already written.
We got to start on it and start putting it together and piecing it together and building it.
Anyways, it's...
I got my watch on backwards.
Let's tell you I tied it on a little bit last night.
I forgot to start my timer.
I am off.
I am banging it out today.
It's all good. We're going to get through this.
Let me set that.
There we go.
Oh man.
Today we're going to talk about my buddy Steve Gardner.
Y'all have heard stories about him.
All the way back when we were friends in high school.
You know stories.
Quite a bit about Steve.
You've heard about him more than once.
Me, him, and Joe.
I can remember the day.
I met Steve actually before Joey.
Steve was in my biology class.
And Steve, you have to understand like back in the 90s,
I would say like when we graduated in 95,
there's not...
Long hair wasn't real popular with young men at that time.
But Steve was Mexican
but had green eyes and long blonde hair
like down past his ass
and was built like a tank.
He'd been working with his daddy.
I told you I was four.
He'd been roofing with his daddy since he was eight years old
carrying bundles up on them roof and stuff doing construction.
That's all when he got off.
So first time I met him, he was in my biology class.
We all kind of thought he was crazy.
Nobody really knew anything about him.
And I think folks were a little intimidated by him.
But I really got to know him after me and him and Joey
and our Vicka class and Vicka Vocational Industrial Co-op.
It's where you go into school for about half the day
and then you go to a Vicka class
where you talk about time management,
all the stuff you need to be good at a job.
Basically just how to be a good worker bee.
Stuff that we had discussions like that
and worksheets like that we had to fill out.
And then he would talk to us about our individual jobs
and then we left school and we went to work.
And it's just trained you to be a good worker bee the rest of your life.
That's what they were trying to teach us with that.
For guys they thought we're going to probably not go to college
and probably do something in the trades.
Something industrial.
I worked at school print and press.
Steve worked for his father doing construction
and literally...
When I tell you this dude was strong,
I think possibly he's one of the strongest human beings
I've ever met physically.
Like his physical strength was absolutely incredible.
And he didn't go to the gym.
He just did construction every day.
But he was the house.
He was the one his family put it on.
He was the house and he was the little engine that could
and they worked that boy.
Working man.
I became friends with him at the same time I did with Joey.
I went down to Bolliver.
And I heard them talking about fishing in class
and I hadn't been fishing in a long time.
I really wanted to go fishing with him.
And it was after kind of like me and my best friend Jay
weren't talking anymore.
I had broke up with my girlfriend
and didn't have a lot going for me.
I started hanging out with these two cats
and me and Steve got along right off the bat.
You know I always tell you me and Joey's personalities
are pretty opposite.
Joey was calm, quiet, liked a lot of planning control
and I was very much flying by the seat of my pants
most of the time
and didn't really know what planning was
and was certainly not a controlled human.
I was a little wild.
Steve matched that wild side.
He was a little wild too.
I remember the first time I went to his house
at the time they lived over by this AutoZone I worked at.
I worked at AutoZone.
Was I working at AutoZone yet?
Yeah, yeah.
I think I was already working at AutoZone.
And yeah, yeah, yeah.
I know I was.
I was working at AutoZone.
Because literally I backed out of my parking spot at AutoZone.
I was when I had my little blue Ford truck, my 72 Ford.
I backed out of my parking spot at AutoZone
and this dude in a pickup truck
run into the back of my truck,
like hit the bed of my truck before he slammed on the brakes.
He was just flying through the parking lot
not paying attention to what he was doing.
I was already half out of the space when he hit me.
Well, he got out and started hollering
and raising all kind of hell at me.
I was a kid.
I was basically taking it.
And then somebody else got involved
that had seen the whole thing
and started telling this guy that it was his fault.
They were calling the law.
I just wanted out of there.
I didn't want to be in his seat.
My truck didn't hardly have any damage on it.
It was a little screwed up.
It didn't really do much that old Ford truck bed.
It mostly hit my bumper
and the big old steel bumper
did a bunch of damage from this pickup.
I panicked, jumped in my truck and left.
Just bailed. I was like, screw it.
They can just come and get me.
And I had got some paint that night.
Right when I clocked out from AutoZone
I bought some paint
and I hated that bumper.
When that bumper had the color of his bumper
and stuff all over it,
there was a little bit on the bed of the truck.
So I called Steve up.
I was like, hey man, can I come by your house
and he'd do something real quick.
And he was like, sure, yeah.
So I pulled over there and pulled up from his house.
He was like, what happened?
I was like, oh, this dude ran into me
and I ran away from the scene of the crime.
Steve's dad, Big Mike,
it was my first time ever meeting him.
Mexico dude Long Hair.
They were part Native American too.
Long hair, kind of long goatee.
And he's in a leather jacket, man.
And he comes out there and he goes, just pull it in the driveway, man.
Just pull it in the driveway.
