PBRmeASAP

 From 1994 to 1998, We, GARY, MARK, JUSTIN, TOM, TODD, BOIKE, and I would make our annual trip to the 'WINSTON' NASCAR race. I just think they call it the ALL-STAR event now. And it never failed, early in the afternoon Gary would mock Boike and I 

Boike and I 

because we had a couple of coolers of Pabst Blue Ribbon, he would always say, "WHY are you drinking that cheap 'horse piss? I would NEVER drink that!" And Boike or I would ALWAYS respond with, "When you run out of your, usually it was Miller Genuine draft', you will be begging us for one." Sure enough, by 11 that night, He would quietly ask us, "Hey can I have one of those?" One time we said SURE and took this picture of him!!!!! To show what a great sport he was, he had it framed and it was right next to the couch where he always ate his pork grids, NASTY, while watching TV until the day he died in 2017.

Gary drinking the 'NECTAR OF THE GODS' A.K.A PBR 5-1996

Dear Bills.....

 Dear Buffalo Bills,

                                We need to 'take a break'........First off, It is NOT you, it's me, well yeah, it is actually all you! We have been together for a VERY long time and had a few great moments BUT you have given me a bunch more moments when I 'question' why we are together. The SB losses, the heartbreaking ways you find to lose games, the constant fear of teams that you should handle with ease, coming into your stadium and beating you. I could go on but I will spare you. I am tired of having to defend you when others call you a choker. Sure I will cheer you on if you EVER win the big one (but it looks like this will NEVER happen in my lifetime) and I wish you no bad will. It is just that we need to move on from each other.. Take care of yourself and as mission control told John Glenn in the 60s "GOD SPEED."

PS. I MIGHT take you back but only if you prove to me that you can win it all!

                                                                                                                       Yours Truly,

                                                                                                                        ANDY

A night I will NOT ever forget......

  I was getting in my car yesterday to go home from my weekly visit of free dinner at casa de mama y papa McBride when I saw a notice on my phone. Like the majority of people, I put A LOT of info in my phone. I must have put this notification in years ago and forgotten all about it.... It informed me that 36 years ago was Dave Donavan's house party. I looked at my phone and all the great memories of that night came flooding back. 

 

Where it all happened on Oct. 23 1987

 I was a little 8th grader BUT for some reason A LOT of my older brother's friends liked me. Dave had been planning this for months. His parents who we affectionally called Suzi and NuNu bong!!!! HA! I think Dave and a few others found some of his parent's stash one time and they were ALWAYS called that from that point on. ANYWAYS, They were going to be out of town that weekend. (SIDE NOTE) to this day, I am amazed that they didn't hear about it, we lived in a very small town and EVERYONE knew EVERYTHING about EVERYBODY! It was a perfect night because there was no high school football game. So you know H.S football was a HUGE deal in a small town where there wasn't much to do. Being a nerdy little 8th grader, 

Me circa 1987, SWEET MULLET HUH!?!?!?!

I didn't invite anyone because I didn't want to p!ss off Dave or any of my older friends. BUT I vividly remember, that's a statement I will say A LOT in this story, Dave's BEST FRIEND, Todd, asking my friends Mark and Billy if they were coming. OF COURSE they said yes and I think two days before the party, we had it all arranged that they would spend the night at my house because I lived less than a mile from Dave.

 Dave and his crew had the planning of a party down to an art form. He had sort of a 'planning' get together with his friends and for some reason, I tagged along with my brother to it. They planned who would get the keg and who had a pump for it, where the keg would be. I vividly remember Bob C. saying that there needs to be black paper over the windows of the garage so the cops wouldn't see all the people in there. My brother suggested that they have a sign up by the keg telling kids to 'donate' a BUCK or two for the keg, Bob quickly replied, "THAT'S GAY AND WE ARE NOT DOING THAT'! CLASSIC! 

