Prayers; thoughts; encouragement

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@Srob got us a room at Sal and Mookies Pizza in Madison tomorrow evening after visitation. Cottonland gonna buy some pizzas and you are on your own for drinks. Come toast Lash with us.

Home Page – Sal & Mookie's Madison

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I knew Lash in college (my first Corvette ride). Came across Cottonlandia following @wngrog and your builds as I get into LCs. Browsing through here I found this news about Lash. One of the nicest guys I met at Ole Miss. He obviously hasn't changed a bit physically or character-wise. It's good to see his friendships here and how happy he was with y'all. Testimony to true friendship. I'll be thinking about y'all and especially his wife and son and extended family. I'm really sorry.
 
While I did not know Lash nearly as long or as well as many of you, I will firmly attest to the fact that you could not have even the most basic of conversations with him that he did not put you at ease. His smile was contagious. My interactions with him were limited, but the one that hangs with me is when we made our ill-fated trip to pick up the Pile 40 down in Hattiesburg. I had intended to try and have lunch at Lou's Full Serv and he had messaged me on here to help try and pull that together. While I didn't make it to Lou's he kept up with our trials and tribulations along the way and made sure we got home. Which leads me to my second and more profound point. The few hours I spent in Jackson in a State Farm parking lot off the side of 49 that day gave me an insight that many on here and beyond cannot fully comprehend. You all are seeing the stories and condolences, but what I can tell all of you is that this motley crew are truly family. Like that kind of family that goes beyond blood. The care and aid that this group showed to me and my family that day. @fountainhead made it his personal mission to get me back on the road, @jrob and @Bodean checked in and when I left there that afternoon/evening, I had enough phone numbers and contacts that I could have had someone within about 20 minutes of wherever I was for every inch of my trip north or east to the Mississippi line. This group is something very special and to have been able to experience it, even if for a moment is something that has stayed with me. When Lash was up here in Nashville at Sarah Cannon in the midst of the COVID lockdown a couple years ago, I tried to check in on him and wanted so badly to be able to stop by and chat, but the protocols had all hopes of that locked down. I still have the texts when he told me he was going home for Christmas. I don't know, (but I do) why this has been hard to process. For me, the hardest part is knowing that with all of those who are out there that we could do without, why, in such a time of need, would the Lord see fit to take such a bright light from us. I have cried, I have prayed and I look to the sky in the evenings, wave and smile for I know he is in a better place where pain and sorrow no longer are of a concern. Clearly the Lord needed him more than we did, while I know most of us might argue that point a little. I cannot begin to express my sorrow for his cottonland brothers. Find comfort in the fact that we will see him again soon and until then he will have the hills of Glory to putter that old 40 around on.

We love you all and while we may not be with you physically we will lift a glass to our friend and brother tonight wherever we may be.

Now I will dry my face and keyboard and get back to trying to be productive.

God Bless
 

“When he shall die, Take him and cut him out in little stars, and he will make the face of heaven so fine That all the world will be in love with night.” Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet​


Looking up last Saturday night at the sky, I saw Lash looking down at me.

I can’t speak for you but if I con my way past St. Peter and enter the Kingdom of Heaven, I am making a beeline to the complaint department and ask for the manager. Before I get to the praising, singing and heavenly works the manager and I need a meeting. I’ve got some questions that need answering.

But before I get to go all Karen on the management, I have a feeling that Lash will greet me.

“Hey Chriuuuuss! So glad you made it in. I told them that you were needed here. It’s too quiet.” Lash says and hugs me.

“But Lash, I want to tell the manager off. He took you way too soon!” I reply

“It's ok Chrius. I was tired. I was so sick. I knew yall all would rally around Amanda and love her. You guys would all encourage and help Jace. Plus this place has awesome cheeseburgers and I’ve made friends with the Episopcals so we can get some beer. The Boss even gave me a company car. I got a pristine white 1989 FJ62.” Lash informs me.

“Ok Lash, but can I still find out who killed JFK?” Resigned to the fact that you can’t cuss God out in his own house.

“You bet Chrius, Just go over to the Q&A offices. They will have you fill out three forms and get back to you. I asked them a question about a third member in a 1979 FJ40 and I got my answer back in a few weeks. Let’s go get some ice cream first.” Lash says and throws his arm around me.”This place is like a Hilton resort with Diamond status, Chrius”


Sweet Lash. So kind,so gentle, so loving, so welcoming. Never had an enemy other than the salesman from Siemens Medical. If you thought Lash was an a******, sorry buddy it was you were the a******. Always working a deal, copiers early on in his career, UltraSound machines later but always hustling something. And when it wasn’t for GE it was a used carburetor off a 40 series, a good used axle for a FJ60 or an all metal radiator for a set of worn out Hankook tires. Lash was many things too Cottonland but he was our Sanford and Son for sure.

When I first met Lash in 2006, he was having parts shipped to everywhere but home. He was scared of Amanda finding how much money he was spending on his “GunRunner” , a 1977 Fj40. It took Amanda coming out to events and having fun for him to finally ship a $20 used fuel pump to his house. Once she saw how much he loved it and that most of us weren’t a bunch of rednecks and had most of our teeth she was all in.

