For those of you who havent heard, Vonnas younger brother died unexpectedly last week.... Billy Monckton delivered this beautiful eulogy about a crazy funny guy who Vonna and I loved so much and are going to miss everyday TRIPP BAIDEN My name is Billy Monckton and Tripp was one of my best friends. Before I start I have to tell a quick story, the 1st time I gave a Eulogy was when our good friend and fraternity brother Mamdooh Saleh passed away seven years ago. I had written out the Eulogy and Russell Long and I were both pallbearers. It was an emotional day for both of us. Russell had promised me that if I get upset he would step up and finish reading what I had written. Well I take out my papers, take a deep breath, and look down at him and he is already balling and is already giving me the sign that he can’t come up. I tell you that story because he has promised me the same thing today. So when I get upset, and I will, if he doesn’t come up you will all know why? You may wonder why I mention someone else’s funeral today but I gave that Eulogy on June 16, 2007 which is Tripp’s Birthday. First let my say what an Honor it is to be here to tell you about my friend. Charlene and Ebbi asked me and I agreed. They also asked me to put together the pallbearers and the men seated on this front row with me have all grown up with Tripp are just a small sampling of his great friends. I just want to mention their names: Russell Long, Ronny West, Mike Sells, Jimmy Brehm, Erik Hanson, Todd Jemison, Robbie Mosley and Chris Pardi. Charlene, Ebbi, Shelly, Hunter and Jen they all consider this a True Honor to be here today. Let me tell you about Tripp. I am not sure how we first met but I do remember actually playing soccer against him in the rec leagues when we were very young. I probably met him around fourth or fifth grade and we basically grew up together. We had a tight group of guys that hung around together in High School and we all graduated together back in 1985. Out of that group a bunch of us went to South Carolina to College. This is where some of my greatest memories of Tripp began. We had a group of 8 guys that were going to USC and everybody had partnered up with roommates. Kenny Wilund and Russell, Mike Furlough and Steve Hussey, Mike Sells and Clay Nance. That left Tripp and Me. We had been friends in High School but for us to be roommates together, was definetley at that time the ODD COUPLE. Everybody knew it and said the same thing because we were so different but we roomed together every year in college except my senior year. I couldn’t live off campus my senior year because I was an officer in the fraternity. If not for that we would have roomed together the full four years. My First Day of College is when I knew we were going to be great roommates. All of us guys decided that we were going to be at USC the first day the dorms opened to move in. However, we were not taking any family members to help, it was just going to be us. So the day Tripp and I drive up, I still vividly remember the day!! We drive up to Charlene’s restaurant in Little River to eat breakfast before we leave. We say our good byes and leave. We pile into my little red pickup truck with everything we have to head to Columbia. As we leave the restaurant Tripp looks at me and smiles we need to make a little stop first. Sorry, Charlene we didn’t go straight to Columbia after we left the restaurant. I came to learn that little smile means we are getting ready to have some fun. We stop at his step-dads who worked for Budweiser on 21st Avenue. So we go in to the warehouse and he has 25 Cases of Beer and several neon beer signs for us to take to college. I start laughing and we pile everything in the back of the truck and on our way up 378!! Let’s just say when we pulled up to the Towers/Honeycombs dorms at USC as two surfer looking boys from Myrtle Beach with no parental supervision and 25 Cases of Beer you could hear the whispers. Well we move in to a floor with 50 plus guys we don’t know and immediately become the most popular guys on the floor. That was part of Tripp’s personality that we all loved is that he could get people together he had never met before and immediately start treating them like long lost friends. Living with Tripp proved to me to be educational, frustrating and a whole lot of fun. So after the first night we decide we need to go buy some things for the room that we need. We need something to carry our stuff to the showers, a rug and snack food, I thought. We go to the store and split up. I came back with drinks, snacks, magazines and a little container just big enough to hold a bar of soap, a little shampoo and my toothbrush. Tripp comes back with an ironing board, iron, broom, cleaning materials, a five gallon bucket and enough hair products to make anyone woman here jealous. My education of Tripp begins. 