Charles Paul Johnson

His Final Farewell-Entertaining as Usual

Uncle Charlie was the third child born to Lawrence Earl Johnson and Cora Lee Meek out of a family of five children.

Throughout his lifetime, he had several hobbies and interests.   He was a photographer, gold miner/panner (had his own claim), pot grower (always the entrepreneur), politician (ran for Mayor), genealogist, and these are just a few.  He was a fun loving guy who really enjoyed life and people.

He taught himself how to use a computer when he was in his late sixties.  He was very active on ancestry dot com, and responded to emails, etc. 

When he was dying from lung cancer, he had his sons, nieces and nephews drink a shot of whiskey to celebrate his life.  He also had one of his sons roll a joint for him.  He said he was going to smoke it but he wasn't in any shape to smoke anything.  He really wasn't a pot smoker but, I think he was wanting to use it for pain.

When he passed away, the family didn't have the funds to give him a funeral and burial.  My cousin Trish and I were trying to figure out how we could bury him.  We went shopping for caskets online, and did a lot of research.

He had already bought his burial plot in the cemetery up the street  next to Aunt Francis, his wife. 

I was thinking about using my van to transport him to the cemetery and my daughter was freaking out.  So then, I decided that I would rent a truck to transport him instead. 

Fortunately, his boys were able to come up with the funds to give their Father a funeral and burial.  So, in the end Trish and I didn't need to use any of our ideas.

While we were waiting for the people from the funeral home to come and get Uncle Charlie, we each took turns going into his bedroom to say goodbye.  His son Ed was running around looking for a crucifix for his dad.  Someone else put his favorite shot glass with him.
 
The attendees from the funeral home arrived after a while.  When they picked Uncle Charlie up to put him on the stretcher, the joint  that he never smoked fell out.  We all had a good laugh over that.  Uncle Charlie would have had a good laugh too if he were there.

Uncle Charlie was buried with the joint in one pocket and his favorite shot glass in the other pocket. The Crucifix is there somewhere too.  He would have gotten such a kick out of this!

We lost Uncle Charlie on January 11, 2013.  He had just turned 82 years old a couple of days before on January 9.

Good 'ole Uncle Charlie, always entertaining and good for a laugh.

Uncle Charlie as a young man

Uncle Charlie as a Biker

Uncle Charlie-right and Ed-left at the Claim

We miss you Uncle Charlie!

Uncle was a Pot Grower!

Well I don't know about you but I definitely have folks in my family that would fall into the criminal category.  I guess that would put them in the Hell Raiser category too.  They're definitely not Holy Rollers.

I don't know if you are aware of this or not, but many people with a criminal background are highly intelligent.  They just tend to use their intelligence for the wrong type of business endeavors that usually are not legal.

I had an Uncle who was very entrepreneurial.  He always had some kind of business going, whether it was owning his own service station, running his own painting/handyman business, owning and operating an RV park, or tending to his own little pot farm.  He always had something going on including a claim in his own gold mine up until he passed away in 2013!

When he was in his early to mid 70's, he taught himself to use the computer and picked up genealogy as a hobby.  He was really quite smart.   Uneducated, but smart.

In his mid to late 70's, he decided to get into the pot farming business.  He had his boys (they were in their 40's) go get prescriptions and he got a prescription.  Only one of his boys actually smoked any of the pot. 

In California, if one has a prescription, they are allowed to grow a certain amount of marijuana for their own use or grow for others if they have a prescription.

Uncle got his plants in the ground and they were thriving!  They were growing so high and looked so lush.  Uncle was expecting a fantastic crop and he was dreaming of rolling in the green stuff.  Just before harvest time, he got a visit from some fellows from the sheriff's department.  They went out and wondered around in his pot plants.  He told me that he thought the guys had cross pollinated his crop, and that the next time he was going to take pictures.  He accused them of ruining his crop.

I spoke to him a few days later and he said, "Well, I guess, I did get a little carried away".  Oh, Uncle!!