RIP Walter Herman

"Wally Herman died last night."

Five little words. I've heard them before, lately it seems news from home is less and less about the day to day and more about "so and so is engaged", "so and so got divorced", "so and so is dead."

It's like only seeing relatives on the holidays, you just hear about the big events. Not a big deal necessarily, we busy people, you get the highlights. The thing is, I was all ready to launch into my normal reaction: ask about some minor details, gossip about how soon it was or it was about time, or she must be pregnant...but this time it was different.

Wally Herman was part of my childhood. Growing up I was attached at the hip with his son Chad. When I heard about Mr. Herman passing, all of these memories came flooding into my head. I am very happy to say that they were good memories, great memories. Chad and I had a great time growing up together. Actually, I think it may have been more about the fact that Chad had a great time growing up and I was just along for the ride. You see, Chad was an only child, he had all of the toys, the jerseys, the action figures, the gaming systems. I was always down to go to the Herman's, I could remember times I walked in and Chad had basically the entire set of WWF Wrestlers in a laundry hamper and he would pour them out on the floor like nuggets of gold, we would dive in with a vengeance. One time I could remember, apart from the action figures, Mrs. Herman had bought about 5 pounds of gummy worms and they sat on the floor in the loft of their house begging for my attention. hey, as the fat kid growing up, gummy bears were a big deal!

As if the toys and gummy bears were not enough, the Herman's lived on Gages Lake, and had boats and later on Chad got a jet ski! Mr. Herman would race around the lake with us on a tube, it was the god damn time of my life.

All of this was possible, of course, because Wally Herman owned Wildwood Service on Gages Lake Road. Wildwood Service was a towing and mechanic company that had been around long before Chad and I ever showed up, and Wally Herman had been known around the county long before he had Wildwood Service. You seen, like my father, Mr. Herman grew up in Lake County, worked there, started his family there and never left. Actually he and my father went to high school together, my dad was a year older. That was the same high schoo Chad and I both graduated from. Having left Lake County and also having lived in different areas of the world, I can really appreciate coming home and seeing the same people that I had seen in my childhood, the people that were there growing up. If they weren't there when I came home, it wouldn't feel as much like home.

Wildwood Service and Wally Herman were part of home. Chad and I would spend hours in the shop, there were endless things to play with there, and consequently endless ways to get in trouble. On more than one occasion, Mr. Herman would come out of his office, cigar sticking out of his mouth as it had since he got out of bed that morning, and give us a proper lashing, but it didn't bother us too much, we could just go on to the next attraction. Besides, who is going to stand up to a guy that actually owned a junkyard, and drove around the big Tonka-esque trucks that we could only play with in their miniature form.

Those trucks were a staple in our county. The cursive red Wildwood Service on the doors. I could be anywhere in the county, see one of those trucks and give them a wave like it was a member of my family behind the wheel. I could call their phone line at any hour of the day and they would answer, most often it was Wally. Any time of the day or night, they would be there. I witnessed it first hand too, on sleepovers at the Herman's, the phone would ring and you could hear Wally pick it up, then some commotion downstairs, and soon enough he was out the door to go pick up some new wreck. It was people like Wally Herman, companies like Wildwood Service, that made life a little easier for the rest of us. And Wally never asked much for it, he never made you feel bad for making him come out in the middle of the night because your cheap ass didn't fill the tank.

As the years went by, alot of things changed in Lake County but Wally always had Wildwood Service. He sold off most of the mechanic business to some of his employees, he expanded the towing company, but not much changed. You would still see Wally in town, driving around one of his new auction purchases or sitting in his office at the shop as you drove down Gages Lake Rd. As I reached drinking age (or maybe a little bit before that), I would see him up at Jesse Oaks, mixing it up with the other locals. He would always say hi, we would chat, and he would go on his way.

Now he is gone, and it makes me sad. But at least I got to know Wally, and I got to know his son, who is a great guy and I hope he picks up where his father left off. I need Wildwood Service to be there for alot longer, it just wouldn't be home without it.