Sunday, May 29, 2022 | 2 a.m.
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On Memorial Day, I am remembering my good friend, Gordon Peeler. Gordy served in Vietnam, and although he made it back home in one piece, a big part of his soul was left on the battlefield. Gordy suffered from nightmares after Vietnam because he had many confirmed kills that he could never quite come to grips with. Alcohol was his nemesis, and liver disease took his life way too soon. PTSD is a horrible thing.
I met Gordy while working at a car dealership in Chesapeake, Va., in 1983. The dude had been to Vietnam, which meant massive respect to me. Vietnam vets were the only vets ever to be denounced by a large portion of the public when they came home. It was like they got blamed for the war when all they did was get drafted and sent to kill someone in a far-off place.
Anyway, Gordy was brand new in the car business and didn’t know much, but he wanted to sell. I had been around the block a couple of times and was notably cocky, so we hit it right off. He also had a good sense of humor and listened intently to my techniques. Things began to work for him, and then he started freelancing. He bought a cheap Timex, taped the words “Time to Buy” across the front of it and started showing it to his customers. He got a lot of laughs out of that and a few sales, to boot.
Man, I miss those times. RIP, my brother.
