Les Jones

Home Life > Sad News for Friends of Marty Clemons

Just got the word through Arlene, Cecil, and the U.S. Internet mailing list that Marty Clemons died in an accident tonight.

This is a big shock. Melissa and I went to a string of July 4th parties and private fireworks shows at his place.

Marty was a great guy. It's hard to describe a nice guy like him. Kind hearted as he could be on the outside, but tough as nails on the inside. Some time around the U.S. Internet IPO/buyout/sell off he was in a bad car wreck. The kind of car wreck that either kills you or sends you to the hospital for a long stay. For him it was the latter.

He recovered from that and eventually wound up at IdleAire with some other USIT folks. Then he had a tough time for a while taking care of his elderly mother, who had Alzheimer's. Then his mom passed away, and that's never easy. Not long after that he lost his brother Frank.

Marty was doing really well lately. He was in good spirits, paid off his land and house, and had bought another house and piece of land adjacent to the Bar30 in the DuPont community in Sevier County. He was moving into the new place (the Buzzard's Roost) to make room for other family members to move into his house. He had fought off a forest fire there around the same time as the San Diego County fires.

The accident today occurred while he was using a tractor on his new land. A horrible truth of living is that bad things can happen to good people. Marty died alone, which isn't what anyone would have wanted for him, and possibly in pain, and likewise. I hate thinking about that. That isn't what he deserved and it hurts to think about it. Facing reality isn't much fun sometimes.

This was one of hist last emails, sent in September. This gives a pretty good idea of who Marty was and it's the way I'll remember him.

OK, here is the story for those who have not heard, or have heard and wondered:

I am no longer employed with IdleAire, as of last month. This is how it came to be.

I recently acquired a new home -- The Buzzards Roost -- at the top and far side of the ridge behind the Bar30. I was in the process of moving myself up there but did not have communications established yet when a wildfire ignited at the bottom of the cove below me, origin unknown. With the drought and the strong wind, the Roost was severely threatened. For six days and nights I battled a California style inferno to protect my property. With no communications, I could not call for help or let anyone know where I was, so I battled alone.

After the fifth day, IdleAire HR invoked the job abandonment rule: five days no show, no call. I was terminated.

That was the only shabby part. I've been ready to leave for three years, and offered my resignation regularly. But they refused to accept it. Those who count knew they only had to ask, and I would have happily left. It just seemed so petty for HR to play the silly corporate game.

In any case, I had been in their wake for 10 years, since I slipped in the back door at USIT. I was due for a sabbatical, and I'm taking it through the end of the year. Maybe a while longer. It's time to do something for myself for a change. I'm taking care of me, and working leisurely at my projects at the ranch, and refocusing on my own aspirations.

Net result was the same, regardless of the route that brought me here. It's about right for Scorpio.

I'm OK, and enjoying myself immensely, but I am not overexerting, and I am conserving.

I WILL be celebrating on the Saturday the 10th. I have plenty to celebrate. It will be a combination house-warming and mortgage-burning. The Bar30 is paid for, even though I now have a new obligation for the Roost. There is plenty of wood to burn, and the Jolly Roger must be raised.

However, this year it will not be of the scale it has been in recent times. Not an open invitation event. I want my best friends around me, the charter members of the Bar30 who have always been here to share it with me. Most of those are on this mailing list, but the others who regularly come from out-of-state will be here.

For the sake of time, energy and budget, I won't do gumbo. Instead, the weather keeps calling for a hearty chili. I haven't done that in several years. I'm also going to pass on the keg. The group will be smaller and my consumption has declined. I can't kill a keg before it goes bad. That would be alcohol abuse of the worst kind.

I hope you can come early enough in the day to explore the new territory before dark. I've started working on the trails again.

I'll follow up later this week when I have a better feel for logistics.

Marty

PS: I have a new dog.

Funeral details once I get them.