 The day of, kinda felt like a day before a holiday break, you know that feeling, when you are just on 'cruise control' because you KNOW something AWESOME is gonna happen and YOU don't have to go to school the next day! My friends and I just hung out at my house playing Nintendo and mom ALWAYS got pizza from the Sub Shop for dinner. (SIDE NOTE) to this day, EVERY Friday is pizza day! But instead of SUB SHOP pizza, it is a frozen one from Aldi. After dinner it was ON. We went to Dave's house, 'donated' our dollar for the keg and proceeded to drink as much beer as our little bodies could handle. 

 It was like a party out of one of those movies. EVERYONE was there, HECK, even kids from other towns. Kids were EVERYWHERE! I vividly remember Dustin F. (RIP) being 'tipsy' and walking around with my two friends Mark and Billy under each arm, going around looking for 'skully' A.K.A girls! HA!!!!!! I was just hanging around the stereo drinking my 5th cup of beer when Todd said "You are officially in charge of the music.' WELL! Let's just say that hairbands were played A LOT that night! PLUS, this was one of the first moments when I knew what my calling was. I tell people that I wished I knew nuclear engineering like I do music knowledge. There are songs and bands I hear and I will just spit out 'usually' stupid knowledge about it, like "Did you know Prince played keyboards on this song?" I thank Todd for starting my love for music back in 1987. At one point of the party, a girl who will remain nameless fell down the stairs and came an inch away from hitting a wall stud and dying. HA!! The day after, Our friend Dave A. fixed the hole in the wall and I don't think Suzi and NuNu 'bong' EVER knew about it..

 My curfew was midnight and Mark and I were plastered, For some reason, Billy was kinda sober. We had to go up a hill, through woods and the back of a school to get home. Mark and I were so drunk that we could barely walk. Billy was so upset about us floundering that he started crying and went back to the party to get help. Two older guys, Dustin F and Dan B. came up to help. KAYE, ELLIE, JAE, MAGGIE, SHAE SHAE, CARLA and all the Fleming clan!  KAYLA, MELISSA, and EVERYBODY at casa de H-B. THIS IS WHY I will ALWAYS think Dustin and Dan are the 'cat's meow'! They came and assessed the situation, got Mark and I sober enough to walk, and those two guys made sure we got back to my house. To this day, I have NO IDEA how we made it past my parents! Maybe they knew but let it slide and just chalked it up as, "Well it's not too bad, they didn't die."

DA LAKE HOUSE and in the later years, DA LAKELAND!

 1978- I am pretty sure Mr. Boike told me that they bought the lot with his parents as owning the other half this year. It was bought within mind that it was a place where his family and Grandpa and Grandma Boike could go and relax.......

                                                              Matthew, Rick, Pat, and Mike Boike 2005

Summer of 1990- This was the first time Boike invited me out there. I remember Donnie M., my friend from NY Mark S., and Tim W. all went. Being that we were 'SUPERVISED' we just swam and that was it. Also, I think that same summer, The Boike family and I went out there because Boike bought a 1970 Challenger parts car, and we tore it all apart and salvaged a few things for the Challenger he was restoring. FYI- it is 33 years later, AND IT STILL ISN'T RESTORED!!!!

1990-92- The lake house was the place for horny teenage boys looking to touch a bare breast!!!! Not sure if he'll EVER acknowledge this, but he had the key to it copied and he gave all of us one. YEAH Boike, you KNOW it's true!!!! A big song at the time was 'LOVE SHACK' and so we dubbed it that whenever we referred to it. It also was a great place to drink A LOT of beer, A constant theme for a very long time!!!!! It didn't matter what time of the year it was, we had a house with a wood stove, bedrooms, a full kitchen, bathroom. Sure the house reeked of mildew, built on the ground, BUT to us, it smelled of 'FREEDOM'!

