Well over a year ago, Rick Holt passed away in his home at Riverton. He was alone. What is left of his immediate family did not provide an obituary nor would they take any phone calls, so it all ended badly. I don’t know much about his early years but he and his older brother Chuck came to Pinedale to live after Rick served in the U.S. Army. He must have joined the army when he was 17 or so.
For a time in the early ’70s, he lived with my parents and youngest brother Pat at the Johnson home. He immediately became one of the family. Rick was a good truck driver and one spring, he and I were running as a sleeper team. We put on 45,000 miles in 50 days, mostly hauling yearling steers out of California to Big Piney for the Guio, Fear and Schwabacher ranches. The climax was our 12-year-old brother Pat driving us home in the big truck one night from Laramie to Rock Springs, but that is another story!
Rick and one other Pinedale boy achieved national notoriety on Paul Harvey news for streaking down main street on New Year’s Eve. It was about 30 below and they ended up being handcuffed to a power pole! It seems the cops had inside knowledge!
It was about this time that his older brother Chuck, who was also a major character, died from a gunshot wound.
Eventually, both of us moved to Riverton and later on lived together again.
It was in 1981 and I was courting Sharon and we were about to marry. One evening, after a couple of toddies, Rick took Sharon aside and told her, “Bill is the most stubborn, ignorant, hard-headed man I’ve ever been around. Do yourself a favor – RUN!” When Sharon approached me with this new knowledge, I was able to deflect it by saying, “Rick is always giving out marriage advice. Besides, what does he know about it?”
Actually, this helped me later on in our marriage. Whenever Sharon got extremely angry with me, I was able to say, “Well, Ricky tried to warn you!” No problem though, as he was still best man at our wedding at Fort William!
Whenever Ricky called us, whether it be July or January, he would always start out by saying “Merry Christmas!” which I grew to love! Ricky was fun!
Ricky was a friend of mine, and I a friend to he,
and everywhere that Ricky went the fun was sure to be.
He had those baby blue eyes and a boyish little grin,
Yes Ricky was a charmer and charmin ain't a sin.
Merry Christmas, Ricky! Auld Lang Syne (Days Gone By), and see ya soon!
Don’t be surprised if there comes other stories about Ricky!
