Rick Bradford's Retirement: It Ain't Easy

 MAYNARD MUNN and MILLARD SMITH Disclaimer: some of the following is quite racy in case you don't want to read the entire first paragraph. Maynard Munn was my uncle. I accidently found out recently that he passed away in June 2021. The photo above was a perfect photo for his obituary, as that is exactly how I remember him. He and Millard were together for as long as I knew him, and I recently turned 70, so I believe they were together for over 65 years at the minimum. In his obituary, they described Millard as his "longtime friend and business associate" -- I guess they still couldn't reconcile that they were in actuality, gay. In June of 1967, Uncle Main came up to Michigan to attend my older brother's graduation from high school. Mom pulled me aside and said I had a decision to make. He wanted to take me back to Jacksonville when he returned but if I chose that option, I would have to bypass taking driver's education classes that summer. Wasn't much of a...

 THIS AND THAT Times are beginning to somewhat return to normal, whatever that means nowadays. I played pool for the first time in over 15 months in the middle of June. Entered a tournament, played well considering I hadn't even held my cue stick in all that time. I was pleased with the way I played but lost to the eventual winner of the tournament, so it must have been fate (if I had been fated to win, I would have). I then joined up with my teammates a few weeks ago for a team practice before the league starts up again in August. It was very fun seeing all of them again, catching up and having a great time playing pool against each other. We are scheduled to do it again tonight, so looking forward to that. The picture is of all of us but James, as he was moving and couldn't make it that night. He's supposed to be there tonight. The other photo is of me getting ready to make a ball. Martin and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary on July 7 and then turned around and ...