"I Am What I Am" Chad Gaskins

Well, I have so many great stories of all of the times that Chad and I spent together I really don't know what to say here:

"We where there" - This is one of my favorite stories. So they're gonna blow up the dome uh? You know we are gonna go watch that happen. So Chad works a 8 hour closing shift at McDonalds and gets off work at 1 am. So what do we do a all nighter. We get to the bridge overlooking the Kingdome and the newley built Safeco field. We are the first people there, no news, no one just us. So we set up our lawn chairs that we picked up that afternoon, get cumfie, what happens, blue light special- Seattle Police. "You can't sit on the bridge" So we have to walk in place untill 4am until King 5 News shows up and decides that we picked out the best spot in Seattle to watch this thing go down. About 5am the camera guy asks us if we want to be on tv, does he know who he was talking to? Of course we would like to be on tv, So he interviews Chad first, for some reason unknown to me why (mabey because i was making inaporpite motions behind Chads head) Chad didn't get alot of talking time on the 5 o clock news the next day, but old camera hog me did. I will never forget that night sitting and talking for 7 or 8 hours untill the dome went down with my best friend. Ben

One of the MANY memories that I have of Chad is his ability to learn ANYTHING. (and by himself at that). I remember him coming home one night and he looked at me and said "Cortnay, I am going to do the welding on my truck all by myself" - I looked at him like a deer looking into headlights as I always did when he came up with his 'visions'. I then proceeded to ask him who's welder he was going to use - he then said, with his cheshire smile - " Mine!!" - another proud purchase made by our BIG SPENDER!! : )  . He had picked a welder up on the way home. So the construction began immediately that weekend. I watched in amazment as with no fear Chad sliced and diced his truck with this extreamly dangerous tool. I would be upstairs cooking dinner and would hear screams and yelling from the sparks hitting him. That fool stressed me out with his new tool. There was nothing Chad could not do, and not do well. He turned out to be an excellent welder One other thing I am going to miss is that I am now going to have to quit pretending that I do not know how to change my flat tires that I get on a almost monthly basis. I think he already knew I was full of shit. That was Chad, he liked to be needed and he loved to help. . I am going to miss my friend. Someone who always listened to me and who I feel is still listening. I love you Chad Gaskins and I will see you again one day. Goodbye Friend.- Cortnay

After talking on the phone one day and a couple emails later Chad and I decided to eat at the “Crab Cracker” in Kirkland.  Neither of us had been there before. ~ We were seated at a quiet table on the upper left hand side near the wall.  The table was set for four.  As we sat down Chad noticed there was lipstick on a wine glasses at the next setting.  He told the hostess someone had been drinking from his wine glass and he would like another one (even though we all know Chad doesn’t like wine and considering we had just sat down neither of us had ordered any beverages yet).  The waitress came with a fresh glass and asked if we wanted to start out with drinks/appetizers etc.  I ordered my Gin and Tonic, and Chad had Lemonade.  When our drinks came, Chad squeezed the lemon into his lemonade and began telling a story. ~ Once his friend, Mike squeezed a lemon and squirted Kendra right in the eye, she flipped out on him.  Chad ended the story with, “Good Story Chad” and gave himself a point on the table with a red crayon (it was a paper tablecloth, crayons included). ~ We ordered a Dungeness crabmeat cocktail for starters and Chad ordered the Alaskan King Crab Legs.  I ordered some seafood salad thing. ~ Chad proceeded to draw his lowered Toyota Tacoma on the table cloth, this time with a blue crayon paying extra time to detail.  Then he wrote my name, Dana, in block letters while telling stories; some with plots and some got “Good Story” points.  He kept them tallied on the tablecloth.  I told a few and scored about three points to his ten, then our food arrived. ~ At first Chad looked worried because staring up at him was what appeared to be the entire King Crab, head securely attached and steaming.  But after lifting the head slightly, he found the meat gutted out; the shell was just for looks.  Meticulously he proceeded to crack every shell to get every last morsel of meat out, using one of the spikes from a leg (instead of the little meat fork) and put it in a pile on the side of his plate.  I mentioned he might think about eating as he goes; since it looked like he was going to do all the work first then eat it later.  He went into another story; this time about his sister, Christy. ~ Christy and Chad were over at their grandpas’ house having crab for dinner.  He said his sister had cracked every shell and took out all the meat. And then she decided she wasn’t hungry anymore.  She gave it to her grandpa to eat. ~ After we had finished our food, Chad wrote on the edge of the table (so our waitress could see), “Our Waitress is Great!”  I wrote below it, “And she is Rad too.”  Since Chad was wearing his red “Chad is Rad” shirt I had bought him for his birthday.  It has the country of Chad in Africa outlining the phrase (I have a matching one).  She saw it with appreciation and asked us to show it to her manager.  Chad grabbed a “rate our restaurant” card and we filled it out together. ~ First he wrote the wrong name for our waitress and I asked him if it was Pam or Peggy, we looked at the receipt and he says, “sh*t!” and scratches it out then puts the right name.  Then under the “what would make our restaurant better” section he put that the urinals in the bathroom needed to have more in-between space ‘cause he felt like he was sword-fighting (he had to explain to me what “sword-fighting” was).  And then he marked another Good Story point and we left to go back to my house. ~ I will always remember that dinner together and other times we have shared Chad, you have impacted my life in so many ways.  I feel very blessed to have been able to know you, meet your family and friends some before and after your passing.  I Love You Chad Curtis Gaskins, you will always have a place in my heart…always.  ~  Dana Louise Smith

 Here is one from Sherrie Neatherlin- Chad's Mom Talking about moving the Taco back to her house

Craig borrowed a car trailer to move Chad's truck to our house.  First thing, Craig got into Chad's truck, it wouldn't start, battery had gonedead.  So Tom ran to the auto parts store to get jumper cables.  Then, as we all know, Chad's truck is sooooo low they had to hook up Tom's truck to the trailer instead of Craig's to make the trailer tilt more in the back.  ThenCraig was just barely up the ramps - and I asked Tom "did you lock down the hitch" - wa laaa - about that time the trailer came lose from the ball of Tom's truck and the tongue of the trailer came flying straight up in the air!  So, Craig had to back the truck off again.  But all was a success - it got onto the trailer with nothing happening to the truck!!  The trailer did have electric brakes and Tom had his electric brakes inside the truck set a little to sensitive - so when he hit the brakes, we had the skidding thing going on, we were churping going down the road - so that was a little funny!!  The truck is all safe and sound now in Tom's new garage!!!