Three years ago, I ran into Michael Price again.  I don’t even remember how it happened, but I am glad it did.  We met at a Pizza Hut for their lunch buffet, not to far from his home on the lake.  We talked, got caught up and ate pizza and salad for at least two hours.  it was when he first told me about the recurrence of his cancer.  "Pizza Huts don’t have nothing on Michael and me, we got our monies worth!”  

From then on, we talked quite frequently which was in itself a feat because Michael didn’t have or need a cell phone.  How nice!  He did know when i called because my name would pop up on his TV.  I wish I had thought of that invention.    

About a year later, he had to go to Baptist Hospital and then Lexington Hospital to recover.  I went there to visit him one night and we had a party.  "Hey man, this food is really good,” Michael said and it was.  "How does my hair and beard look?,’ Michael said.  “Looks like you are ready to go to your High School Prom again,” I said and he was.  We had desert and coffee and talked the night away.  never a negative word about his fight with cancer.  "Hey man, please hand me that canister, I need to take a pee,” Michael said and I did and he did.  We were definitely friends. It was also a special night for me because I got to meet his wonderful wife, Linda.
 
Over the next year we met several times at restaurants around the Lexington area. Michael, always talking about the next clinical trial that was going to help him defeat his cancer.  I just listened in amazement and agreed with him.   The last time I met with him was several months ago.  I went to see him at his home on the lake.  Linda was also there and very gracious in letting us bundle up and sit on the dock on the lake.  We talked for several hours and Michael gave me a tour of the property, so carefully maneuvering the lakeside landscape. He had his football ready but honestly, it was to cold for him to take his shoes off!!!!  

Michael, taught me many things over the course of our friendship and through his courageous battle with cancer.  I will live the rest of my life appreciating every moment, loving the people close to me, helping all I can, fearing nothing in the physical world and seeking a deep sense of spirituality.  I will do this without complaining, bickering or hurting others until the day that i die.  So help me God!  

“Thank you my friend and know that your legacy lives on!"    

I lived in Charlotte and worked for Souther Bell during the day and played in bands at night.  One night I was playing with the New York Trio at the then new Marriott on Tyvola Blvd.  I was about to go on break when Mike, the drummer said that there was a man well dressed standing at the door yelling “hey Dicky”.  I turned in that direction and saw Michael Price in the most expensive three piece suit I had ever seen.  I thought that he might have been in the secret service or something because he was also in perfect shape.  Now the band members knew that I used to be called Dicky. Thanks Michael.  It was really good to see him and we talked until the wee hours of the night catching up.  I also invited him to a party I was going to have the next weekend at my new apartment clubhouse near South Park.   Well the next weekend arrived and it was party time.  I now know it was my first and last party.  I’ll just play in the band from then on!  I invited 50 people and 150 people showed up.  Everyone had a car and I had no parking.  The clubhouse had to be vacated at 1 AM and I couldn’t get everybody out until 2 AM.  The police came and stayed and now I had 155 people.  155 people had gone through 10 kegs of beer, bottles of liquor, soft drinks, snack foods.  I violated the noise ordinance, the band which I played with left early because i couldn’t play because I was consumed with the crowd.  All the friends that I had at the time were having to much fun to help.  But the one friend I had invited from our friendship in Clover was all in: keeping the peace, negotiating with the cops, keeping cars out of private parking spots, cutting people off when they were to drunk to drive and taking away their keys, getting everybody out and helping me clean up the trashed clubhouse through the night was Michael Price.  I had a true friend even after 15 years.     Hey Man  Thank You

One saturday morning (early 60's) Mike and I were trying to cool off with a cold drink at Price's Grocery.  It was early summer, about 11:00 AM, and we had been playing baseball in Mike's backyard like we did every Saturday.  Mike's dad, Joe, was a hardworking, no nonsense kind of guy who knew Bible scripture better than any and took every opportunity to "preach" to young folks like me. Looking back on it now, I think this was Mr. Price's way of sizing up Mike's friends.  He wanted to get a feel for me to see if I was going to be a bad influence on Mike. Big Joe was pretty strict on Mike and rightfully so because Mike had a devilish side to him that had to be kept in check.  Joe always closed the store at noon for an hour while he went next door to eat lunch and take a nap at their house. Mike and I went outside to finish our sodas and stood beside their old grocery delivery truck while Joe locked the store. He then walked quickly around the fence that separated their front yard from the back and disappeared into the house.  Mike said " hop in the truck!" and I asked him "why?"  He said, " I just want to sit in the truck for a while" and so I got in. Mike was too young to get a driver's license but he wanted to drive that old truck really badly. All of a sudden the truck started rolling and I asked Mike what he was doing and he said "let's go for a ride!" and I said "your daddy will get mad, won't he?" and Mike said,"he's going to be taking a nap and we'll be back before he wakes up!" About that time, Mike let his foot off the clutch and cranked the truck, put it in gear, and eased down the dirt road behind the store and away we went.  I don't think any of this was preplanned but Mike seemed to have a sense of where he wanted to go.  He carefully drove around some back streets in Clover and made his way to the city limits and then down a long winding dirt road.  Mike pushed the accelerator to the floor and we went flying down the straight section of the dirt road and into the first curve where Mike made the truck slide sideways, then into the next curve where the truck slid the opposite way.  There were a couple of these curvy sections and Mike repeated his daredevil moves which would have been fun to watch if you were at a distance. As we raced toward the end of the road, we noticed several houses ahead in a cluster.  We could see quite a few people standing on their front porches or walking toward us with their arms and hands waving and they were yelling at us. ( we couldn't tell if they were cheering or cursing us) Mike said, "I think they like what we're doing!" so he got closer to the houses and did a complete 360 degree spin in the dirt and headed back down the road with dust and dirt flying everywhere.  Mike was laughing so hard, he was barely able to get us back to the store.  We made it  just in the time to see  Big Joe walking back around that fence to reopen the store.  We had gotten clean away with this little adventure and it became standard proceedure every Saturday for a while.  Mike and I promised ourselves we were going to record some of the stories from our childhood.  I wish he were here to help tell this story. I can see him smiling and I can hear him laughing.  He is an inspiration to us all and we will miss him!