Interesting Characters that pass through our lives

Living in Colorado back in the mid-70's through the early 80's.  was a lot of fun..
I moved out there in the spring of 1976  young and dumb, but full of piss and vinegar..
ready for an adventure..   after growing up in a sheltered life in Minnesota.
While out there I learned a lot about life working in the Oil Fields of Colorado and Kansas.
Met a lot of interesting people out there.. and a lot of ex-cons, and some that left you wondering how they managed to live that long being that stupid..
The guy who taught me how to drive a truck was a character and a half.
 Shorty Wilson was his name,  I met him a year earlier out on a drilling rig when delivering pipe.
At that point I was just a "swamper"  I'd ride along just to help the driver load and unload the trailer.
But the first time I met Shorty we were on the middle of a ranch in eastern Colorado..
about 5 or so miles down a cow path off the main road, was the drilling rig.
but it was the middle of summer and hot,  and there was Shorty standing out on the drilling platform
in his tidy whities and cowboy boots and cowboy hat..  
I remember the driver I was with just had a fit about this...  but this driver didn't like Shorty..
We got the pipe unloaded and headed back to Ft Lupton CO and I remember the driver pissed and
moaned about Shorty's attire all the way back..
A few months later Shorty moved into the shop at Ft Lupton and that caused the driver I worked with to quit, he just couldn't stand being around Shorty..
So let me talk a little about Shorty..
Shorty was a Korean War Vet, who had a rough/sloppy exterior,  but he liked you, he'd do just about anything for you.
Shorty was 5 foot tall, wore his western shirts about half open, and had a belly..
and he chain smoked and burned them down to the filter..   and drank a lot..
Soon after Shorty moved to the shop, I swamped for him, and he taught me a lot..
at that time I was 20yrs old,  and Colorado is a 21yr old state..
Shorty liked his beer.. and drinking and driving was something Shorty did..
Drunk driving was also something Shorty did regularly.
We went through one small town on the eastern slope of Colorado and Shorty gave me $5 to buy a 6-pack,  said he would drop me off at this liquor store and circle around and pick me up.
Well, the guy in the liquor store carded me... DOH!
So I came out, Shorty was coming down the block, went jumped back in the truck,
I explained what happened..  he stopped he truck right there, marched into that liquor store
and chewed this guy out!  bought his beer and left..   LOL
We went on down the road drinking beer and laughing about what happened..
You couldn't get away with that now..
Shorty taught me a lot of things about life..  he taught me how to drive a truck with a two stick
transmission.. that's an education in its self, he took the time to work with me on how to back up a trailer,  and for some it comes natural, and some it doesn't,  I got it figured out and what Shorty taught me back then still sticks with me today.
One of the things I remember when I was trucking with Shorty was, going through a weight station near Lamar Colorado,  you had to stop and go in and get a paper stamped to prove you did stop at the
weight station, as the swamper,  while Shorty was weighing the rig, I went in to get our stamped paper.and the Cop told me "good luck working with Shorty"  he knew Shorty pretty well.
in the middle of Summer of '77 I left Shorty's company and followed a drilling rig to Kansas..
Where I learned more of life's lessons..   but in mid-December of 1977 Shorty was killed in a pickup truck accident..  Shorty was at the Ft Lupton yard waiting on another driver,
while waiting, Shorty was drinking..  and word has it was pretty drunk,  at some point Shorty got in his pickup and drove off,  he ran off the road and rolled his pickup truck and he was ejected from the
truck since he wasnt wearing a seat belt.. (back then nobody wore one) he would have survived the accident, but the truck rolled back over on top of him and crushed him.
I guess he used up his nine lives..
In the short amount of time I knew Shorty Wilson, he left a strong impression on my life.
That I never want or can't forget..
I just hope that somewhere along the line, I have touched someone's life and 40yrs from now they
will look back and say that I left a strong lasting impression on them that helped them with their life.