New Scaratings

Ralph Hall (WATSON) called me today with very sad news. George Shelton passed away yesterday from a heart attack. GRS was my best friend for many years, and we played trivia together all over the place from Ohio to Alabama. He was a great guy, and a darn good trivia player. George preferred to drive the junkiest old cars imaginable, and he gave each of them names. He was a retired Army officer, and would often drive down to Three Putt Willie's in Elizabethtown, KY, to play trivia with his old Fort Knox buddies. George was also an expert fisherman, and would work playing trivia into his frequent out of state fishing excursions.

I have not had a chance to talk to his wife, Cindy, yet, and I do not know where or when the visitation and funeral will be.

This is truly a sad day. I will deeply miss George, and regret that I didn't keep better contact with him after his marriage.

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"The game is afoot."

Sincerest condolences, Cloudy.

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Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

Truly sad. I hadn't seen George much since he got married, either, other than during a brief run-in at Half Price Books a few months back. Always seemed to be in pretty good shape and good health, so rather shocking to hear.

Very, very sorry to hear that. George was a good fellow.

I remember he became annoyed when I said his handle of GRS (his initials) was pronounced "Grease".

He also just absolutely loved to point out when it was "The Longest Answer AGAIN!" .

After hearing that for a while, one day after he said that, next question I went "Not the Longest Answer". Then, "Not the Longest Answer Twice in a Row !". When I got up to "Not the Longest Answer for the 23rd Time in a Row" he grumbled "All right, I got it, shut up" with good humor.

I'll miss George, and glad he got back out to joins us a couple of times the last year.

Wow, sorry to hear that. That's two people Louisville has lost in a little over a year.

Very sorry to hear it. I seem to recall him from the evening Pat and I spent with you guys at TGIF. Seemed like a real nice guy.

Just talked to Ralph Hall again. He said that after he couldn't find George listed in the Courier Journal obituaries, he called Cindy. Cindy told him that she and George had discussed this, and that George told her that, if he died, he did not want any obituary in the paper, visitation, or funeral. He will be creamated. So I guess we will have to remember George in our own way.

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"The game is afoot."

Thanks for posting that, I had been looking too.

Anyone want to get together one evening to remember him together? maybe at a trivia bar and put GRS up there a few times?

I'm in with enough notice.

FOG

I'd like to add my sincerest condolences as well. He sounds like a great guy and highly respectable. It's always after someone has passed that you tell yourself that you should've spent more time with them, or kept in contact more, or anything really but all you can really do is cherish the memories you have of them because as long as you have those...they're not really gone.
--Tony

Of course I'm in. The best place to get together would have been the old Friday's, but it is now gone. The only other places that I can think of, where George played a bunch of trivia that still has it, would be Buffalo Wild Wings in Middletown, or Three Putt Willy's way down in Elizabethtown. Of the two, Buffalo Wild Wings makes the most sense for several reasons.

I doubt his widow would want to join us, as she is adamantly against people drinking. (Years ago her brother was killed in an automobile accident caused by a drunken driver.) I have a feeling that some of us might be drinking at George's unofficial wake, and this would probably upset her. However, I don't think George would mind, so let's do it.

Actually, with the weather getting better, we could probably get Buffalo Wild Wings to reserve their outside patio for us to congregate, share memories, and say goodbye to George.

Good idea, YODA. We need to pick a date to do this.

We can all play "GRS" that night. Buffalo Wild Wings has trivia on the patio. SO, LET'S DO IT...!!!

p.s. Just a thought. I'm open to other ideas.

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"The game is afoot."

Didn't know George well, but did get a chance to meet him. He seemed to be a good guy and I'm sorry to hear he has left us.

Did GRS have a favorite game that he loved to play and wouldn't miss?

Some years back there was a photo of George and his buddies at Three Putt Willies with Shrek. I wonder if that picture is still around anywhere. Buzztime used to show it between games.

I'll certainly join in a GRS night, and point out when" It is the Longest answer, and # 3".