And I pulled it in the driveway
and I started spray painting that bumper.
I was the whole time
worried these people about to come looking for me about it.
And they never did.
They never showed up looking for me.
But I just thought it was so funny.
My first instinct was like, yeah, pull up in the driveway.
We got you home.
And they pulled one of their pickups behind my pickup
and another one around so you couldn't hardly see it.
Just in case they did come looking for me.
First time I met Big Mike, he had my back.
And I'd never been around.
My parents were really strict.
I'd never been around people like them.
The first time I walked in their house,
they go in there.
They start rolling joints at the kitchen table.
Big Mike fires up the joint.
They're not offering it to us.
We're kid, you know, we're teenagers,
but just openly smoking.
And Steve, like,
he'd go in his room.
He had, like, black light
and all these cool-ass music posters.
He was a music fanatic.
It was just different.
I'd just never been around a house
where your parents weren't up your ass
in that situation.
And they were also welcome.
And he had an older brother
that everybody called Little Mike.
And Little Mike
also ridiculously strong, man.
Ridiculous.
Little Mike,
he was kind of scary, dude.
He was getting some fights and shit.
He was, uh,
he didn't want to get hit.
He had a little bit of a temper on him.
He was just old enough.
They might have looked bad if he whooped our ass,
but everybody probably
would have just kind of turned their head, you know,
because now you might have had it coming.
There's just that amount older than us.
But I had never been
around folks like that.
It was a different kind of thing.
And we bonded well right off the bat.
In the beginning, a lot of it
was just me and Steve were around doing crazy shit.
They moved.
So we lived out in,
uh,
kind of like the outskirts
of A-leaf.
Out towards going towards, uh,
Fulcher.
And Steve's family ended up moving.
There was a neighborhood of patio homes behind us.
And they ended up moving in that neighborhood.
When they moved in that neighborhood,
uh, we were all,
Steve's like a year younger than me.
He had just turned 16.
I already had my truck
and his dad got him a
1986,
uh, GMC.
Just a
little square body, short bed.
C-1500 half ton.
Had 350 in it,
automatic.
Just your, your run of the mill.
It was clean though.
Booger was clean.
I'll say that.
It was black.
I always liked the 86's grill.
I like that.
I like that front end out of the square bodies.
The 86 is one I really enjoy.
And I, and I prefer GMC
myself. I've always preferred GMC
over Chevrolet.
Just styling wise.
I just like the GMC styling.
It's cool little pickup, man.
Good, good,
good little pickup for
dude's first truck.
Dude's first truck.
They always had all these
plans. They was going to paint it.
Um,
Steve's dad, Big Mike,
when he was younger, he worked
at the Greyham plant
in New Mexico.
And literally he told me
all he did was he would go in there at
night and he had a
scaffold that would go up and down
and they had like
train tracks through the, through the
shop.
And he'd go there and get his sprayer set up,
put his little coveralls
on, get his sprayer set up.
And he'd be on one side
and there'd be another dude on the other side of the shop.
And the, uh,
the Greyham bus body
would roll through the shop
on a train trolley.
And literally as it
was rolling through they would spray it
and then it would
it would stop
and then they'd spray back going the other way.
It would roll back. They'd spray back going.
It'd go back and forth about five times
before they spray. They'd drop like three coats
on it real quick.
Get up there, spray the top.
Do a couple coats on the top.
But two guys
painting this whole Greyham bus, just
spraying from the sides, you know,
kind of like an assembly line set up.
Big Mike
always telling the stories about working at the Greyham
place because
you know this is when he was drugging
and drinking and partying and he
said he'd come in there three sheets to the wind
and he said, but I can still spray that bus.
He said, I might not
can open my eyes, but I can spray that bus.
But he was a pretty good painter.
A hell of a residential painter.
The man had an eye for paint.
He was real good at it.
And he had painted some cars that were going to paint Steve's truck at some point.
It wasn't in bad shape though.
It was a clean pickup.
The paint on it was still in pretty good shape.
They just were going to make it, you know,
it was going to be like a father's son.
They're going to fix it up, make it sharp, that kind of thing.
The first thing Steve did
was go over to the Pluga,
which is the Mexican flea market
and
buy a big old box
with some big old 12 inch speakers
and an amp
and a head unit.
Kenwood, I think.
That's back when we had the ones where you take the face off
the stereo.
And he put that box behind the seat
in that single cab.
So Steve drove like this
up on the steering wheel.
Steve drove up on the steering wheel
like almost pressed into it.
His arm up like this.
And he rode in that truck like just bolt
upright real close to the dash
because of the speakers.
When them speakers were going, son,
people four cars over
could hear your music.
But you weren't hearing that music
in the cab. You were feeling it.
You were living it. It was being pumped through your body.
I may have ultrasonic frequencies
in me, got something screwed up
on kind of them speakers.
That's putting ourselves through that.
