>
> A future episode on zone-10 perhaps.
Back in the '90s I worked with a Wayne Wilke (KB5MDO for you Hams,
originally from Palestine Texas), who installed equipment and trained users
on digital audio systems used in radio broadcast. He spent about two years
in Prague setting up what was then the world's largest single digital audio
system for Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty.
Well, some guy decided he wanted to open up a BBQ joint in Prague. Wayne
tried eating there one time and was so extremely disappointed that he
offered to help him master proper Texas BBQ. For the next year, Wayne spent
as much time in the BBQ joint as he did at the office building (oh the
stories there). By the end of that year, this place was absolutely the
cat's meow in BBQ. I don't recall the name of the joint, but I think it was
only two blocks away from RFE/RL headquarters.
Wayne was an award winning cook and for years either won or was top two or
three in chili cookoffs in Texas. He knew his stuff. I can attest to the
fact that his chili was far beyond anything I've experienced before or
since.
Alas, he was a chain smoker and that caught up to him in late 1999. He
passed in early 2000, not three or four months after being diagnosed with
lung cancer.
Wayne had the same personality as our own Walt. Both were essentially
identical in nearly every way.
One sad side note about Wayne. He played a mean pedal steel guitar. After
years of longing for a top-notch steel, he finally bought a custom-made unit
that took many months to get delivered. Yes, you guessed it. It arrived a
month before he died. He did manage to tune it and he even turned it on for
me to hear a note or two. But by that point he was so weak that he couldn't
play it. It broke his heart in one sense. Other than his wife, I was the
ONLY person to have actually heard him play a single note on it. We were
good friends, and by that point not even I was able to recognize him as the
cancer (and treatments) had ravaged his body.
But Wayne, lived a dichotomy--he drank, cussed, smoked and lived what
APPEARED to be a hard life, but was actually devoutly religious, a gentle
man (and a gentleman) and was one of the best Boy Scout leaders you've ever
seen. Wayne did EVERYTHING in life. When asked what he never accomplished,
he said "Nuclear Scientist--I always wanted to be a nuclear scientist." But
the sparkle in his eye betrayed that. Wayne did everything from riding
broncos to being a professional musician playing in orchestras. A natural
talent that succeeded in everything he touched.
So, when in Prague, and if you come across some Texas BBQ joint that makes
the most awesome brisket and chili, now you know the back story.
AG
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