With John Manatt retiring, I just wanted to write a note and tell everyone how much I appreciate everything John has done for me over the years and how much I will miss working with him. John was a pretty easy guy to work for, he just expected you to do what was right and get it done. Once I figured out what he considered right, things went really easy!  John just gave me the general direction, assuming it would be handled and that arrangement worked pretty well for both of us, all the way from New Sharon in 1974 till today. There are too many memories to even begin reminiscing, but we learned a lot in the early years, and solved a lot of the world’s problems after work.

  So thanks John for all the opportunities you gave me, all the things you taught me, all the responsibilities you gave me, and all the faith you had in me to get things done. It’s all appreciated and I will miss working with you very much. Good luck in retirement and remember, the beer supply won’t run out this year, you have several years to drink it all so pace yourself!

   P.S.

  I can’t stand it! Those of you that know me realize I couldn’t get out of this without telling a story.

    I don’t remember ever having a major disagreement with John all the time we worked together, but the absolute maddest I have ever seen him included me by default.

    John went to college in Dubuque and one weekend Mike Manatt, Jody Clayton and I went to see him. It was the middle of winter and literally 20 degrees below zero. We were going to go over to one of John’s friends and play cards but before we left, we went to the college cafeteria to eat. Loras, being a nice Catholic school and the day being a Friday in Lent, all they had to eat was fish and tomato soup. Not my favorite but it was free. We ate it up and went on to better things.

   John had a brand new car and he wanted us to all ride in it because he was so proud of it. It was a purple Super Bee with a bright white interior. Still to this day, one of the prettiest cars I have ever seen. We piled in and headed across town to his friend’s house.

We proceeded to play cards and do the things associated with playing cards until the wee hours of the morning. Come time to go home, we had plenty of the “associated” things.

   Man was it cold! We got in the car and headed home, John and Jody in the front, Mike and I in the back. All I could do was close my eyes and wonder if John really was driving around in circles like it felt. I never heard a sound from Mike all the way home. When we got back and John opened his door, man did the stuff hit the fan! On came the light and there sat Mike, asleep, in his fish and tomato soup! What a mess in John’s brand new car!

    John was livid. He was going to kick some ass and it was mine! I said, “Hey John, I didn’t do it!”  He replied that Mike was asleep so it was my job to take the blame. Besides that he said, I should of known what was going on back there and stopped it. I ran and he was stomping swearing and kicking stuff like I never saw before. Good thing I found another guy to stay with that night because I wasn’t staying with John!

   The next day I figured it was over and looked him up but I was wrong. He was still pissed, only Mike was awake to get his share. He told us to go clean his car before he kicked our asses and he might still anyway. Mike and I went to clean it up but remember how cold it was? That stuff was frozen like a brick in the back seat. We had to drive around with the heater on high, sweating, for 5 hours to thaw that mess so we could clean it out. When we got back, butt kickings came up again because he thought we had been joyriding in his car all day! I was as glad to go home as John was to get rid of us. I bought that car several years later and the stitching in the back seat was still a different color on the left side.

 Gook luck John and thanks again for everything.