Randy Paul Brown

I met Randy Brown in 1970. To be honest, I can't exactly remember the first time I met him. Nevertheless, we became good friends. I remember having dinner at his house in Taft. His sister, Susie, was my sister Allie's age. His sister,Debbie, was in my class. His older brother, Steve was a couple of years older than me. His family was always warm and welcoming to me. I enjoyed going to the family ranch in Cuyama. I remember one trip Randy's dad wanted us to tear down an old building. We tired quickly of beating on it with hammers and such. Randy went and got a shotgun and we proceeded to blast the heck out of all the doors, windows, walls, etc. It was the first time I ever shot a shotgun. That was fun ! Randy's dad wasn't that happy with us however. That wasn't how he wanted us to demolish the building ! I can't remember if we ever finished tearing it down or just left it ten times the eyesore ! Randy was always fun to be with. He would also help you out when you needed help. One time my dad and I were out in the garage rebuilding my 1966 Mustang after I blew up the motor being chased by the police (another story). Anyways, Randy showed up wearing blue jeans and a clean white T-shirt. That seemed to be his wardrobe those days and his T-shirt was always spotless bright white. My dad was having trouble breaking loose some bolts. Randy jumped in and fought with them until he succeeded in loosening them. My dad still remembers that to this day because he couldn't free them up! Randy spent the whole day helping us. Most people would have said goodbye and been on there way.My whole family liked Randy and he was always welcome at our house. I met another one of my best friends, Doyle Ratliff, through Randy. I have no idea how they met but I've been good friends with Doyle ever since and probably would have never met him if not for Randy. Thanks Randy! We both worked at Darrell's Body. Randy drove the tow truck and was very good at it. He wasn't supposed to but he loved to fly down the highway enroute to an accident with the emergency lights blazing away.He drove that tow truck like it was a patrol car. He always kept it spotless and clean and took pride in his job. I used to sneak in the tow truck and turn up the radio and CB radio volume all the way up and the windshield wipers and all the lights. He'd get an accident call and rush to the truck and when he turned the ignition on the radios would blast him out of his seat and startle him. I could hear him screaming bloody murder at me all the way at the back of the body shop. Stuff like, "Kranyak, I'm gonna wring your neck"! Sometimes, he'd jump out of the truck and chase me around the shop. We were always playing jokes on one another. In the shop, often we would use an empty five gallon can as a stool to sit on when working on cars. On top of the stool, we'd put a few rags as a cushion. Randy soaked one of those rags in paint thinner and put it on my stool. After awhile, my butt was as red as a beet and very tender. Payback ! It became a common practice in the shop to always use new rags when one was away from his stool. Dave Cooper, Dennis Bennett, Bob Murray, Tim White and his brother, Kenny also worked there. Those were fun days. We bought our paint supplies from Dave's Glass Shop which was owned by Randy's dad. I really liked Randy's dad and the last few times I saw Randy, he reminded me so much of his dad. I never noticed it in the 70's. I lived with him about three different times in Taft but I can only remember one place, Keene Apartments Number 10 ! For years later whenever we saw each other, we'd say, Keene Apartments Number 10. I don't know why but it was funny to us! I do remember that Randy always kept the place neat. You could say he was a Neat Freak but it wasn't in a bad way. He could make a dump look like a million dollars. He had some nice cars, a Chevelle, a Camaro, a Volkswagen Bus, a Porsche. He always got mad at me when I referred to his Porsche as a Volkswagen! He always kept his cars spotless. Compared to him, I was the slob like on the TV show The Odd Couple. When I was 18, Randy was on back of my motorcycle when I outran a Highway Patrol on it and later arrested for it. Randy filmed my motorcycle with my dad's old 8mm camera. I posted it on youtube and it's been viewed by over 34,000 people. When Randy lived in San Jose with Darryl Hollingsworth, a bunch of us went to visit them. If my memory serves me correct that bunch consisted of my brother Mike, Sam Maxwell, Richie Beyn, and Rod Gade (not sure if I spelled his name right). We drank a lot of beer and ended up at some park called Alum Rock Park. I drove my VW with Randy and the rest went in Randy's VW Bus. Let me tell you, that was not the place to be. We were surrounded by police and taken down with shotguns and dogs. Unknown to us, the previous week there was a big gang fight there and the week before that a rape at that park. We were all arrested because someone had some pot left on the dash of Randy's van. The police tried to blame Randy but it wasn't his and he was in my VW. Nobody would own up to it so they fingerprinted us to compare it to the one print found on the pot container. Let me tell you San Jose jail is not a good place to be, Taft jail was a cakewalk compared to it. Anyways, Randy had the cops laughing all night long. We were released in the early morning hours when the one good fingerprint turned out to be one of the police officer's fingerprint. It was a long walk back to his place being our vehicles had been impounded. We had to avoid the gangs driving by trying to pick fights with us and throwing beer bottles at us. My VW blew up on I-5 on my trip home. That's what happens when naive small town city boys visit the big cities. LOL. Just one of many adventures with my friend, Randy Brown. To this day, I cringe whenever I drive by the Alum Rock Park exit sign in San Jose. From then on, all I had to say to Randy was," Alum Rock Park " and he would cringe too! Anyways, I lost touch with him when I moved up north to the bay area and he was in Cuyama. Too many years had passed and I couldn't remember where the ranch was and I wasn't able to track him down. Last year, I ran into Dave Morris and he knew where the ranch was because he'd had a job near it and had run into Randy. I had him show me where it was and it was great to see him again. Even though I hadn't seen him in over 15 years it seemed like it was just yesterday when I last saw him. After that, we talked on the phone several times and the last time I saw him was at his wedding. I think he was only married twice and I attended both weddings. He was very happy at his wedding and I was happy for him. I talked to him a few times on the phone after that and planned to visit Randy and Julie my next trip to Taft/Bakersfield but unfortunately that was not to be! I'm sad because he passed away so young, I'm sad for Julie, I'm sad for his family, and I'm sad because after all these years we finally re-established our friendship and then he was gone. I am grateful for all the good times and memories I have of him. Randy was a good friend and a great person. He was always in a good mood and would make you laugh. I don't know anyone that didn't like him. The world is a lesser place without him and he will be missed!