Tommy White Pt. 2

Tommy and Yours Truly – Pt. Lookout St. Park 1970

Following my post about burning tires at Tommy’s request (click here,) someone asked me whatever became of Brother Tommy.  Sad to report that he died in 1998 and is buried at the St Luke’s Methodist Church located just above Buzzy’s Country Store.  (Quick aside here:  I always have to fight the urge to call St. Luke’s what I have always heard it called as I was growing up – the colored church.  I remember going by it as a young kid once and asking my Mom, who still calls it the colored church, why it was called the colored church when it was painted white.  I then learned that that’s where the African-American, back then referred to as colored, folks went to church.)  
But let’s return to Tommy.  I think I inadvertently helped him out through a business venture that we may or may not have had back in the early 70’s when I was in the Army.  As I was headed back overseas after having been home on leave, I  arranged a deal with Tommy whereby I would send him some “wholesale products” from Germany.  Plan was for him to hold these products for me until I got out and we would then retail these products and split the profits.  
Back in Germany I procured and sent Tommy a couple of kilo’s of these “wholesale products.”  When I got home from the service, I learned that Tommy had moved on up from his home in Scotland below the Store to a place in Lexington Park.  I located him in the Park and while noting the Cadillac in his driveway, asked him about our “deal” and what had happened to the products that I’d sent him.  He told me that he had never received anything.  Needless to say, I had my doubts but there wasn’t anything I could do about it, so I let it ride.  (However, I never hung out much with Tommy after that.)
Awhile ago I heard that Tommy’s wife Diane is a manager at the Sleep Inn, adjacent Lenny’s Restaurant, so I swung by to see her.  It was good to catch up with her and have a laugh or two just like she and Buzzy are doing in this picture of them.  

Diane and Buzzy