Lost City of Atlantis

Story by Steve "Centaur" Wilson

I worked with Correy in the WVC dive program, as most of us had, but the first time I went diving with him outside the dive class I took him to my favorite dive spot, Wharf #2 near the Monterey Harbor. As we weaved our way through the pilings I looked back at him and he was beaming from ear to ear as though he had just discover the lost city of Atlantis, or at least the city of gold...hehehe!!! I love the area because diversity of life, being the biologist I am, and when we got back to shore he had salvaged two or three rods and reels he wanted to refurbish, thus I found out why he was smiling so wide...he had found his favorite underwater emporium....HAHAHA!! Well we went back another day this time we took Mikey Teng, Lindsy, and Pete, and between he and Mikey they salvaged about half a dozen rods and reels. They wanted to go back for a second sweep, but it was late in the day so we decided to pursue the other favorite pastime of divers...EATING...HAHAHA!!!

We Ain't No Lumber Jacks!

By Correy's Dad
A few years ago on an Opening Trout Season trip they had a late snowfall the week before we arrived, the sun was out but every piece of fire wood on the ground was saturated with water from the snow. It looked like we would have to actually purchase firewood from the local store for the first time.
We were camping at Eureka Valley Campground, about 6500 feet in the Stanislaus National Forest, a favorite campground of our family. The mountainous rocks are behind us & the river nearby, it don't get any better than this. Correy & I camped at the first campsite nearest the rocks, it has lots of shade and also the rock mountain within a stones throw behind us.
As we surveyed areas for firewood everything on the ground was too wet, I looked about 100 feet up on the rock mountain behind us & seen a few 30 foot downed, dried trees. I scaled the rock wall with a rope in tow & climbed up to the tree laying on the rocks just above our camp. Correy attached the other end of the rope to our chainsaw. I pulled it up & started cutting 4' diameter rounds off the downed tree, I cut 5-6 large rounds.
Now the tricky part was to get these down below to our camp with destroying something, seems to be a common denominator in Fedor camping trips!
Just to paint the picture for you, I'm about 100 feet up a rock mountain, with 5-6 large, heavy, round, yes round, this means these can roll VERY FAST & FAR! Correy is away from the bottom of the mountain, our van is about 20 yards away, our camp is about the same.
Our idea is to push the large wood rounds off the cliff, they land below & we just roll them into camp, split them, INSTANT dry firewood...so we thought.
The first round lands below & starts rolling towards camp, it spins & comes to rest about 10 feet away, pretty cool. The next couple of rounds do a similar pattern, one Correy had to chase & bring back. I sent the last 2 rounds over the cliff at the same time, I found this was NOT GOOD!
One careened towards Correy at top speed, he started running from it, but it seemed to have a homing beacon on him, wherever he went it followed, Correy finally dove to the side as it continued across camp over the edge right into the river. At the same time a second wood round headed right for the side of our van, it was going to be a direct hit, 7 feet from the van it hit a pot hole in the ground & changed course, now headed for our tent, it side swiped a tree & was now headed for the outhouse, it hit with such force, it moved the outhouse a foot off its perch.
After laughing hysterically for about 20 minutes we gathered all the rounds in camp, except the one in the river, it's probably in some other town by now.
As we enjoyed the great campfires we had from this wood, Correy said, WE AIN'T NO LUMBER JACKS!

Correy lived in Alaska?????

