Richard Parker 

My other best friend (Larry Appleman was the other). I met Parker when I started going to Ida high school in my senior year. The first time we went riding around in his 1940 Ford coupe I pretty much concluded that he was a wild man, I'm not sure what we did but remembering Parker we probably vulcanized most of Monroe County. About the time most normal people are sound asleep he pulls into a farm and proceeds to spin donuts in the backyard! I was pretty sure a farmer with a shotgun would appear any minute but to my great surprise and relief a girl came walking out and said "hi Richard" like she was meeting him at a soda fountain or something. I came to find out that this was Genelda his girlfriend and she was used to this. 

Parker and Gerelda later married and raised a family. Parker worked at the Chrysler Proving Grounds in Chelsea Michigan. He hired in there right after high school because he had heard about the big test track they had and he had visions of driving new car around Hell-bent-for-election but after he'd spent some time testing brakes he found working in the stock room more exciting.

I'll never forget the time Ap (Appleman) pulled in one morning in his new (to him) car a pristine 1937 ford. The car was perfect  not a scratch not a dent original black paint. When he pulled in that afternoon the car looked like it been in an accident Ap lived next to a woods that some bikers had built a track in. Parker talked him into taking his new car on the track. After Ap hit the first tree it was all over ..... They took turns seeing who could do the most damage. 

I met Parker in 1950 when I got kicked out of Dundee High School and transferred to Ida. I could tell a lot more about Parker but I better not.