I’ve just gotten back from delivering mrs tac to the airport for her usual Fall jaunt to Spain to see her cousin, sat down with a pint of coffee, and opened my email to find a couple of dozen emails from folks I don’t know, all telling me that our dearest friend of many years, Joe Evans, of Le Bleu Road, Eugene, had passed away suddenly this morning [for you, that is - you are eight hours behind us here in UK].
You Guys, who don’t know me from Adam, have all lost dear and close friends over the years, but nevertheless, it’s a great shock to us all, none greater than that for his wife of many years, Alma, who found him early this morning.
Joe was truly one of the good guys on this good earth, and although we only go back around eight years, we sensed in each other a definite kindred spirit. We are both grumpy and prone to grumbling about things we can never change, and meanwhile, desperately looking for answers to things that might have seemed unimportant to other folks. We both challenged the accepted view of the population of the Americas from the so-called perceived wisdom, and were endlessly fascinated by all kinds of stuff, from the Great Missoula floods to local history. We were, in fact, so alike in mind that it was nothing unusual to see us together sayign the same things at the same time about the same subjects
He had a deep an abiding love for the Pacific Northwest, and loved to show it to us on our annual meet-ups. Our favorite train ride was on the Sumpter Valley Railway, and many happy hours were spent in cab rides in their old Heisler. Great memories there, folks, to come back to time and again.
We loved him and cherished him, and looked forward to the next time we all met up, me and Gay and him and Alma.
The image that you can’t see shows the four of us on a recent trip around the Oregon that we both loved so much, with Joe, Alma, Gaynor and me, on a bright sunny day - the best way to remember dearly loved friends.
RIP, Joe, a man who loved horses, loved his ukelele, loved his old Chevelle, his wife, his guns, his friends and Oregon, not necessarily in that order .
tac and mrs tac
Ottawa Valley GRS