• I vividly remember us 'borrowing' a keg of green beer from the high school, the faculty had a St. Patricks party, and one of us noticed it at the end of a school day. So we put it in the trunk of one of our cars and being it was still cold weather, we took it to the lake house and put it in the lake to chill it while we waited for FRIDAY! We went out there and drank all the green beer we could handle. HA! I so remember our friend Jon B. A.K.A Jellybean, sitting on the dock with a huge cup of green beer with a grin from ear to ear... 
• When it got warmer and we couldn't put the keg in the water, we simply moved a few shelves in the refrigerator and 'made' the keg fit in there!!! We had a functioning fridge that kept our beer cold! GOD THIS COUNTRY IS GREAT!!!!
• There was only three rules at the lakehouse 1. Don't die!, 2. don't sit in the old rocking chair he was breastfed in, 3. NO GLASS of any kind! 
• One time, we had a hammock set up, and we wanted to see how many people it would hold before it ripped apart. I think we had 6 kids on it before it finally broke. 
• 95% of the time, we had campfires down there, either for warmth or ambiance. One night, our friend Jimmy E. was so drunk, he freakin' fell in the fire. NOW he was not hurt at all but the shock of it sobered him up real quick. After we all made sure he was OKIE DOKIE, we all busted out laughing out of control. 
• During the summer months, a bunch of us, from school and people we DEEMED cool from our jobs, would go out there and just chill in the lake. It was in the flight path of incoming jets that were landing at Charlotte- Douglas Airport. We would just 'marinate' in our inner tubes and look up at the planes and talk about our futures. GOOD TIMES!
• A group of us liked maintaining it, matter of fact, Scott F. who is in this photo,

                                       Don Maul, Jason Walker, Scott Fasse, Blake Tenore, and Andy McBride Lake 1991

and I would go down there, and do some stuff like trimming and mowing. And then make an excuse to take a break to drink ice cold beer we had chilling in the refrigerator. 

                                                                            Joe W. and Andy McBride 1992

                                                                          Mike B. and Andy McBride 1992

• This was before every imagable area by a body of water was developed, so it was at the end of a gravel, WHOOPS SORRY, I mean DIRT road.  ANYONE WANTING TO TRY THIS, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, PLEASE DON'T! One of our friends drove an old 1969 Thunderbirds with a freakin' HUGE 429 cubic inch V8!!!! To everyone reading this that is not into cars, THAT WAS A HUGE V8, and matter of fact, it was one of the biggest engines Ford made that year!!!! ANYWAYS, we thought it would be a great idea to have someone hold a rope while in the trunk with one of us holding the other end on a FREAKIN' GO-KART. Tim would stomp on the gas and someone would hold the rope with one hand and the other one steering the freakin' GO-KART! Oh and did I mention that the GO-KART had a single strap around one of the wheels as a brake?? It is a wonder one of us was NOT killed! Image a huge Thunderbird going down a dirt road with a kid in the trunk holding a rope that another kid on a go-kart was holding and steering. BAD IDEA I KNOW but it was fun at the time. Oh and Mark S. STILL holds the record of going 55MPH....

1992-98- We all sort of went our separate ways with college and stuff, I went to the local Community College and was sort of in charge of maintaining it, In a way, I nominated myself to do it because I kinda like mowing the lawn and racking. Boike and I remained close while he went to Virginia Tech (3 hrs. away. Thanks to him, I had a bunch of NEW friends and we continued to use the lake house as our 'social gathering' place. EVERY chance he got, he and his friends would come down to the lake house. He would say, "when you see 'Joe's Mustang' make a right onto our road, Mill Pond." FYI- Joe's Mustang was an actual store. Some of his friends thought that it was a guy named Joe with a Mustang in the front yard. HA!!!!!!!