Steve's big hip-hop.
I often tell people,
Steve's who ruined Pink Floyd for me
when Steve went through a Pink Floyd
phase
where if I never hear Pink Floyd again
it'll be too soon, honestly.
I listened to so much Pink Floyd
during Steve's Pink Floyd phase
that if I never hear Pink Floyd again
it will honestly
be too soon.
Steve used to turn me on the two-pot.
He had all eyes on me.
We listened to that every
day. We would go to lunch
and we would either take my truck or his truck
and we'd go, there was a taco bell
down the street from school
and we had a haul ass down that taco bell
and it was just
usually banging two-pot
or loonies. There was a loonies
song. I got five on it
and we got excited. We went and bought the album
from the Sam Goody. That's back
when you had to go to a music store.
We went and bought the album from Sam Goody
and it was basically just
the whole album was like 15 different versions
of the same song. Every song
was I got five on it. It was just a different version
of I got five on it.
His family was a whole cast of characters.
His mom lost. She was something else, man.
She somehow kept them all in line.
He had a younger sister
with a little lie that was about my sister's
age that ended up marrying
one of my old friends, Randy
Lee, my tattoo artist who did this.
They've been married
a long time and have a great life together.
They were tight knit. Once you were
a part of that unit, you were a part of that
unit. That's where I met my friend Marzy
Montessori. So there were all
kind of musicians. Steve's dad wanted to
be a musician. Big Mike wanted to be
a musician so bad he could taste it.
And he was real good at percussion.
He had a drum set up. He played
bongos and all that kind of stuff.
He was fire on
them drums, but his favorite
thing was accordion.
He would play accordion with
some Tejano bands sitting
with them. He knew them all.
He played with all the bands that
played down there in south Texas.
We would go to these
Tejano music festivals
and stuff all the time for free
because Steve's dad was going to play
with the band and we
would just hang out and have a good time.
I spent a lot of time going to events like
that and being a part of that scene
and it was
like any other music scene. A lot of drugs, a lot of drinking
and partying.
We weren't doing a lot of that yet. We were still
teenagers at that point.
But it does
make me wonder. So me and Steve both got into
drugs, both got into alcohol later on
in life. One of us raised
by parents who were very strict about all that
sort of stuff and didn't want it around.
One of us raised by parents who were kind of
like, hey, just
take responsibility for your own choices.
We both ended up having problems
at stuff.
It's why
I often
take it with a grain of salt when somebody
goes, you know, my kid turned out pretty good.
I must have done a good job.
You just got lucky.
You just got lucky.
I'm not 100%
sure. I've seen people turn out good
that come from terrible environments. I've seen
people turn out bad that
come from great environments. Sometimes
you just get lucky.
I hope I get lucky with my kids.
I like them.
It's a pretty good start.
But
we did
all that. I met Marzy. Marzy hung
out over there. He had this buddy
named Snake.
I can't remember the name of his band.
Snake was cool though.
Snake had this Volkswagen bug
that it was this little hot
rod BW bug and the whole
back, when you were inside the bug
the whole back seat in that
area was instead
just like a clear plexiglass
shield.
And so you could see that detailed
engine and the transaxle and everything
from in there. It was really cool.
It was a fast little bugger.
And it didn't matter like
when they threw like, big Mike
like throw down on the grill all the time.
It was a common thing, get off
work, stop, get some meat,
get home, fire the big grill
up, start cooking meat, start
drinking.
All the neighbors would be over there. Their
musician friends would show up.
It was
a party would materialize at that house
in minutes.
You would just be there hanging out with your buddy
and y'all would come out of his room
and all of a sudden there'd be 40 people
in the house playing music
drinking, having good time, smoking weed.
Nobody did a lot of hard stuff around
there, you know, until later on
that come later.
I spent
more
hours at their house
around their families and probably
just about anybody except Joey.
And a lot of times it was
me, Joey and Steve together.
They had a, Steve
had a best friend named Carlos
that he grew up with.
Carlos, I remember Carlos had to
Chevy Nova
with a 307 in it
and somebody convinced
him that turning his air cleaner lid
upside down would make it louder
and faster. It made it louder. It didn't make it
any faster.
But he would, after he turned that air cleaner over
every time Carlos pulled up he'd be revving
up, revving
that old 307 up trying to make it
sound like it had something.
Oh, it was slow and
pissed.
Carlos ended up
doing some prison
time, I think, if I remember
correctly. Carlos
got drunk one night over off
Derry Ashford. There was a police station
called West Side Command for HPD
and behind West Side Command
was a huge cattle pasture.
I think it's probably all neighborhoods
by now.
There's big old cattle pasture
and Carlos one night
had a little too much drink.
This is after high school.
Got over there in this pickup
truck and started picking mushrooms
in the cow pasture.