1st Tripp is a neat freak!! Everything had to be clean, organized and put away, me not so much!! We were like a married couple I learned to clean up just not to hear him gripe but the truth was that if I didn’t he would fold stuff up and put it away for me. I also learned that there is a proper way to fold your T-Shirts, you iron your T-Shirts before you go out, you iron your jeans and always iron your polo shirts!! I had never cut on an iron before college, now I iron everything at my house per my wife’s request. Thanks, Buddy. Anybody that knew Tripp growing up knew his vanity and his real love of his hair. Me not so much! I had a little shower container for my stuff, Tripp however had a huge bucket!! He had two or three different shampoos and conditioners, sprays, gels and two hair dryers with attachments. Who has two hair dryer’s hell I don’t think I’ve owned one. We use to call Tripp’s hair the “Shelf” because it was always so perfect, didn’t move in the wind and would repel water when raining. I, knowing his affinity for his hair use to play jokes on him all the time and my favorite one was: We were at a Sorority Mixer and he saw some girls looking over and smiling at him. He comes up to me and says look they are smiling at me and I am going to go talk to them and see who they are. I say wait I know one of them let me go over and see what the deal is and come back and give you some insider information. He agrees. I walk over and talk to one of them who I know from class for several minutes then come back over to him. He is anxious and wants to know what they said. I smile and say they aren’t interested in you they just want to know what conditioner you are using, so I told them!! I’m pretty sure he hit me in my arm!! Tripp was a Preppy guy but he had a uniform and I know I will get some chuckles at this. The Tripp Uniform was a pair of white only Sperry Topsiders, white calf high socks folded over and rolled down, khaki shorts ironed, ironed t-shirt tucked in with a pastel polo shirt unbuttoned and untucked but ironed. When I said we were the Odd Couple it was because I never gave much thought to what I had on other than it had to be clean. Tripp had another quality that we all admired. Tripp was a great dancer at anything. He could Shag, 80’s Dance and actually had some soul in him. I thought it was funny that he danced till we had our first sorority mixer and after he did the Shag with one girl I watched the line form to dance with Tripp. The very next day Tripp was showing me how to Shag and believe it or not I practiced with my Mom too, I was going to learn that dance!! One of the funniest things he got us to do regarding dancing was he got entered into a Fraternity Talent Show our freshmen year. I know Russell, Chris Pardi and Ronny West were in it. It was Tripp’s idea and he was so excited, so we agreed. He had that ability to convince you it would be fun regardless. He had us agree to dress up like girls and do an air band skit to the GoGo’s!! He also choreographed the dance moves for hisself, Russell and I to perform. Well we thought we were pretty decent and we all knew that if we were funny enough we would meet some girls. What Tripp had failed to realize when he signed us up and we did not realize till we got to the place to perform was it was the “Black Fraternity Association Talent Contest”. First they can’t believe we have signed up when we arrive in mascara, wigs and skirts and tennis rackets as air guitars. Russell and I are going this is going to be bad and Tripp just looks at us and says this will be fun, just trust me. Tripp looks at the girl at the registration table smiles and says were still in right. The girl stutters and says, yes. So there we are the only white boys I mean girls in a crowd of 200 getting ready to perform. They schedule us to go last I am assuming thinking we will leave. Tripp, the whole time is saying I got this, it will be fun. Our turn is called and you could literally hear a pin drop as we go on stage. I am assuming they are thinking we are going to do something stupid. The song starts and they realize we actually there too perform. The part comes for our dance moves and we don’t fall down and execute them perfectly. The girls in the crowd start yelling as Tripp has taken center stage and he is our lead singer. He then starts basically popping and dancing and all the sorority girls rush the stage screaming and start dancing with him. Next thing I know our group is dancing with a bunch of sorority girls. I tell you this story because part of Tripp’s personality was he wasn’t scared of an embarrassing situation. He knew it wasn’t a big deal and we would have fun. He was right. Tripp was also the guy you wanted if you got into a battle with anyone. He was the guy who wouldn’t get even, he wouldn’t get ahead, he would be so creative that you wouldn’t ever mess with him again. Our freshmen year we got into a friendly argument with Russell and his roommate Kenny Wilund. They had done something to us and we wanted to get them back. They lived on the Horseshoe in a 1st Floor Apartment and they were going out of town for the weekend. We went over before they left and unlocked one of their windows when they came back Sunday Night all of their furniture was in the parking lot, neatly arranged for them. There are two favorites though. Our Junior Year we had been going back and forth