• In the summer of 93, he was STILL dating the girl he knew in high school. At one of the parties, the cops came, shocker huh!?!?!?!?! HA!!!!! I am giggling as I type this, well the cop was walking around seeing all the underage drinking going on and was looking for the owner of the property to give the "Break this party up now" speech... He went into the house and there was Boike BUCK NAKED! HA!!!!!! And the cop asked' "BOY, WHY ARE YOU NAKED???" One of the greatest lines ever!!!!!! 
• At one party, there were a bunch of our old high school buddies there.. The house across the cove had a fiberglass life-sized cow! Well, I remember Pat P. and a few other guys swimming over and getting it! We spent the rest of the night taking turns riding it. I remember Carlton H. pushing it through the door and riding it like it was bucking and he was a cowboy at a rodeo holding on for dear life! A few weeks later, Boike and our friend ANNA ROSE tied it up to my mailbox with hopes it would fire up my dad. WELL Boike. Big Ron calmly told me the next morning that there is a fiberglass cow tied up to our mailbox. We thought about what we can do about returning it. That evening dad and I drove my Nissan truck A.K.A 'DA BLACK WIDOW' to your lake house and put it on the dock for the owners to see it and reclaim it. Then we went and got ice cream! HA!! Put that in your pipe and smoke it!!!?!?!?!?!?!
• Being that I lived in town, I was in charge of returning the keg. My brother's friend from college Ann told me years later, that the first time she met me was when I pulled up to my house with an empty keg in the back of my truck looking like 'DEATH'... I am saying, I was probably coming back from one of those lakehouse parties!
• We still talk about it when we see each other to this day, is when Boike brought down his new friend who I did not know. He was a really tall white guy with a huge white man afro. Well after smoking 'left-handed cigarettes' for hours. He comes out to the dock and proclaims that he is an expert knee boarder..  I was like, "WHO IS THIS CLOWN?" So you know, Boike had a boat by then, not a good one. But we did not care! It was a boat, dude! Anyways, so he tells all that he will be extra cool by doing a 'dock start', which is when you start on dry land and ski, wake or kneeboard onto the water. Now mind you, he is doing all of this while looking all professional in a wet suit.  He straps into the board and instructs Boike to drive out so there is no slack in the rope... Then the magic happened! HA! He gave the call for Boike, 'TO HIT IT!' and when he did, Todd went head first into the water and held onto the rope for a few seconds. This caused him to be dragged farther out. So you know, he was still underwater when this was all happening! We all died laughing and when he finally came up, he swam back to shore and walked back into the house.... I DO NOT think I saw him again for the whole weekend. It was one of the funniest moments EVVVVVVVVER!
• Speaking of Boike's crappy boat, at one point, Fasse, Joe W., and I took it to a bar/restaurant (T- Bones) on the lake. It had an outdoor bar and it was PACKED. We were all too cool because we had a boat dang nabbit! Where was I? OH YEAH, we 'docked' it right next to a REALLY nice one and would talk to some 'super' hot girls and tell them to look out at the dock and check out what we came over in. They pointed to the nice one and asked us, "Is that the one you came over in?" And we all shook our heads NO and pointed out the crappy boat next to it. 'THAT'S OUR BOAT RIGHT NEXT TO IT." Needless to say, we did NOT impress them BUT we didn't care, WE HAD A BOAT!!!!!!
• We also utilized the boat to hone our waterskiing skills! Sure it had a freakin' styrofoam block we found somewhere as a seat and the back of the boat had to be fortified by metal beams from an old power line that Mr. Willamson had lying around, to hold it together. BUT it allowed us to waterski, naked sometimes, and be cool by driving it over to a party, Missy's mom lived in the same cove, and when she was out of town we ALWAYS showed up. Looking back, it's funny how that worked. We were TOTALLY RAD because we had a boat and we docked it and proceeded to claim we were pirates and walk around with a shirt wrapped around our torso like a 'banana hammock' 
• During this time, Boike started throwing a 4th of July party. He would have new friends we made recently SHOUT OUT TO ANNA ROSE, kids he met in college, old high school friends, and family, or just ANYONE he knew, to come out to the lake, camp out, drink cheap beer, and 'marinate' in old truck tire inner tubes out in the lake. KRIPES! He didn't care who it was! ALL IS WELCOME was his motto.
• In 1993 we were commissioned by his parents to replace the top of the dock. He brought his girlfriend at the time who I called 'RAG DOLL' and his parents came out too. It was lunchtime and like 30 years ago, there was NOT much out in Lake Wylie except for a KFC. Well, they started advertising a few months prior that they were serving chicken wings. Being from near Buffalo, NY, this sparked my curiosity. So I proclaimed to Mr. and MRS. Boike to 'GET LOTS OF WINGS!'..... Well, they did and I had like two of them because they were so disgusting. I sure hope their wings are better now. ANYWAYS, the Boike clan has NEVER let me forget that... I DO NOT blame them! They wasted $ on wings that I deemed NASTY, therefore, I only ate 2!!!!! SIDE NOTE- I directly think this event began the downward spiral of KFC.
• One time Boike, Anna Rose, and I were 'chilling' on his recently bought boat trailer while the party raged and we all were wondering WHO were some of the people there. It was a 'cornucopia' of humanity!
• Another time, Anna Rose, Boike and I were out cruizing on my new, well new to me, 1977 MasterCraft, after a few days of heavy rain. You see, when there is a ton of rain, the lake rises very fast and things like floating docks lose their anchors and float in the middle of the lake, and there was a new floating dock just for the pickin'. The one we had, If I recall, we found that too, looked as beat as Tina Turner after a night with Ike. So we tied it up to my boat and dragged it back. Never mind it was on the other side of the lake and I could only do 1 mph. It took us 4 hrs to get back BUT we had a new floating dock!
• To show how much of an @$$ I was then, I am pretty sure this happened at the same party. I liked to set up my site right by the water so I could wake up looking at a great view. At the time, I was driving a Ford Ranger. There were a bunch of people around it just having a good time. There was this one kid leaning on it. I am sure he was a really nice guy BUT I was not a fan of this. He asked me "You having a good time?" And I snapped back "I'd be having a better time if you stopped leaning on my truck." Everyone got silent and could not believe I said that. I kinda knew I was going to get BEAT DOWN but I was cool with it. He lost his composure and was about to kick my butt when a few others 'restrained' him. My friend Jeff was there and witnessed the whole thing. He still brings it up when I see him!!!