I was literally driving
around this cow pasture digging through
cow shit
and stumbling back to this truck and compiling
these mushrooms and they were landing
one of the police helicopters
there at West Side Command and the cops
up on the landing deck just happened to
look over and see this idiot
out there in the cow pasture
with his flashlight.
Three cops
just walked across the field
and arrested this dude. It got him
mushrooms and big penalties
in Texas so
ended up screwing on Carlos
here.
They got put in the pokey over
that for a few years.
But also
you know
he got caught picking mushrooms
behind the police station.
Big Mike had some brothers
but his younger brother
was a dude named Chris
Chris went a little
harder in the paint than Big Mike.
He got way off into the drugs.
Chris screwed me up one night
one night
a few years after high school
we was hanging out over at their house
they had some kind of party going on
some sort of thing.
I hadn't really smoked a lot of weed yet
I was
I had tried it one time
when I was like
18
at a field party
and it made my eyes swell up
I had an allergic reaction to it
or something.
I didn't like it.
So then one time
at this party at their place
I go out there
Chris is sitting on the tailgate of his truck
and
he's like hey man
you want to hit this he had this J
and I was trying to look cool from
Steve's older
Steve's uncle you know
and so I was like yeah man I took a couple hits
off of it and handed it back to him
and I was coughing.
He literally did that training day thing on me
he's like I didn't know you liked to fly with angels
Jdub.
I was like what?
He's like yeah Jerry Wayne this got hair on in it
I was like man what are you
you kidding me?
This day I don't know if he was telling me
the truth or screwed with me.
I ran home and went to bed
because I was worried that I was going to be addicted to hair on.
It doesn't really happen
but I remember
I was real paranoid and freaked out you know
so this day I don't know if he was telling me
the truth or he was screwing with me.
My favorite thing we used to all do
was we would
the whole family
Big Mike and all of them
man at least once a week
on the weekend
they would load up
we'd get cooler
and meat
and we'd go over to Bear Creek State Park
where they had
but not Bear Creek State Park
where they had a volleyball net
set up
and we would go over there and just set up
and play volleyball all day long
and just have a ball man
just have a good time drinking
and eat
playing volleyball
Steve had his cousin come to live with him for a little while
his name was Shane
but we called him Shane
and
Shane was
big boy
maybe 400 pounds big boy
and Shane was remarkably good
at volleyball
we put him in the middle of the court
and we nicknamed him the hand
because he would stick that big old meat hook
up there and get that ball every time
Shane could run the volleyball court
from the middle of the volleyball court
didn't move that much
but he could always get his hand on that ball
somehow and boy could just send it
spinning right back across
at the other side, you know
he was vicious
that's some of my best memories with his family
those volleyball games
we would just stay out there for hours
we were still at age where I wasn't really drinking
or anything we'd have Dr. Pepper's
and stuff but
it was just a good time
and every once in a while cops would come over and be like
hey y'all can't have alcohol over here
that kind of thing
big Mike would go out there and talk to them
and get them calmed down
and we were going to hide the beer
and they would hide the beer in the truck
and then that was good enough
Steve was always up for me
I mean day after prom
we were trying to figure out what to do
and we just drove to Brazos River
down there
where it goes under the bridge
in Richmond and used to be able to get down to the river
down there as much houses and shit now
it's all private property
used to be able to get right down the river
there was a train bridge
and we just jumped off in the Brazos River
spent the whole day swimming in the Brazos River
alligators and snakes would be damned
I wouldn't get in that river now if you paid me
but we had a time
of it just down there
didn't even have swimsuits, just weren't swimming in our clothes
spent all day down there
raising hell in the river
he's always up for
adventure
and when I was that age
if I didn't have like work or stuff going on with my own job
I would go work with Steve's family
to make money, you know
I would go do construction
remote jobs with them
just be a helper on the job site
and that's where I learned a lot of my construction
knowledge was working with Steve's family
I always say
Steve's dad taught me construction
which he did kind of teach, he taught me how to use the speed
square
you know the basics
but Steve probably taught me more about construction
than anybody
I worked with him a lot as a teenager
and
we had a fallen out
a little while
after high school
and I honestly
don't remember what the fallen out was about
I'm pretty sure it was my fault
I had lied about something
and got caught in a lie
and Steve kind of like
Steve's girlfriend was mad at me
so Steve turned his back on me
or some kind of thing
and we just kind of drifted apart
we didn't end up talking for many years
years later
after I started
right after I first started comedy
Joey
and Steve had reconnected
and started hanging out again
and Joey brought Steve
up to one of my comedy shows
and I reconnected with Steve
and ended up hanging out with him again
you know by that time I was getting into
I was off into
my own struggles
with drug use I was using cocaine
pretty heavily
during that period and
Steve and his wife liked to party too
so I started hanging out with them all the time
I was probably detrimental to both of us
but
but within a few months
I started getting serious about Rachel
