Remembering Gary "G-Mack" McCormack
I met Gary in freshman English class, we talked, and he invited me to a lock-in at his church one evening. The details of that night are pretty vague, but I do remember playing basketball and not much sleep was had. Having taken a liking to the guy, I brought him into the group, which included my brother Kelly, Brad Kirk, Donald Piatt, Scott Gardner, and Larry Andrus. They were a bit apprehensive at first, since the rest of us had been hanging out since grade school, but he grew on them and quickly became part of The Crew.
There are many interesting stories about the Mavillac, which is what we called his Ford Maverick with a “borrowed” Cadillac hood ornament, and the things that happened in it’s confines. We were tight in high school, had sleepovers at his homestead (me, G, Grandma Imogene, and Uncle Joe), shot lots of hoops, built speaker boxes, and got into tons of mischief at the “bridge out” and “The Fly Spot.” Then, he started dating Donald’s sister, Stephanie. Having grown up with Steph, I always felt like she thought we were a bad influence on Gary (and her brother too), but I tried not to let that interfere with our shenanigans.
The fondest memories of our senior year were the ridiculous things we did for Journalism class (there is incriminating footage somewhere), but after high school, while Gary and I still remained friends, we never really hung out, other than when I need to use his computer or when making road trips to Rolla to see Kelly for St. Patrick’s Day. My sophomore year, I went away to Rolla too, and that’s pretty much when we lost touch, never gaining back what we had, even after I returned home to attend school the next year.
I think the last time I saw Gary was at Donald’s wedding and reception, where we shot a few hoops and made indefinite plans to get together in the future. From there, Gary went his way, living life with Stephanie and their two children, then getting into law enforcement. After doing a seven year stint with the Republic, MO force, he became a deputy sheriff, and four months into that, an accident happened while responding to a call and he was taken from us.
I’m not sure if Gary ever reminisced about the times he had with The Crew, either personally or with others, but I know we still do. I didn’t go to the funeral, because I felt I didn’t have a place, but did visit his grave shortly after and have returned on Memorial Day. I wish we would’ve kept in touch over the years, but sadly, neither of us made the effort.
While I didn’t know Gary in any of the roles he had later in life, I still considered him a great friend for the times we had together, and can't imagine how life would have been without him there. The memories are plentiful, and so I've asked The Crew to help us remember some of the great times we had and will never forget.
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Brad:
You know the number one thing that sticks out is the old Mavalack, he loved that thing. Hill topping in it, Boy oh boy. We were nuts. Then, we got the amazing Gary the magician. He never would show me how he did those tricks. But, there is one memory I have of him that plays over and over in my head. Gary showed me how true a friend he really was to me. I got pulled over in Republic, and I had just gotten out of jail that day, and they called him in because he was the sergeant at that time, right before he went to Greene County. He uncuffed me and took me back to his car and looked me in my eyes and asked me how I was doing, and if I was off the crap. Of course, I lied to him and told him I was clean, and I know he knew I was lying, just like you all did. But, he said I’m asking you as a friend, then went on about what it was doing to me. What really pisses me off was I couldn’t even go to his funeral because I was on the run and paranoid about all the cops that were there. My brother Wayne and I went to the viewing and talked to Steph. But, there are a lot of memories, I just can’t think of them, except the time we all did that [rap] gig at the Boys Club.
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Larry:
I wasn't as close to Gary as Kris and the others, I just know that he was a really nice guy and quite a talented magician. He was funny and loved to make people smile and laugh. I think he was a very smart man, but did some really crazy stuff like jumping the end of the world in an early 70's Ford Maverick. I know how thankful and smart he was when we had the 2 blowouts on the blue Chevelle coming back from Rolla. Knowing that the unilug wheels he had on his Ford Fairlane would fit on my Chevy. Gary had a huge heart and would help anyone.
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Scott:
Gary Daniel McCormack was my friend...he was one of my closest very best friends. We shared so much together. Although he didn’t come into our clique until about 1990, we all instantly loved the dude. I had him in a couple classes, one of those was Biology II with Miss Smith. We dissected a cat together. I remember clearly one day when Gary was being particularly vocal in his frustration with the class. Specifically, he was cussing up a storm. Miss Smith sent him out of the class for the day. It was mad funny. He was the second of us to get his driver’s license and chauffeured all of us around in his blue Ford Maverick. We went cruising around town every Friday and Saturday night. He’d load like all 5 of us in his car and we’d be scraping the pavement cuz the car would dip so low with all of us in it. We spent a lot of time at Sonic drive-in.