The GunRunner, always unfinished, was work in progress like most old Land Cruisers. Its roll cage was never painted after it was welded together. The steel tubing turned from silver to copper. But it kinda matched the desert camouflage paint that had been done by hand. The cruiser had been his brother Jace’s who had passed away in an accident years earlier. Lash tracked it down and bought it back. Lash had studied the IH8MUD.com website and over the years added this and that to the Toyota.

As many of our trucks made the natural progression of slower, taller, longer and stronger, Lash and GunRunner followed along. Winching when needed but staying in the pack as we snaked our way up a trail. Lash would spend precious vacation time and travel to Murphy, NC, Gray Rock, AL, Mason, TX, Hot Springs, AR, Tescumbia, AL and Moab, UT with us. Camping in tents, sleeping in cabins or hotels and finally in his and Amanda’s RV. “The Stabbin Cabin”

Lash was Cottonland Cruisers' only treasure. One because he was trustworthy. Two because he understood his way around an excel spreadsheet and three he was a good steward of the club's money. Which is a kind way of saying Lash was cheap. He would work all night rebuilding a carburetor instead of buying a new one. He would rebuild again because the first time he only bought one piece for the carb not buying a whole rebuild kit. He would weld something two or three times hoping that it would hold up the next time instead of buying a new part. And when he realized the old welded part wasn't going to work he would put another used one on versus buying a new one. He would come by Jrobs' shop and scoop up the discarded parts if he thought he might have a need down the road.

When Cottonland puts on the Crawl and we have our debrief, Lash would always comment “Guys, we’ve never paid that much for beer, bands or barbeque.” Bodean, Jrob and I always tell him we will do better next year. Lash was no fool, he knew that meant bigger and more expensive. Bodean, Jrob and I may be the face and mouth of the Southern Cruiser Crawl but none of it would happen without Lash’s “back of the house” work. He gathered registrations up, handled the paypal account and was the money man. No matter what was going on in Lash’s world, he was always ready to go when the 2nd week in October came around.

And he did it all with genuine love of the Land Cruiser community. They were his people. Amanda and Lash would be up till the wee hours listening to music and laughing under the disco ball in the “Snake Farm” tent or one of the pavilions. Lash would be up at the registration table the next morning. Telling us to go out and play, he would go out when Amanda got up at lunch! Lash working the registration table more than any of the BOD members. He would send us out and he would greet those that came up. Many with a hug.

He may have loved talking about Land Cruisers but he would love to talk with you about what Jace, their son, was up to. He would tell you about Jace’s girlfriend. Jace’s adventurers on fraternity row at Mississippi State and his major. But he would really light up when he talked about the love of his life. Amanda. He would tell you about her battle with MS. How her days were going, if she was not sleeping or not eating good or when she was doing great. His devotion to her made the rest of us husbands look bad. He would make her lunch, get her drinks, whatever she needed he was devoted. One hot June at Hot Springs, he spent the whole afternoon constructing a hammock for her. He rolled into Crawl one year with a hodgepodge camper “Backwoods Bellagio” made out of two cruiser cabs with air conditioning trying to make Amanda comfortable. Luckily for Amanda the next year they showed up in a RV. His devotion is inspiring.

When Lash first told us about his Multiple Myeloma diagnosis we were all concerned but we were also in the midst of Corona. We were probably all wrapped up in our own mortality to fully recognise his. When he came through treatment and got the all clear he was ready to celebrate and well we always like to celebrate.

The timing was great. We made the Multiple Myeloma Foundation our charity for the Crawl in 2021 and Lash gave his testimony about the foundation the last night of the event. Our little Japanese car club raised $10,000 that night.

What most of us didn't realize and maybe Lash didn't want us to realize was that his cancer was like rust in an old cruiser. You can treat it, maybe cut it out but it doesn't mean it won't pop back up. Maybe we were all excited for him to have that victory that we didn't realize that it was just one battle. Maybe that's why the events of the last 15 days caught everyone by surprise.

I saw Lash just a couple weeks ago. He brought me a gift he had found at a junk shop on the coast. He was probably on the hunt for a rear view mirror or a valve cover, who knows. But he saw that Firestone ashtray and thought of me. He told me about some military trailers that he had been trying to acquire for 7 years and finally got them, explaining in detail the whole process. Lash would do that. He would tell you in detail whatever he was talking about.

I can see him walking into Heaven and explaining to God in detail how he ended up there.
God says, “I know Lash. I’m God.”


He told me about Jace getting a new girlfriend and more importantly in his final semester at MSU. He told me about Jace’s new job. He was so proud of that. Dads like it when their kids get a job.

Lash told me about some bad pains he had been having in his jaw. He had been to the dentist and everything looked ok. He was not sleeping well and he was worried. He had tried a mouthpiece thinking maybe it was TMJ. He looked tired. But doesn’t everybody after the last three years?

We hugged, told each other we loved one another. He got ready to leave and my technicians were telling him about some junk parts he could have to build the annual Carnage award given to an unfortunate person that broke his truck the worst at the Crawl. Lash had built those trophies for a long time.He followed Rob and Eric out to the junk pile. It was about closing time. I grabbed up my bookbag and walked out.

I hollered at Lash and waved “See you later” He waved back.

I’m still gonna go all Karen, if I get to Heaven….

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Cheers gents. To Lash

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Cottonland doing what they do best. drinking in a funeral home parking lot...

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