I decided to get away from that mess
stop doing it
and
Steve and his wife
were going through a divorce
and he decided
that was the time to amp up his use
I would like go over to his house
and he'd have an eight ball
I mean I have an eight ball
of coke look like a size
of a freaking tennis ball
he'd be shaving bits off of it
he used to always say
everybody's problems they don't use it in moderation
but he was not using it in moderation
at that point he was getting bad off on it
and it seemed like he always had it
on him and he was always trying to do it
and I was worried
about him
it didn't seem like
things were going well
and he was heartbroken about him
and his wife splitting up
and that wasn't leading to good behavior
good choices
they caught up with him
he was at a wedding
and
he had some coke in his truck
and he was running out there
once while to his truck
and doing a little bump
and there just happened to be a cop
doing security up at the wedding venue
and the cop looked off in there
and saw Steve's goodie bag
and waited for Steve to come back out of the truck
and do some more and busted him
and
you know that's felony
and I think his lawyer
got it knocked down some
but he had to go on probation
and he spent some time in jail
over it
and the dude's still man
even when he was on probation man
he was still smoking weed
and drinking
a gallon of pee cleaner
before he took his piss test
I don't know how many
probation piss tests he popped
ended up getting more time
and
right after me and Rachel
got married I started working with Steve
doing construction I was looking for something
I was looking for a job
transmission shop and closed and been sold
and me and Steve started working
construction on that property together
and I was out there in Conroe
and
he was getting
rough man we were both taking them
pain pills
but Steve
would take them pills and drink on them man
he would drink all the time on them
and it would just turn him into a toddler
you know
I'd take those pain pills I didn't drink on
that time I wasn't really drinking I'd gotten
all that other stuff I didn't pain pills
just so I could go to work you know
just so I could handle all that stuff
we were doing construction wise
we were doing side jobs
we would get off work
at April Point Sound
and then it wasn't anything for us to go
fix a house that a tree fell through
or do some crazy other job
I had us working on nine to ten o'clock at night
beating our bodies up
but I had Rachel to come home to
a sense of something I needed to come home to
and keep my head on straight for
he didn't have anything to go home to
him and Joey roommate and he just
it just got worse where I told y'all
when I was telling y'all about giant tube sock
like it just got deeper and deeper
he eventually starts dating one of our friend
our friend Shelly had a sister named Jamie
and Steve starts dating her
and
that's when he like
really went off the rails
and she ends up getting pregnant
his daughter was born just
man really
I think
maybe about six or seven months before junior was born
my oldest
my kid was born
something changed in me
maybe it was that thing where everybody says
oh you're gonna grow up, you have a kid
but I didn't want that kind of stuff around
my kid anymore
I didn't want people drunk and acting a fool around my kid
I already smoked
a little bit of weed every now and then
I was terrified the government was gonna come take my kid away
because they were doing that kind of stuff back then
so I didn't want people that were
partying and
hanging out a hand around my kid
I didn't want to be a part of that scene
I didn't want to be around that scene anymore
I started
distancing myself from
it wasn't an effort to be me
I just, I was scared
I was scared of where they were headed
that their parties were getting out of hand
things were getting out of hand
it showed up in my house one time drunk
with his kid in the truck
and that was a little more than I could take
and also we had done some jobs together
and he owed me some money on those jobs
and what we used to do being him
would go do these jobs and we would both chip in
for a bottle of the pain pills
but when you got that prescription filled
you had to get these other ones filled
well he liked that soma and xanax and stuff
like I didn't mess with that
so he would pay for that part of it
and he would keep the soma and xanax
and then we'd split the pain pills
prescription
and we'd take that out of our money
from doing the job
but when I stopped needing to do that
with him
because I started going to an actual
doctor who was prescribing my stuff
then he
for some reason I stopped getting my portion
of the money from that
and we went back and forth about it
and the thing was man if you owed Steve
money man he would not let it go
he would be up your ass about it
if you
you know when I worked for his parent's construction company
they took lunch whatever they spent on you
out of your money before you got it
we you know maybe maybe 50-60
bucks a day doing day labor
you worked half day you got paid
$30
if it rained out you got
nothing you know what I mean like
these were people that were shy
about wanting their portion of money
and especially Steve he was
about the worst one about it out of all of them
you know
and here it was man he like owed me
all this money and he
it wasn't even a lot it was a couple hundred bucks
but he kept blowing me off
on it blowing me off on it and then
he would still like then he was hitting me up
for pills because he couldn't afford his own
pills and he was in
he was getting into me deeper and I
finally
I got really frustrated with him and I
wrote him this every time I tried to
bring it up to him he would change the subject
or whatever so I just wrote him this long letter like
hey man I don't want
I won't work with you anymore I won't
do stuff with you anymore because
I feel like you screw me around here
