Richard N Willborn

From Mike Fuss (Face book post 1/2/2020) ONE OF MY BEST FRIENDS I GREW UP WITH DICKIE WILLBORN PAST AWAY MONDAY DECEMBER 30. Dickie was a great guy and lived across the street from me on Dahle St. at 2713 and I was at 2718. His mom Esther passed away on the same day as Dickie in 1987. His sister in law Kay notified me right after he had passed away. He was doing his walking exercise at East Towne mall, which he did three times a day, outside when it was nice, and at the mall in the winter. We played together a lot when we were kids. One time in 1952, we were playing in the gutter by the corner of Dahle & Kedzie St. and Dickie looked over at a garage on Kedzie St. and said Mico....there's smoke coming out of that garage. I said wow, yes there is. We got up and started over there, and the lady that lived across the street from the garage, said did you guys start that fire. Well the garage was closed and the smoke was seeping through the cracks. We said no. She had called the Fire Department and they were on the way. No. 8's Quad and Engine 5 pulled up and put the fire out. My uncle Bob Scheer was on Engine 5 that day. It was a B shift day. Chiefs Car 30 with 1st Assistant Chief Ed Durkin was there also and talked to us. The fire was started by spontaneous combustion, not by us. That garage was filled to the brink. Two Fire Inspectors came out the next day and talked to us also. Dickie had a couple of misfortune's that happened to him also. He was burned on his chest, back, and arm. I heard yelling outside and came out and saw him walking on the sidewalk pulling pieces of his burning shirt off. He was on fire and I went out and put snow on him and a neighbor Ed Walsh thru him down in the snow and put the fire out. We were 7 and 8 years old in 1955. He also had his arm caught in a press at Forsberg paper Box Company on Fordem Ave. That did quite a bit of damage. He was around 19 or 20 then. Despite all of this he was always cheerful and never gave up on anything. He was a great friend and we use to go to flea markets, garage sales etc. One of my best friends Bobby Ruhland had been going to flea markets, the casino's and out to eat a lot with him over the years. We all grew up together and Bob lived three blocks from us on North St. Dickie would walk pass old No. 8 since he had a heart attack a few years ago, and stop and visit with me, or he'd stop when he was going to Woodman,s or somewhere else and we would visit. It was a shock for Bob & I to learn he'd passed away like that. He was very religious in his walking three times a day. He did what the doctor told him to do. We had a Fire Station in his garage and there were 10 Stations at the time in Madison and in 1963 Dickie, his brother Mickey, and I painted our bicycle's red and we had plastic Fire Helmets, black trench coats, and boats and we'd set them by our bikes like in the Fire Stations. I lettered a sign and hung it on their garage it read: Fire Station No. 11. Mickey was Engine 11, Dickie was Squad 11, and I was Truck 11. We even had a watch desk and a Texaco Fire Engine Pumper from 1963 above it on a shelf with a bunch of newspaper clipping and photo's of fires and the fire department in Madison. We'd hear No. 8 go out and we would go look for where they were going. I could find them. In 1964 I got my little white Honda 50cc Sportster motorcycle and kept it in the garage.....I mean Station.....it replaced my bycycle. My cousins Bobby & Dickie Scheer were members of garage Fire Station No. 11 also. I got to use my Uncle Bobs fire boots for awhile. The first year I moved into old No. 8, in 1990, Dickie presented me with that sign....Fire Station No. 11. He had kept it and found it one day in their basement. It proudly hangs over the watch room at old No. 8. I'll tell you about Dickie's nicknames. He had four brothers and he was the youngest. His mom always wanted a little girl. She never had one, so she let Dickie's hair grow long....and he had the longest, with long black curls, that woman would love to have. They nicknamed him Tinkerbell. I never called him that. He's always been Dickie to me. His dad Ernie also named and called him Snooky. When we entered high school at East High, he told a few people about being named Tinkerbell. That name shortened to "Tink". That's when everyone started calling him Tink. He loved it. Everyone in our neighborhood knew him as Tinker when he was young before high school. He'll always be Dickie to me and I was always Mico to him. We graduated together in 1965. His mom Esther would set up a Nativity scene every year on their front porch. I loved it. Dickie & Mickey would help her every year. When Ester passed on, Dickie kept doing it. They had moved to Moland St. and Dickie would set it up every year on the back porch. He would always say to me: Mico, I've got the Activity scene set up. I never said anything to him about him saying the Activity scene.....a couple of years ago he told me to come over...to see it....and I said... Oh the Activity scene....well it finally hit him and he caught on to what I was doing and I won't tell ya what he said to me..........two words......and it wasn't......love you...... We had a great laugh over that and he started calling it the Nativity scene and he'd look at me kind of funny when he'd say it.........I love the Activity scene and am going to really miss seeing Dickie and kidding around with him.....such a great friend and guy. His brother Mickey just passed away around 9 months ago. Willie and Bobby had passed a few years ago and Ernie Jr. & his wife Cathy still live across the street from where Dickie lived on Moland St. What a great family and I loved every minute of being with all of them. Esther was like my second mother. Ernie & Esther told me......you don't have to knock on the door when you come over.....just walk in. I loved going over there and was there just about every day. Ernie would take Mickey and I to the Braves games a lot every summer. Such great memories. Ernie had a 1948 black 4 door Plymouth and he had that car for years. Always took great care of it, waxing it and even patching the fenders toward the end. He had the car for over 20 years. Loved riding in the back seat of it. Mickey was one of my best friends also and we did a lot together. Walked to school every day at East until he graduated in 1962. Dickie and I would walk to school every day then also. Bobby, Ernie Jr., Willie did a lot together also. Played wiffle ball in the street, board ball, throw the ball, football, square ball, basketball, you name it....we played it. We're all gonna miss ya Dickie...God bless you.