with Russell and Chris Pardi on tricks to each other. It reached a fever pitch when Tripp and I accidentally threw Chris’s Halloween Pumpkin, he and his girlfriend had carved, out the window of the 3rd Floor onto the Fraternity Deck. Chris in turn found a dead bird that week and hid it in Tripp’s closet. They messed with Tripp’s clothes and his cleanliness and he was no happy. Tripp thought for a week and said I got it on what we will do. The next day we go to the bait shop and buy 200 Crickets. Now you have to understand that Chris and Russell were slobs and a bug walking in their dorm room would not be that big of a surprise. So while they are at dinner that night we go in their room, cut on all the lights and spread crickets everywhere. The neat thing about a cricket is it will not make a noise with the light on. However, that night when they cut the lights out it sounded like Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom. We could hear the noise three doors down!!! When they would cut the lights on to find the crickets they would shut up. So Chris and Russell spent the night with flashlights catching crickets in their room. That effectively ended the roommate feud. However, Chris continued to do things to Tripp so after Chris graduated and was going to get in his car to go back to New York, Tripp had gone to Cromers and bought enough large bags of popcorn and poured them into Chris’ sunroof to the point there wasn’t any other room. You couldn’t be mad at him because he was just more creative than you and would just out do you. Parents Charlene and Ebbi/Shelly. I know how he felt about you. There really isn’t anything you don’t discuss when you live with someone for 3 years. Ebbi I cannot tell you how much he admired you and wanted to be you. I remember when he started out with you and how he progressed in the company. I can tell you without a doubt working for you had been his dream through college and when it finally started he was so excited. Charlene I know that you gave him his class and charm. I also know that he was a Momma’s Boy and he would get mad for me saying that but you and I both know that is true. Hunter You were his greatest accomplishment. I cannot truly put into words how proud your Dad was of everything you did. You were his crowning achievement. Every conversation we had always contained talk about you and your sporting accomplishments. I can remember one of your first soccer games against my son Will’s team. In most soccer games at that age the kids move around in a circle barely kicking at the ball while a frantic coach yells instructions. You were at first sight different. You would take the ball, dribble around the circle and score at will. I think you had at least six goals real quick before they put you in goal. I remember walking up to your Dad after the game and he has the biggest grin on his face saying, “Pretty Good, Hugh?” I knowing your Dad’s athletic ability, and being a good friend, smiled at him and said, “I didn’t know Jen played soccer.” It came to be a running joke between us because I have seen you play basketball, football and baseball all exceptionally well. That we would always discuss your latest accomplishments I would always say, “I didn’t know Jen played that?” Your Dad beamed about you, bragged on you to anybody that would listen. It was a good trait for him to have because he truly cared and always wanted the best for you. He was one of your greatest cheerleaders! I need for you to know that your Dad touched a lot of people’s lives in a really good way. Since he passed the number of emails, texts, face book messages and phone calls I have gotten from High School Friends, Fraternity Brothers and College friends have been amazing. Everyone asks how is Hunter doing? The number of people here today, last night and that have made contact with me is a testament to the kind of person Tripp is. He was loved by many friends into the hundreds. I know you may feel alone without him here but I can tell he lives on in every person here today and that knew him. I know there is not a thing anybody wouldn’t do for you because of your Dad. All you would ever have to do is ask. I really can’t make much sense of what has happened. The funny thing about death is that is always inevitable yet we are always shocked and grieve when it occurs. I prefer to look at it as a Reflection on the good things that have happened. I know that the with Tripp’s passing I have laughed and I have cried. I know the crying will stop soon and the laughing will continue. That is because, I am going to remember all the good times and fun we had. I ask that all of you do the same. It won’t make it any easier right now but it will. I have a saying, “You need to enjoy life because you only get to ride the Merry Go Round Once.” It is a lesson for us all. I will say that my friend had a pretty good ride and at some times almost burnt the ball bearings out on that sucker. Billy Monckton and Russell Long March 22, 2014
Posted on: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 00:31:54 +0000
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