My Story (2) By Lee Dickey III

One of my best memories of Travis was a party that was held at a friends house. This was a guys only party and you can only imagine what a bunch of teenage guys are gonna do. A couple of the guys had the intelligent idea of renting a porno movie. They rented the movie and everyone was in the other room watching it for the exception of Travis and myself who were in a different room playing video games. Neither one of us even thought about going in the other room to watch the movie. I remember the video games we played were a wrestling game and of course Travis's favorite John Madden football. I whooped him in the wrestling game but I had no chance when it came to Madden Football. Soon after we left and went to McDonalds. There was a mutual understanding between the two of us that we would not go in that room regardless of the situation. There was another time that Travis and Jen had the idea of going to a movie and "hooking" me up with Rachel Noble. I was surprised when they picked me up only to see Rachel in the back seat. Of course Rachel and I didn't have much to talk about and didn't say much to one another. So to say the least, it would have been an awkward night if not for Travis. He kept us talking about anything that came to mind. When we got to the movies, Travis and I wanted to see an action movie. At the time, the latest and greatest "James Bond" movie was out and we wanted to see that. We should have known better because when all was said and done we were watching "Clueless". For anyone who has seen this movie just knows this isn't Travis's kind of movie. It is a silly and non-action oriented movie. For the first 45 minutes Travis didn't make any expressions on his face. I know he was holding back and all it took was for me to say something about how the movie was most stupid ever made. From then on we made fun of the movie all the way to the end. Of course Jen and Rachel thought we were laughing with the movie. Oh how wrong they were. I talked to Travis on occasion after he joined the Navy. I was on the pier in Norfolk when his first ship the USS Mahan was commissioned and first showed up in Norfolk. He was one of the line handlers and yelled at me right away. Since we were both on the same type of ship, we were at sea most of the time and didn't get to hang out, even though we lived in the same town. There wasn't email on our ships back then. As luck would have it, I missed him 3 times when I went home to Maine, usually by a day or two. I was hoping to catch up with Travis this coming Christmas. We were finally going to be home at the same time. It's amazing how things can change in a heartbeat. Travis will of course always have a place in my heart. He was the nicest guy I have ever known. I may have lost a brother in the physical world but in the world of my memories, Travis will always live. I send my love and prayers to Travis's family and all of his friends. Lee Dickey III