Good Friends are hard to come by Part 2

Even though I was working for the office at a very young age I was kayfabed by almost all of the guys. I always found it hilarious that while at the office working they would come in and joke with each other and laugh about what some mark
had done at a show, and then at the arena it was like they did not know me. But a tag team came to Georgia around 1969/70 called "The Fabulous Monroe Brothers", Rocket and Flash. Little did I know I was about to meet one of the closest and dearest friends I would ever have in this life...

Rocket Monroe was like no other wrestler I had ever met. He was friendly to everyone he ever met. He treated people with respect and never talked down to anyone. I quickly became close to him and that friendship has never faded. Rocket and his family became my second family. My mother was skeptical of my association with the wrestling business in general, and the thought of her baby boy hanging around a professional wrestler didn't set to well with her. Rocket met my family and after that there was never a problem with me going to his home or making a trip with him. We played softball on Sunday's because it was the only day off back then. We played card games late into the night and his wife became a dear friend to me also. I watched his children grow up and found myself spending almost every weekend with them.

Rocket left Georgia a couple of times for short stints in Mobile and other territories but Georgia had become home and he still resides here today. His first marriage ended and he married a young lady from Riverdale, Ga. and a second family was started, he and Denise had four wonderful children that I have had the privilege to watch grow up.

Rocket and I have made many trips together and it always seemed he was on some kind of a diet. If anyone worked Georgia back in those days they knew of Perlis Truck Stop in Cordele, Ga.. It was a huge truck stop on I-75 that stayed open 24/7 and had wonderful greasy food. It was a regular stop on the way home from anywhere in south Georgia. We stopped one night and it was crowded, so we decided to sit at the counter. We ate and he was very careful not to vary to far from his diet. In the glass display case behind the counter were these huge slices of fresh strawberry pie covered with whipped creme. I ordered a slice and Rocket made the comment that he would love a slice if he wasn't on a diet. The waitress said " I can serve you a slice and remove all the calories." He looked like a kid at Christmas and said " I'll take one."

I never said a word, she covered that pie with extra whipped topping and handed it to him. He dove in and after one bite he looked at me and said, I must be the biggest idiot in the world. I never looked up and said yep you probably are...

Another time we were running late for Macon TV. We stopped at a small place to get a burger. It was a single wide trailer that had been turned into a grill. You went in one door, ordered, proceeded sideways down the hall because it wasn't wide enough to walk straight through.  You paid and picked up at the next window and out the door you went. We grabbed a couple of burgers, fries and a drink and back on the road we went.  A mile or so down the road Rocket ask "does your burger taste funny?". No, just a greasy burger. He says mine tastes funny, take a bite. I tasted the burger and began laughing. It was a bun, mustard, ketchup, onion, lettuce, mayo, tomato, and no meat. He was hot at me for laughing and even hotter at the grill for screwing him.  More...