Excellent thought, and while it is a tribute to George, we could raise a beer for Hatlady and Litl E as well.

I hate planning things, but here goes.

This Friday, April 8th, BW3 Middletown. Earliest I can be there to get a table outside would be 5:30pm.

Anyone object to this date? We can try for Saturday instead, but people tend to have things going on that day.

Never met the man that I know of, but I'll raise a pint in his honor this weekend. As a "#3 and the longest answer" guy myself, I feel I've lost a kindred spirit.

Tiefly, George attended the second Huber Heights gathering, accompanied by Cloudy and Litl E.

He was the quiet one.

Well then, I think I spent part of a very hazy afternoon sitting on the patio with those guys and probably pestered him during my form of "musical chairs", where I sat with a group until they gave me a correct answer before movinon to another group. (I get a lot of 14K games that way).

All the more reason to raise a pint or two in his honor.

RIP, sir.

I believe it was the first Triviapalooza that GRS attended. He, Lil E, and Cloudy went to the Air Force Museum... if I'm not mistaken. He was certainly the quiet one out of those three! Lol

You're right...!

p.s. George and I took the two beds in our hotel room, and Lil E volunteered to sleep on the floor. As drunk as we all were that night, it really didn't make much difference where we slept, but I'm still glad that I wound up in one of the beds.

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"The game is afoot."

I think YODA asked what was George's favorite game. As I recall, he liked most of the games, but "Countdown" was the one he usually did best at. However, there was a special game one time about the World Cup. I did my best to get as many soccer aficionados up to play the game that night at Friday's, including the person that Soccer Plus (a Louisville soccer store) thought knew more about the World Cup than anyone in the city.

At the bar, I introduced George and myself as "baggage", just along for the ride. The game was pretty damn hard, and involved a lot of guessing.

Game winner... GRS...!

He taunted me with, "I'm just baggage." for months and months after that. No, he really didn't know soccer. He was just a lucky guesser on the one's the soccer aficionados didn't know, but he reveled in his glory for a long, long time...

To make it even better for George, NTN somehow listed the World Cup game scores as a "Countdown" game, and he led our local leader board for "Countdown" to the end of the month, with a score that was somewhere over 20,000. (Not joking.)

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"The game is afoot."

Another George story (I won't post all of the details about it here.) is the time I went to the bathroom at Buffalo Wild Wings in Middletown, and returned to my chair only to find out that George and I had been "barred out" in my absence. As we headed out the door on the way to the car, I found out George had tried to stop an assistant manager from taking one of my two boxes, while I was taking a leak.

George was never one to back down, when he knew he was right, and he would always go to battle for his friends. (This was a battle of words, nothing physical.) However, as I understand it, what got George and me barred out, wasn't anything George did or said. It was something that Lil E, who was with us, but sitting a few stools away, shouted at the assistant manager, while George was arguing with her. Amazingly, Lil E, wasn't barred out, but George and I were.

p.s. It wasn't long after, before that assistant manager was gone.

p.p.s. Yep, George was no coward, and he took us back up there, not too long after we were barred out. Know what...? There was no problem, when we returned.

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"The game is afoot."

George isn't talkiing to me from the afterlife, but I can hear him just the same. He wants his old buddies to get together, have a few drinks, and in his memory play a trivia game. He apologizes for not being able to be there, but he wants us to kick butt just the same.

George won't be here to organize the festivities, so I guess it is my job to put things together. I've got a lot of phone calls to make, but right now it looks like George Shelton's Wake will be at Buffalo Wild Wings in Middletown. Not sure if it will be this Friday or Saturday, but it will probably be one of those days. Talked to a manager (John) at Buffalo Wild Wings this afternoon, and he says that they will reserve space for us on the patio, if the weather is good, but if it isn't, they will give us our own space inside. However, I need to give him a little warning with the numbers they can expect.

Please let me know, if you can make it, and which day is better for you. I will also have to consider those I call, who don't normally read the "ScaRatings".

p.s. George was great at organizing things.

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"The game is afoot."