By Correy's Dad

I heard many people at Correy's service & afterward at the house that asked us if we ever lived in Alaska or if Correy did? It seems Correy has quite a story of living in Alaska, I wonder if it came after our Spring snow opening trout season trip? We went up years ago after the worst, coldest winter ever on record & the latest heavy snow for Springtime. Usually when we go up fishing for Opening Trout Season, the end of April or first Saturday in May, there is snow up in the upper mountains and a few patches in the campsite. This one year all the way down at 3000 feet there was already snow, by the time we got to our usual camping spot at 7000 feet it was a winter wonderland. 4-6 feet of snow & up to 10-14 foot drifts. All of the picnic tables were under 8-10 foot snow drifts. The outhouses were completely covered in snow, they stand at least 8 feet tall, we could make out the angled roof on the snow. We had to lower ourselves down to go to the bathroom. Correy thought we would have to sleep in the van or go home. I said nope, we are going to build an igloo, having built a few over the years. The snow has to be just right, icy, thick & cold!
We took out a wood hand saw & a flat shovel. We cut rows of blocks about 18" x 18", used the flat shovel to pop them out about 8" thick. We layed out our bottom circle then built on that, less than an hour we had our igloo. Correy got fancy & cut in shelves inside to store stuff, you build a small fire in the center & cut 1 small hole in the ceiling, the smoke goes straight up through the hole due to the extreme cold vs. heat. We only caught one fish that entire 4 days, the rest of the time we build different types, shapes of snow structures & laughed at people driving by looking at us funny & shaking their heads like we were crazy. We also snow boarded anywhere & everywhere, including jumping the 2 lane highway from side to side on the snowboard. I think Correy liked it so much that he created his Alaska story years later, for all intensive purposes it was just like Alaska!!! WELCOME TO ALASKA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Correy as "SMOKEY BEAR"

By Correys Dad

Back at our old Family Community Church I was doing a Fire Safety program for the childrens group, they had a camp type theme going on. Usually I wear the Smokey Bear suit, but on this occasion I was doing the classroom talk about Smokey & Fire Safety & I needed someone to do "The Bear." Correy volunteered, it was three separate programs about 35 minutes each. Once Correy put on the suit he became "Smokey Bear", he had all the looks & movements down. By the second program the kids would sing & act out a song, before you knew it Correy was boogieing in the Smokey Bear suit to the music. He really enjoyed it & did a few other Fire Safety programs with California Department Of Forestry.

Learning stick shift in hostile Injun country

     Correy learned to drive like Jarred and I did - on the highway and back roads of the Stanislaus National Forest, from about age 12 on. And Correy, as most will attest, was a pretty solid driver with an automatic transmission; however, Correy behind the wheel of a stick is a whole different matter.

     Correy flew down to Albuquerque New Mexico to help me drive back to Portland Oregon following a month I spent down there doing disaster medicine stuff and eating green chile breakfast burritos. We had no driving plan, just figured we would switch off whenever. I drove us out of  the ABQ and west towards the edge of nowhere. Exactly on the edge of said nowhere is a town called Gallup, NM where there is a Sonic Drive-In (a fun story from there will come a different day). After we filled up on delicious sugary flavory sodas there, I thought it about time for Correy to drive. After all, the road ahead was exceptionally flat and desolate, easy drivin. Little did I know Correy's complete lack of experience in driving a stick shift. When I invited him down, he said "Oh sure, I've driven a stick before, no problem." What he didn't mention until that fateful day was that he had driven a stick before... once, briefly.  Needless to say we needed a bit of a crash course, and in a hurry.

     We coasted backwards out of the spot, and managed to chug our way across the parking lot into a gas station lot before stalling. It took about eight F-bombs and fifteen minutes to back out of that spot again under power. Eventually... eventually... we made it to the driveway and rolled (after stalling) into the middle of the road. One restart later, we were officially underway and quickly out of Gallup.

     Leaving Gallup is not just leaving a city, it is leaving the United States of America. No joke. Correy was to test his driving meddle on the reservation of the Navajo Nation. This is, by all white-man accounts, very dangerous country, with people (mostly drunk bored teens) that will rob you and beat you up and steal your car if you so much as stop to take a picture (let alone break down in a black cloud of shredded transmission). And here was Correy tooling along, stripping my gears, accidentally revving up the engine of my poor and dying 200K+ mile Jetta. And don't even ask about the cars he passed against oncoming traffic.

