I was truly blessed to know Woody and to be a part of his life. I have known Woody for at least 50 years as we seemed to follow each other from job to job. Wherever we went or whatever we did, joy and laughter followed us around. There are too many to mention them all, and some I don't want to disclose, but a one id etched in my mind.
Around 1972 Woody lived in Sterling Park and lived in Sugarland Run, which was less than five miles away. I had bought a house a few months earlier and decided it was time for a bigger garden shed. The builder of my house had built a small one and I decided to enlarge it. The existing shed had a concrete floor so naturally I decided that the enlarged shed would need a concrete floor. I was telling Woody what I wanted to do. He asked how I would get the concrete for the floor. I told him that I was going to use Sakrete as the concrete companies would not deliver less than a cubic yard. He said he had a better idea that would save a lot of time and money. So I asked him what had in mind. He told me that the local concrete plant had these half cubic yard trailers that you could rent and tow to your location. I told him that sounded great except I didn't have anything to tow it with. No problem he says. I have this old 1946 International Harvester pick up truck we can use. Sounds great I say and off we go to the concrete plant. We hook up the trailer, move it under the shoot, and fill it to the brim with concrete. Off we go. The first hundred yards or so were no problem. All of a sudden Woody start laughing, almost hysterically, and points to the front of the truck. The concrete filled trailer was too heavy for the truck and the front tires were off the ground. At this point he had no ability to steer the truck. Woody quickly stops the truck. What are we going to do I ask? He said there is only one thing we can do and that is add more weight to the front end. Ok, I say. What can we use. With a smile and smirk on his face he say “YOU”. Huh? He says get out, put you feet on the front bumper and lay the rest of you body over the hood. So after a little discussion back and forth we decide that was the best plan. We decided to take all the back roads we could so as not to get caught. What a ride that was. If I weighed then what I weigh now it might have worked better. As it was every time we hit a dip or rise in the road the front end would come off the ground and Woody would have to brake hard to control the truck. What a ride it was, but we made it. To this day we always broke up with laughter every time we saw a concrete truck,
I miss you already ole buddy.
Joe Toth
