Remembering Johnson Cline

Remembering Johnson Cline
written by
William Darrell Warner, Jr.
I don't remember how old I was when I first met Uncle Johnson but my memories of him bring a smile to my face. He was a plumber by trade who built a very successful plumbing business in Frankfort, Kentucky and I can always remember how he was always giving us money to go buy ice cream when he came to visit us in Missouri. On the exterior he pretended to be a hard man but on the inside he was a big teddy bear as I remember. He was a sucker for a hug and a smile. When I was a child I spent summers in Kentucky staying with Aunt Betty and Uncle Johnson. They were firm but let us have a good time. They had a house on Noel Ave. that was walking distance to a store called the Blue Bonnet that we always got to go and buy ice cream at. Uncle Johnson had a race car that his son John Scott drove and when I visited I got to be part of the pit crew. As I look back now, I guess it would be safe to say that I was always in the way and they allowed me to think I was helping. I remember how important I felt being in the pits with him. I was always by his side. In one race a car on the track lost a tire and it came flying through the pit area. Uncle Johnson grabbed me up in his arms and dropped me in the back of the pick up truck so I would not get hurt. The tire missed us and hit a truck a few spots down but I know in my heart that, when it happened, his only thoughts were of saving me and never of himself. That pretty much describes the way he was.
I remember going to work with him and riding around in the truck. I know I never did anything and I was always in his way but he always paid me something for my efforts. Funny thing about things you remember but he loved McDonald's french fries. Many times we would swing past a McDonald's and just get some french fries to snack on. I still laugh when I think about the time when some wealthy lady got mad at her husband and flushed a very valuable ring down the toilet. He had John Scott going down in the sewers around the area of the house trying to find the ring. We never found it but what an adventure and the sewers did stink.
I was lucky enough to go and stay with him and Aunt Betty one more time in my early 20's. Me and a friend went and spent a week with them in Florida. It was the hardest week of my life I think. Aunt Betty would get us up at 6:00 every morning and make breakfast. We would take our showers and be on the road by 10:00. Uncle Johnson always said we didn't want to make Aunt Betty mad. The first thing we would do is fill the jeep up with gas, buy a case of beer and away we went for the adventure of the day. He was our personal tour guide and a good one at that. I thought Rick and I would die when one day he asked us if we wanted to go to Cypress Gardens with out paying. Well that sounded like fun to us and away he went down some dirt service road that was the back way into the park. All of the sudden he stopped and there was the park. He said jump out and make a run for it and blend in with a group. Away we went laughing all the way. All I heard was Uncle Johnson yell one last thing as he was backing away. "Be at the front gate at 5:00 or find your own way home " We were there waiting for him at five. One day he took us water skiIng. It was a fun day on the water. When we were to wore out to ski any farther he piled us in the boat and went next to the shore. There were some really big alligators sunning themselves on the bank. We asked him why he didn't tell us about them before we went skiing. His answer was "Now if I had told you, you probably wouldn't have skied." He was probably right. Later that day we still had time to kill so we stopped at this floating bar on the lake. After tying the boat up we went in to kill time before supper by shooting some pool and drinking a few beers. Well those few beers turned into many and when we went home for supper I was crocked to put it mildly. All Uncle Johnson said just before we went into the house was "You boys better straighten up and fly right. Don't let your Aunt Betty know you been drinking or she will whip us all." As I look back now I know we thought we were pulling one over on Aunt Betty but I think she was the one that pulled one over on us. She had to know what we were up to and didn't say a word. Now I understand why she got so much pleasure rousting us out of bed every morning at six.
Category:Stories from the Cline Family
Category:Stories