NOT the Ranger but my 1997 F-150

                                                   

• In the summer of 1995, we had a REALLY bad thunderstorm and Boike informed me that a HUGE tree had fallen on the house. Mr. Boike, Mike, and Suzanne M.(the girl I was messing around with at the time) went out there to survey the damage. Per Mr. Boike, it was a loss, plus he and the Mrs. ALWAYS were not huge fans of the 'sketchy' building. Like I mentioned before, she, in particular, was NOT big on the musty smell it ALWAYS had because it was built on the ground. They decided to just tear it down and just have it as an empty lot. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO they collected the insurance money and paid Boike and I to tear it down. So when he was on Christmas break, we did a little. Then on spring break, we tore/ burned down the rest. FYI- DEMOLISHING stuff RUUUUUUUUULES!

                                    

                                                                                                                    Mike Boike and Andy McBride 1996

• We did not have a house but we STILL had the lake property! We just had to set up tents now. NO BIGGY... For the rest of the 90s, he threw some great parties. A party that will ALWAYS stick out as one of the best ever was the July 4th, 1998 one... I had my own boat, a picture of it below, a steady girlfriend, and more new friends! This was one of the first years I met Thompson, He IS the smartest man I know, he freakin' knows everything! He drove his dad's HUGE Dodge van and instead of taking my boat to see the fireworks, we all piled into the van! 

        

                                                                                        My 1977 MasterCraft

       

                                                                      Mike Thompson and Andy McBride 

                                                                                       Mike B. 1998

2002-2007- From 1999-2001 I was in WI. I really don't like talking about it but if you need to know the 411, you are in luck because back in 2010 I wrote it all down. Heck, I loved the lake so much that I freakin named a dog after it! 

                                                                          Wylie and Andy McBride 2004

So in 2002, I moved down to some apartments by Lake Wylie and thanks to my future sister-in-law I had a 'SUPER DUPER' nice boat! WOO HOO!!!!! 

