I have one memory of my Uncle Billy. At least I think it’s a memory or it could be a dream that I remember, I’m not sure. See, my Uncle Billy, he was one of the two youngest boys in my mom’s family. He was a for sure wild child, a hell raiser, a dare devil. Personally, I remember him as a total golden child. He had long blond hair and big eyes and was all chiseled from being so intense and from working so much construction. The picture many of my aunts and uncles have that I remember is a black and white shot. Uncle Billy is looking straight into the camera and he’s smiling casually, he has on a hard hat and a big bushy beard, long hair and you can hear he’s saying ”heyyyyy man, what’s up.”
My specific, personal memory of him is one of the times he came back to Oswego for a visit. It would have been the last time I saw him. It would have been right before he died. This is before I even turned 7 years old. Uncle Billy had moved out to Colorado from the time I was a very young girl. He followed The Dead. He drove a motorcycle. I heard a story once about how he was the guy that stood up on his bike with his arms outstretched going over 60 miles an hour. But my memory of him is in the park. For the life of me I can’t remember if we were in Hamilton Street Park across the street from my house, the house my Mom and my Uncle Billy grew up in, or if we were up the street in Oak Hill Park (the far superior park as it had a water playground) or if we were in the mecca of all parks in Oswego…Breitbeck. I just remember my cousin Aimee and I were sitting in the grass and our Uncle Billy was home and he was mysterious and an angel because we didn’t really know him. He was new to us so we were sitting near him just happy to be around him. It didn’t matter if he had a kickball or a jump rope or a frisbee or anything, he was the cool uncle and we just wanted to bask in his inner light and glory. The memory is that he was talking to us, he was telling us a story or telling us a joke or something and he all of a sudden just leaned over and said “huh, look, a four leaf clover, hey Lex, have you ever seen one of these before? This is a four leaf clover, this is really good luck, there’s like a rhyme or something about this, but this is really lucky….cool. Here, it’s for you.”