     Perhaps the more hairy times came when we reached a quasi-town on the reservation, where Navajos were walking about, their sketchy police eyeballing us as we rolled through. Then there was a traffic light! Which means we had to stop, and worse yet... GO AGAIN! Oh please Correy don't stall here, don't stall here. Gratefully my real-time coaching kept us moving every so slowly so as to not actually require first gear, which may have meant certain death in the desert the way we had been going.

     Two close call streetlights later and we were again off into the flat desolate badlands of the rez, where only fifth gear was required. Correy managed to get us all the way through Navajo country and to the relative safety of some white trash redneck hamlet back in the US of A. But it was close, and we drove on singing along to old Dixie Chicks tunes at the top of our lungs, glad to still have our scalps.

Self-cleaning Kitchens

The kid could never keep anything clean. If you had seen his car, his room, the garage, crap is… everywhere. Sounds in the middle of the night of fridge door slamming (eating the leftovers that I would never eat) door from kitchen to office slam cabinet doors slam slam slam, those loud steps made me think that I was waken up by Bigfoot himself a huge-gantic giant, consistently loud while getting done whatever he needed to do within the house. Usually came down middle of night to find out that entire racket was a side platter to his diving studies. Who’d thunk. Anyways the parents were away for a weekend and they have these strict rules of no girls staying over night especially not in the same bed… ahem ROOM I mean. It is okay if you fall asleep together, but you must then get your ass out of bed, out of comfort and go to the next room. Mom, Dad “EARMUFFS”. I have always thought this was the most ridiculous rule ever invented, so of coarse I fought it. Girl stayed over umm Correy indulged : P
That there was all a lead up into nothing, the thing that got me was a few days in, of the Rents being gone, girl I was seeing at the time and myself decided we would make up some food. Pot stickers and Mac n cheese.. great thought when you are starving, bad idea in general. So we go into the kitchen and I grab out a pot and pan for the stickers and she grabs stuff for the noodles and what do you know every pot and pan is covered in some kind of red sauce and these were placed back in the “clean” cabinet, as I look around more all I see is a full sink of red sauce.. FORKS! SPOONS!! A SPATULA? Mixed in with every utensil you could possibly think of. What a (Mom, Dad “EARMUFFS”) Fuckin mess I say out loud, not pissed more amused cause MAN you are an eFFin slob. We clean the pots and the pans continue to cook and then eat our food which was about as smart as going to Costco shopping for food on an empty stomach, everything is a bad idea in that situation. Correy finally breaks away from his “Disney, girlie, tearjerker, romance movies” for a bit and I say Dood what is up with all of the mess. Correy responds what mess?. I go to point at the kitchen counter that I had already cleaned it up. So I told him you know you made a huge fricken mess and need to clean up after yourself and his response was why should I have to do it if you already got my back on it.

Touché’

20 minutes later the kitchen was filled up again Correy and Rach Rach’s first round of food was evidently horrible, so they tried again I suppose this time I had nothing to do with the clean-up.

"Hi Cindy. This is Bob. Is my mom there?"

Story by Cindy Liardon

This is what I'd hear when I'd answer the phone and it was Correy calling for Vanessa.

In my family, Correy wasn't Correy... he was Bob. In fact, when I shared with my kids the sad news of his passing, they had no idea who I was talking about when I said "Correy". I had to say "Bob".

I don't know exactly how or why it started, but Bob got this nickname when he worked as a childcare employee at Family Community Church. The kids all LOVED Bob and if he was scheduled for childcare, my kids were more than willing to go.

I loved the fact that he'd refer to himself as Bob whenever I talked to him. It just confirms to me that he enjoyed the kids as much as they enjoyed him.

You're definitely missed BOB!