He once brought us all together to do a rap show at the Boys and Girls Club on Springfield’s west side. He got the beats for us somehow. I don’t know how he found them. It was on an old cassette of beats by a rap group called “Preachers in Disguise” or “P.O.D.” What was so funny was that POD was a Christian rap group and we were...well...not so Christian.
When I got my first car...a 1974 Buick Apollo, Gary tirelessly went speaker shopping with me. He helped me pick out CD players and pull-out tape decks, and then he spent the entire summer between our sophomore and junior years helping me build speaker box after speaker box to fit my car. He stayed late into the night at my house, which was on the other side of town from his, installing stereos, amps and all kinds of stuff. In return, I spent a lot of time with him searching salvage yards for different parts that he needed to restore his Ford Fairlane to the point of being able to drive it.
We were constantly bonding over music and bowling. We used to go bowling all the time. He was with me when I got my first bowling ball. It had finger grips and my bowling team nick-name engraved on the ball. It said “Polo G”.
I could go on and on tirelessly, but I just want to say that I very much regret not staying in closer touch with him after I went away to college. And, I’ll always be sad about not being able to make it to his funeral. Even though I hadn’t seen or talked to him, I still feel a certain emptiness knowing he’s not out there somewhere...dedicated as hell to his job, fellow officers and his family.
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Donald:
Gary was the joke teller, magic trick extraordinaire. We went to play pool one time, played a couple games, and then he asked me to go to the bar and get a few things. With a glass of water, he was like the David Copperfield of Westside. I’ll never forget his laugh. He was the G Mac. Thanksgiving and Christmas will never be the same without him there.
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Kelly:
An Ode to Gary McCormack
In the grand scheme of things, Gary was a brief but very influencial part of my young life during those “impressionable years” where I was to choose whether I would be a contributing member of society or a raging hooligan. We did our share of amateur hooliganism, but never to the point of grand theft or felony damage. Go Westside Whities!
Gary slotted into a presumably impenetrable clique of Study Stars (Bubby and I, Brad, D, Scotty G, Lar) when we arrived at Central and became the vehicle (literally) to many of our hijinx. The noble 1974 Maverick nearly killed us on plenty of occasions, but it never failed to deliver us to our destination...which was usually nowhere in particular unless someone along the way had a splendid idea about heading to the Valley Water Mill or the End of the World. Mostly, though, it was a vesicle of youth and friendship, where a bunch of kids spent hours forming bonds that would last for either a while or forever. I will forever regret backing into that big, brown LTD and busting the back trim on the Maverick...apparently something that could not actually be replaced in Springfield. My first driving lesson...never operate a motor vehicle when there are a set of awesome bosoms in the back seat!
Gary was always keen to show you his new magic trick, and actually got pretty good at manipulating a deck of cards. I never got to see a whole act, though, as I’m sure we would not have appreciated the hours of practice it took to master the 15 or so tricks. The other thing Gary was always keen to have a crack at was cobbling together a speaker box and wiring up a stereo. Oh the number of times I saw him rip through a box of fuses trying to wire up an amp and cross-over by trial and error. And to this day, I’m convinced that every subwoofer box ever built should include 2 pounds of polyfill!
After high school was over, Gary and I drifted apart as many friends do. I had my head secured squarely up my own ass studying engineering and Gary went into law enforcement. The fact that we did not stay in contact as much as we should have did not diminish the fact that we were true friends when it mattered most. On the 5th anniversary of Gary’s death, I have but two things to say: Thank you for being my friend and tolerating the little assholes that we were, and that was truly the worst fake thumb I have ever seen in a magic act!
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Gary, may you rest in peace and watch over us every day, and one day, we will see you again. We love and miss you homie!
-Scott “Polo G” Gardner
-Kelly “Kool Daddy K” Fleetwood
-Larry “LL Sound” Andrus
-Brad “MC Smooth” Kirk
-Donald “Big D” Piatt
-Kris “EMD” Fleetwood
posted by K-Fleet at 7:25 PM
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