and
also feel like you're lying to everybody
and you got you're
your whole family got mad as hell at me one time
about lying
and here y'all you're doing the same shit I
was doing but it's okay now because it's you
doing it
I don't know what I was trying to
accomplish that letter didn't accomplish much
but in the friendship
his girlfriend read the letter and
decided to get her trashy ass involved
and she was nothing but trash
and
it just blew up into a way
bigger thing that needs to be it was me
reach out my friend trying to connect
with him and figure out a way
to fix things and maybe I didn't
go about it the right way but
it just blew everything apart
blew everything apart everybody
me and Joey's friendship got strained again
because
Joey them we're still hanging out with
Steven I didn't want to go over there be a part
of that anymore
so it felt like once again
as an adult I lost all my friends
and one fell swoop
and it wasn't long after that
that me and Rachel we moved on
you know we moved to spring
we moved up to Conroe
and me and Joey of course
eventually fixed our friendship
but me and Steve never did
you know the funniest thing is
I seen him one day
I walked up into a store
in Conroe
to get some fuel
and I walked in this little gas station
and he was in line in front of me
and I watched him pay for his stuff
and walk out of the store I never said a word
because I didn't even know
what the hell I would say
and I don't have any animosity
towards him either that's
like the thing it's not animosity
I still love to do
to disagree with some of his choices
I'm sure he's disagreed with some of mine
but he's done me some solids
we were there for each other
as friends
but
I feel like mostly all we did
was drag each other down deeper
into bullshit
me and Joey there's checks and balances
me and Steve there's no checks and balances
it was just write a hot check
and get high
you know what I mean
we weren't good for each other
in that type of situation
I'm sure he's grown up a bunch
he's been through all kind of changes
in his life I can't even imagine
what that looks like now
and there being a father will change you
but you know we were working at that property
April Sound
I was working as Steve's helper
Steve was wanting to go back and build houses with his brother
he didn't want to do the maintenance stuff anymore
and they come around right before Christmas
and said they were going to cut me loose
the day before Christmas Eve
they were going to cut me loose
just because
Steve didn't allow for two guys on the job
site they had hired me to help with cleanup
from Hurricane Ike
and we had done a good job
we had cleaned up and fixed all the damage
and they were going to cut me loose
Christmas Eve and Steve said
no y'all better keep Jerry
because I'm quitting
and Steve quit and allowed me to keep
that job
he had his own reasons
but still solid move
he could have waited until he was ready
and he didn't
like when Steve was there for you
he was there for you
but once that shit got a hold of him
like too deep
he just wasn't the same human being anymore
that's just probably ruined a lot of friendships
I went and saw his dad
before his dad died
me and Joey went and visited his dad
I went to his funeral
even though me and Steve weren't particularly close at that time
I went to his father's funeral
because Big Mike was important to me
I wanted to do a whole episode about Big Mike one day
but I'm going to have
my buddy Marzi Montessori
and the Taurus Bud Musician
he's going to come up with
we're going to talk about Big Mike together
because Big Mike was a whole vibe
and a whole experience
I think I'll wrap that up
for today
I'll give you my testimonials
there's some testimonials if you will
and
our comments from last week
what did we do last week
this week was
and I had these set up
there they go
I went to Mississippi
I didn't get to talk to you all that much
about Mississippi was amazing
I had a truly spiritual
experience in Mississippi
I drove out there
myself so it was like 6 hours
well driving out there was like 8 hours
because it was a huge
bunch of construction
in Baton Rouge because there's always construction
in Baton Rouge
so it took forever to get out there
but I had a day just to myself
in Macomb, Mississippi
I went out and found Jerry Clower's grave
and I communed
with the great one
spent some time out there
spent some time in Liberty
checking out the places from all those
great stories Jerry Clower told
while I was growing up
and then I went out and found
the crash site memorial
for Leonard Skinnerd where they crashed
right there in Mississippi
and this lady
there built this huge monument
and I guess they do concerts
out there on the anniversary
of the plane crash and stuff like that
this beautiful monument
also hilarious I got recognized
walking up
to the monument I got recognized
and I thought that was so funny
just so on brand
of course I get recognized at the Leonard Skinnerd Memorial
where the hell else would I get
recognized
that's my second favorite place
I get recognized at truck stops a lot
so it was cool
met some fans out there and took some pictures
they were cool as shit
the show in Mississippi
was the show I needed after the San Antonio show
there was a little saying in the business
you're only good as your last show
and if you feel like your last show wasn't a good one
it doesn't leave you in a good headspace
and that last show in San Antonio
did not leave me in a good headspace
and the show in Mississippi
fixed that was a rock star night
that was that crowd
came there to have a good time
I was on stage about an hour and ten minutes
they got all the extras
we banged it out
plus I love being somewhere where I'm allowed
to make fun of Louisiana freely
and Mississippi is a good place to be
if you want to make fun of Louisiana
and Louisiana is kind of like the middle kid