Dive Suit PROWLER

By Correy's Dad
Correy has quite a few full length dive suits, he always maintains & cleans ALL of his dive gear to the best of his ability. Last year at Any Water Sports, where he worked he bought a new hanger/electric dryer for his full diving suits after using them. As much as Correy dove even a few days having a dive suit wet was too much, nothing like putting on a wet, clammy suit! He used to wash them in the driveway out front,then hang them in the garage until they were dry, the new electric dryer cut the drying time in half. The wet suit dryer is a rigid clothes hanger with an electric drying motor, you zip up your suit on it, hang it up so it's off the ground & it would literally inflate the entire dive suit with warm air, almost looked like someone was in it when inflated, minus the head. I do a lot of yard work out back, so earlier this year I installed an outside waterproof outlet, just beside the patio door. I guess Correy seen it one night after diving & thought I had installed it for him. He washed his full dive suit on the patio & hung it from a bracket with the suit hanger dryer plugged in & drying & inflating his suit. Well, I'm an early riser, so at about 4:30 am, I'm walking from the living room into the kitchen, it's still pretty dark outside, but we did have almost a full moon still lighting the backyard. Through the partially opened window blinds I see what appears to be a tall, muscular person by my patio door,I ducked down crawled back into the living room & grabbed my loaded .44 magnum, just like the one Dirty Harry used! I sneak cautiously under the window in the kitchen, keeping my eye on the subject, I slowly make my way to the locked patio door, like the guy in Mission Impossible, I ever so gently unlock the lock on the patio door, I swiftly slide the glass door open & point at the subject, I pull the hammer back on the gun & take aim & yelling, FREEZE DIRTBAG!!! I hear a wrrrrrrrrring noise & noticed it's only Correy's dive suit hanging with the dive suit dryer inside inflating it. I told Correy the story when he woke up, he said he was verrrry glad I didn't shoot a bunch of holes in his $2000 diving suit!

NSA

Correy and I grew up together, so I have a TON of stories, but I'll just try to think of some that stick out more than others, and wouldn't embarass him :)
I remember every day after school we would play "spy." We had our own company name and home base- NSA (National Spy Association), in his garage. We never knew what we were looking for, but we would walk down the street and pick things up saying they were "evidence" and put them in our briefcases. Correy had such a great imagination. One specific time that sticks out to me is when we had our cap guns out in the front yard of his house. We had a piece of ply wood standing up against the tree and the bumper of his mom's imfamous van, and we were laying down, "staking out the suspect", guns pointed and ready. Next thing we know, the neighbor across the street in on his roof, with his rifle cap gun. He had seen us and decided to play along. This was a grown man, mind you. We thought it was so cool that he came out and played with us, so of course we played along, and eventually "took him down". I'll never forget that. We had some very good times together. I miss him a lot.


Tiffany Parker

BIGGEST Dam Sap Pocket

BY CORREYS DAD
Correy & I were up camping one Opening Day, we gather all of our firewood the first day usually, we like have raging campfires & also like blowing stuff up! Yes, I was a Forest Fire Fighter for many, many years, but what the heck, you have to do some testing every now & then so you see how things work! Each campground has a campground host, most are nice so are "A" HOLES, notice my discretion used here. We were in a upper camp called Baker, this particular host is the "A" hole. We had our fire burning pretty good, our camp was situated way in the corner, about as far from the host as you can get. He usually drove his pickup whenever he came in our area because of the distance. Once it got dark, our area of the camp had no one else camping so we decided to do some burn/explosion testing, 1st a can of soda sealed, it popped, expanded, make funny noises then a low thud, spraying hot soda all over, partially putting out our fire. On a scale of 1-10, a "2"! Next we tried a can of spray paint, we put in the hot ashes & moved away quickly, the can swelled really quickly, even the concave bottom was now rounded, the can was turning a dark purple, then....BOOM, a pretty 3 foot long explosion all in a cool green color, about a "6" on the scale. I told Correy we can do better, I heard if you empty a spray can, the fumes give a much larger explosion. So we had a can of hair spray from home, we took from Vanessa, SHHHHHHHH, she doesn't know!!! We emptied the contents, placed the can in the hot coals, it took forever to even get the can to react, when it did, KAA_BOOOOM!!!!! Not only did the can go off like a sonic boom, it literally shot most of the burning wood from the fire pit with burning embers everywhere. YES KIDS DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME CORREY & I ARE PROFESSIONALS! We couldn't find any part of the hair spray can anywhere, just burning embers! Within a minute the camp host came racing over to our camp in his truck, furious with us because he thinks we were shooting A VERY LARGE gun! Correy & I are standing there like deer in headlights as he jumps from his truck & screams at us and says, "NO SHOOTING IN THE CAMPGROUND! "Thinking fast,I told him we were burning pine wood & it was a sap pocket, which can happen...I GUESS. He bought the story & said "It WAS THE BIGGEST DAM SAP POCKET HE HAS EVER HEARD! Thinking we were in the clear, right behind & next to the host I noticed the shrapnel metal left of the hair spray can, just sitting there in plain view on the bush! It was torn wide open, burned a blackish/gray color still glowing, without skipping a beat I motioned with my head to Correy about the can, Correy quickly walks behind the guy, kicks his heel backwards to send the can flying into the bushes. The host turns around just then & Correy just smiles & said, "BIGGEST DAM SAP POCKET I EVER HEARD TOO!!!! ON A SCALE OF 1-10, THIS WAS DEFINITELY A "10"!
SMOKEY SAYS ONLY YOU CAN BLOW THINGS UP!

