Remembering Rod

For some reasons hidden in the recesses of my memories I have been remembering an old friend, Rod Smith.  During the wonderful years I spent at West Texas State University I made great friends and established relationships that have continued until today.  The most important event was, of course, meeting my sweet wife, Diane.  There were others and I want to speak of one today.
At WT back in the day, most of the students came from the Texas panhandle area.  We were all interlinked with hometowns like Muleshoe, Dimmit, Paducah, Tulia….ad infinitum.  When someone entered our circle from a great distance it was as if they were visiting students from afar!  Diane, for example, came from El Paso and that was as exotic a place as we could imagine in our limited travels!  Then came Rod Smith.
Rod was from CALIFORNIA, for goodness sake.  He was not only from the environs of California, but he was from Newport Beach!  We, for the most part, only dreamed of beaches and the world of movie stars.  I want to give you a sense of Rod.
Rod was (as my father would say) a chuckle headed kid with a wide eyed sense of wonder and curiosity of everything he encountered.  He had been a football player while in high school, but did not carry that swagger that high school footballers often presented.  He loved all things military and relished his ROTC life at WT.  When he arrived at WT he gravitated to the speech and theatre crowd and loved being in the middle of all that angst and strum and drang of a college theatre group.  We all hung out in the green room between classes and Rod was right there with us.  He participated in a small way in some of the productions, but that was not his intent.  He just liked being with us.  He loved watching us work on productions and always showed great interest in what was going on.  Rod obviously enjoyed observing the shenanigans we pulled and even became a part of them.  We took him along for the ride and, in retrospect, we enjoyed the attention he gave to us in our endeavors.  He was interested in us and what amateur thespian does not enjoy that.
While at WT I very seldom went home without taking some of my friends with me.  I lived on our farm out in the country in Paducah, Texas.  Many of them had not experienced farm life and they enjoyed it. My wonderful parents loved kids and they always welcomed them.  Rod came along on one of the trips and my folks, especially my dad, immediately fell in love with him.  Rod had never seen a Texas farm/ranch and was blown away.  He wanted to know EVERYTHING.  What I had always taken for granted was a revelation to Rod.  He was fascinated with the small bodies of water that spot most farms which we called "horse tanks."  Because of that my dad immediately dubbed him "Horse Tank Rod."  (I might add here that Dad called me "bird dog.")  Old Horse Tank came home with me many times during my time at WT.  He loved the freedom, the open spaces and was fascinated with the farm animals, especially the horses.
Life continued at WT.  Rod became a part of our life.  When Diane and I were married in 1964 he made the trek to El Paso for the wedding.  When he went home for the summer of 1965 he entrusted his old Chevy to us until he returned.  We used it a lot while Diane and I were living in Canyon that summer going out to Palo Duro Canyon working on the amphitheater show, "Thundering Sounds of the West."  In September we moved to El Paso, went into the Army and life continued on for us.  Rod was a part of our past, fondly remembered and as the years continued contact was lost.  However, I never saw another "horse tank" without thinking of Rod.
Flash forward to around 2003.  We are back in El Paso, our girls are gone and suddenly I get a letter.
"Is this the Ronnie Parks who attended WT?"
It was Rod!  He had made the effort and found us.  We were overjoyed and we immediately picked up from all those years ago.  We discovered that he had entered the Marine Corps, made Colonel and was living in Golden, Colorado.  He had married, yet had no children.  He shared a little about his Viet Nam experiences, but in no great detail  We did find out that he saw battle and, like many other Viet Nam vets, would not elaborate.
Then….we stopped hearing from him.  It had been only a few months since we had reconnected and I began to worry.  Finally, I wrote a letter to his wife inquiring about him.  She replied and informed me that Rod had suddenly died.
Rod had died.  It was a jolt to our hearts.  I began to search to find out more about Rod's later life.  Yes, he had been in the Marine Corps.  He was a A6 Bombardier/Navigator stationed in Chu Lai and flew numerous missions over North VietNam.  He was among the many war heroes of that era.  When he left active duty he remained in the Reserves and became a full colonel.  He moved to Colorado, worked for numerous oil companies and began he studies for the law.  He became a contract lawyer after graduating from the University of Denver.  He married and upon his retirement he and his wife bought an 18 acre ranch at Castle Rock, California.  He died of coronary heart disease in 2004.
He left behind his wife, two golden retrievers……and a Tennessee Walker named "Overdrive."  His wife sent a picture of him on his beloved horse.  There was "Horsetank" Rod, that chuckleheaded kid from California, who fell in love with all things rural at our farm in Paducah, Texas.
I wept and I still weep today.  Rest in peace, Rod, I am better for having known you.