between Texas and Mississippi
we just sort of tolerated
anyways
it was a magical experience
I came back refreshed and renewed
did see
one of the Mexican trains
pulling the cars to Mexico
flip a Ford Ranger
all over I-12
got it loose and snaked up
I told a little story about it on the internet
but flipped that Ford Ranger
all over the road
I was right there what had happened
and I've been searching news stories for it
I can't find nothing about it
what I suspect happened is that dude
hit the gas and kept going
and left that Ford Ranger
on the side of I-12
alright
let's get in these testing
I had our old buddy
a David Beckard
I did not hear you say anything about
eating armadillo I have
when I was in Arkansas
you got my beat there brother
I ain't never had no armadillo
in fact we used to freak out
when our dogs would try to eat armadillo
because there was a wives tale
when I was growing up I don't know if it's true or not
that dogs get leprosy
from eating armadillo
and that was like a big fear
dog cow down
armadillo start messing with armadillo
you went and got the dog away from armadillo
dog screw around and get some leprosy
I never bet armadillo was a leper
but I was told that
one of y'all might correct me and be like
that's a bullshit somebody told you
at
Steven Byrne
no eight nine seven seven
that guy asking you about the wrecking yard
and what it's about best way I can describe
it is
is that it's
is that it's place in your heart
where you share good times and bad times
are the ones you love
it's a place where we all grew up and learned life
lessons in order to become the person
we are today
it's a special place where memories are made
and when it's our time to leave
and move on to the world that we call life
we end up leaving a piece of our heart
and soul with the wrecking yard
each of us has our own little version of the wrecking yard
and one day I myself will be
taking one final trip to my own wrecking yard
and take one final look
at the place for the last time
that is what the wrecking yard means to me
keep up with the life lessons
we love you brother
boy that's one of
thank you
thank you Steven
that's a beautiful description
I too believe that we all have a little wrecking yard
of our own somewhere
each of us
a little wrecking yard in our own life
there's a spot in the book
that I was reading on yesterday
you day oneers
people from the first season that
seen all the episodes
probably remember the episode I tell you
about going to
CZZ Top
with Uncle Bobby
when I was about 25
somewhere in there
about our grand adventure
working on the gay cowboys hot tub
and them giving us tickets
go CZZ Top
just going in styles
the way only Uncle Bobby could do in the event
and I was having to write that whole story
for the book and really flesh it out
and get all the details in the scene
and
it dawned on me that was my last
it was my last real rodeo with Uncle Bobby
that's the time we went to the Cosmic Shack
that's the last time I really spent
any time with him alone
just me and him
that's the last time I went to Kilgore
looking for him
chased that life that he lived
with him
and when I got to the end
of that chapter I wrote
there's a thing you know he called me
Pooh Bear
and he told me he called me Pooh Bear because
he said
he was like Christopher Robbins one day
he was going to outgrow me
and then the very opposite thing happened
I outgrew him
but when I
was in up that chapter
I wrote something along the lines of
I pointed that forward towards Houston
I left a hundred acre wood
and Christopher Robbins
for the last time
and boy if that line didn't punch me
it's
if that line didn't punch me in the face
that's the other one I'm going to have a hard time
reading on that damn audio book
that's the one I'm going to have to practice
because boy it punched me
in my editor, me and Adam both
had bloody noses the rest of the night
that Jean Bond
thanks for another great one
JW
it's funny to look back and see a different picture
of events in the past
well you may have been proud of an incident at the time
you can now look back and see what kind of dumb ass
you were in the moment
if I knew then what I know now
yeah Jean I don't think I'd want to have to redo
any of it God knows I probably screwed up
second time around
but here's I look back at these moments
I'm talking about Steve and I'm trying to
capture the parts of Steve I love
without focusing y'all have heard the bad
I don't want to focus on the bad
I'm trying to focus on the parts I love
the family
being together hanging out
because I could tell y'all
stories about me and Steve being idiots
all day long and
it's just not stuff I'm proud of
you know
just we were just
we were a bad match together sometimes
neither one of us
talked the other one down
in fact we just egged each other on
until shit got really out of hand
he had that old
he had that old CT and pickup
truck for a long time buddy
he put some dual exhaust on
you hear it plop plop plop plop plop plop plop
it wasn't fast but plop plop plop
and everywhere he went
and then him and his dad
like sanded it down they were gonna
paint it and they sanded it down
a couple weekends and then they
primered it and then Steve wrecked
it and then they fixed that and primered
that and then it just
stayed primer for a long time
and then the frame cracked and had
Steve jumped it through a ditch and
cracked the frame on it
and traded it in on a Ford Mustang
when him and his wife first got
married
so it was uh
yeah some dealership got hooked
on that one because that thing had a cracked
frame when they got it of course
knowing how they do them uh
I don't think them dealerships ever take a beating
on a trade in
I don't think there's any way you win
on a trade in
as always I thank you guys for sharing
with me Sunday with me
spending a little quiet time
going over some things
hope the obstacles
in your life are