                                                                                            1999 Rinker
I was not even a mile away from the Lakeland and only 2 miles away from a boat ramp to put it in. On a side note, I would haul the boat down to the ramp with my truck. Put my bike in the boat, put the boat in the lake, drive it over to Lakeland, dock it, and ride my bike back to the ramp to get my truck! DUDEZILLAS, I had it down to a science! On ANOTHER side note- If you EVER want to see a great verbal fight between a man and a woman, just hang out at a boat landing! I saw some GREEEEAT fights there!

MAN in the boat- "Go straight in! NO!!!!! Don't turn the wheel!"

WOMAN In the truck backing into the water- "Dan, STOP yelling at me!"

MAN-"Pull out and try it again, this time just straight back"!

WOMAN- "What did you say???? Straighten it up????"

MAN- "DAMMIT SUZANNE, back straight in!"

• To show what a great guy Mr. Boike was, he would pay me to mow the grass down at Lakeland! He also paid me to clean his office. He KNEW I was coming back to Charlotte with my 'tail between my legs' And with those little things he did, made it easier for me! GOD, I MISS HIM!
• OKIE DOKIE! Enough of me whining, being I lived so close to Lakeland, after work, I would ride my bike over to it and do yard work with anticipation of the 4th of July party. Raking up 'gum balls' and working all frustration that some people at work, Angela G. I am looking at you, caused me. 
• I KNEW that July 4th WAS GOING TO HAPPEN, and it NEVER disappointed! 

 Mike B., Mike C., and Andy McBride 2002

• In 2004 some old friends came down, Mr. and Mrs. Williamson. If you don't know, Mr. Williamson was NEVER too shy to say what was on his mind. I told him that I was dating a girl named Amber. And he replied with a big grin "WHAT? She a stripper with that name?" I told her what he said when she got there and without hesitation, went right up to him and said 'WHAT? So you saying I can't be a stripper?" FYI- It was the only time I saw the man speechless! I told that story at his memorial service and got people who knew him well to LOL.

 Sweet Amber taking a 'nap' after being over-served. 2003

• Like I mentioned before, "beer, was a constant theme for a very long time" and we did our part to recycle, AHHHHHH HELL! Who am I kidding?!?!?!? We put all the cans in one barrel to make it easier to take it to the scrap yard and get $, we would float out in the cove with a cooler of beer.

                                            Mike B. and a floating cooler that Thompson got him for a wedding gift

When a beer was empty, we would fill the can full of water and 'attempt' to throw it in the barrel we had on shore. I think through the years, there were 3 successful attempts. I know I NEVER made it, matter of fact, I sliced my finger and had to have my friend Marianne bandage it up. 

The barrel we 'attempted' to throw empty beer cans in.

Oh and the pink flamingos were bought by my Grandma McBride in the 60s

• One year, Jeff (YES he lived in a freakin' TEEPEE) and my old college roommate Dave, and I got a floating buoy!!! If I recall, it was the last night we were there that year. We all piled in my boat and watched the fireworks. On our way back we noticed a floating buoy in the middle of the cove. I dropped everyone off at LAKELAND and we went back and got it. That thing was a heavy sucker too!!! We brought it back and posed with it like it was a huge trophy!

        

       David C., Jeff H., and Andy McBride 2004

• I had sooooooooo many good memories there that I had my friend, ANNE paint an old picture of it and it is in my kitchen here at casa de McBride.

         

                                                                 A painting of the lake house by Anne Conroy-Baiter

        

                                                         This is what happens to ya when you start drinking beer @8am! 

                                                                        Ya crash by 2pm!!!! Andy McBride 

        

                                                                  One of the last pictures I took of Lakeland in 2007

                                                             

 Now I need GPS just to see where I am when I go there. So MUCH has changed and it is all built up. Eventually, the Boikes KIND OF gave part of the land to their son Matthew. He and his family built a house there. I only have been there once when Wylie, my dog, went to doggy heaven and her mom was SO sweet to send me some of her ashes. I made it a point to spread some of the ashes here at CASA DE McBride, and while having to listen to Matthew's first wife BLABBER NON-STOP, I went to LAKELAND and spread the rest of her ashes there.