making way I know this is
the time of year where
at least I did when I worked in the
trades this is the time of year where
money starts getting tight you gotta
worry about Christmas and
the job starts slowing down people's
money get scared because they're worrying
about Christmas
then especially down here in south
the weather is about to get terrible
jobs get rained out it's hard to
plan jobs when you're in the trades
working outside
this is a stressful time of year for
guys in that situation
I used to tell people every about
about this time of year every year
I'd start hearing that song
if we make it through December
almost
like a few on March
this is that time
of year for you and your business and occupation
I feel you brother
I hope it's
I hope it's a good year
I hope it's not one of them bad ones
luckily it looks like our weather's been pretty mild
so far I'm hoping for a mild winter
forest down there
keep guys working getting that paycheck
people need the money now more than ever
everything's more expensive
it's getting harder to scratch by out here
you ain't telling me nothing
I love you guys
hope
hope you're looking forward to a
decent Christmas
maybe some time this week with your families
hope you have a good Thanksgiving
I got I'm glad my sister's
going to be here again
I like having a house full of people on Thanksgiving
we got a small house so adding one or two
people makes it feel like a full house
and we got our new
our new little friend this is old Philly
who's going to be her first Thanksgiving with
she has just
she has really just taken over our entire
household she has run
calling the shots she now sleeps in the bed
with me and Rachel
it did not
take her along to worm her way into our hearts
and
take over our little household
she's just been a delight
endless source of enjoyment for me
let's
close this up and get out of here for the day
you know there comes a point in your life
where you don't just change
you rise not gentle
not graceful
not photogenic
I'm talking about
climbing hand over hand
up out of a pit you dug
with your own two hands
while the old version of you tries to drag you back
down by the ankle
and that's when it happens
the moment you start moving toward the light
somebody down in the shadows
starts hollering your name like you're doing something wrong
because they
miss the broken version of
the easy version
the predictable version
the version that didn't
challenge them to face their own darkness
some folks don't want you healed
not because they hate you but because your journey
forces them to look at their own stagnation
and it is easier
to call you changed
than it is to admit they've been standing still
for ten damn years
I think about my brother Steve when I say that
we were welded together in chaos
we shared laughter and bad decisions
and too many nights I'm not proud of
we were two halves of the same busted
compass
but when I started clawing my way
toward something better he didn't see hope
he saw abandonment
he saw betrayal
he saw me stepping out of his shadow
he was still married to
I didn't rise above him
I didn't outrun him
I just outgrew the darkness we used to sit in together
that's the part nobody wants to say
out loud when you start walking towards a life
that doesn't hurt as much
the people who won't move will swear
you acting brand new
they'll say you're judging
they'll paint you as the villain in a story
where all you ever did was try to survive
you can lose your entire future trying to
stay loyal to a chapter you were meant to
finish
you can drown trying to save someone
who's grabbing you harder than the water is
you can die a little at a time
staying small just to keep someone else
comfortable
some goodbyes don't blow up
they just whisper an inch of distance
here a missed call there
a silence
that grows until the friendship
you love becomes a ghost
and it breaks you
because nothing
nothing hurts
like losing someone who's still alive
but
but just listen to me
you are not meant to sacrifice
your journey for someone who refuses
to take the first step on theirs
your peace is work-defending
your healing is work-defending
your purpose is work-defending
every damn time
you can love somebody
with everything you've got and still know that
walking next to them will burn you to the ground
you can pray for them
you can hope for them
you can carry their memory like a stone in your pocket
and still refuse to follow them
into the dark
I miss my friend
more than I say out loud
and I hope wherever he is
the shadows finally loosen their grip
and let a little light in
I didn't walk away because I stopped loving him
I walked away
because survival demanded movement
because the road to becoming who you're meant to be
doesn't always accommodate everyone you love
and sometimes the doorway
to your better life opens at the exact place
someone else's path is
I'm J.W. and I love you
J.W.
I hope you guys have a great Thanksgiving
I'll see you
see you next week
I'll be safe
if we
make it through December
I plan to be in a woman
please
About this episode
Jerry Wayne Longmire reflects on his journey of friendship, particularly with his buddy Steve Gardner, and the challenges they faced together. The episode dives deep into their shared experiences, from high school antics to the struggles with addiction that ultimately drove them apart. Longmire shares heartfelt stories about Steve's family, their adventures, and the lessons learned along the way. As he prepares for Thanksgiving, he emphasizes the importance of personal growth and the bittersweet nature of friendships that change over time.
Original notes
Some goodbyes don’t blow up.
They just whisper.
An inch of distance here, a missed call there, a silence that grows until the friendship you loved becomes a ghost.
The Reckon Yard Podcast
Jerry Wayne Longmire
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68:44