Deer Correy

By Correy’s Dad

Fall of 2008, Correy & I were up camping at Baker Campground in the Stanislaus National Forest. We had just gotten up there about 8am, fall was in the air, and it was cold & breezy. We had just unloaded our gear from the van & were preparing to set up our tent. Standing behind Correy was a fawn deer, I told Correy the deer is behind him & he just said, “Oh right Dad!”, as he slowly turned around less than 3 feet behind him the fawn just stood there looking at him. We know you are not supposed to feed the animals, but, heck, we feed the boys!
Correy took an apple & handed it to the deer, he looked at Correy like, is that all you got & dropped it on the ground.
We took out a chocolate covered granola bar, healthy too & gave it to the deer; he took it then threw it on the ground & gave us that I want something more look!
Correy opened a loaf of bread, as fast as he could get a piece of bread out; the deer snatched it from his hand, gobbling it up. Correy went to give him another one, before he could grab a slice from the bag, the deer tried to grab the whole loaf. We gave him 1 more slice & resumed setting up camp. The entire time we were setting up camp the deer followed us closely about 3 feet behind us at any given time.
After setting up camp, we set out to find firewood, when we left the deer was still standing there watching us leave, he was probably thinking of ripping off our food once we left!
We returned in about an hour with a van full of wood, only to now find 2 fawn deer waiting in camp for us. He went & got his buddy. We didn’t feed them anymore; we unloaded the wood & went fishing. When we returned the deer were gone & so was the apple & granola bar that was left on the ground. We never saw them again. We slept at night with one eye open waiting to be mugged by the deer!

Correy’s first rock climbing experience

By Correy’s Dad

I’ve been camping on the Stanislaus National Forest on Hwy 108 since 1962. Once the boys were old enough we started taking them up camping & fishing.

On the way to camping we get off Hwy 205 after Tracy & take the Hwy 120 exit through Manteca, as soon as you get off of Hwy 99 you take the 1^st Manteca/Hwy 120 exit, on your right is a Wendy’s Restaurant and a Union 76 gas station. We still stop there, even today as it’s our first bathroom break. The gas station has stucco stone on the building right up to the roof on the side by the bathrooms. It used to be natural color, now they painted it a puky brown color.

Whenever we stopped there the boys use to free climb the walls outside the bathroom, usually getting up pretty high, then jumping down, Correy, even at age 4 was climbing up over the 6 foot mark. It’s funny, as the boys got older they’d climb higher & faster then it kind of faded out as something to do there. We were always on our way to camping, fishing or the snow, so over time they were more anxious to get up camping or in the snow! I’m going up this weekend so I’ll stop & get a picture of the wall to post here.

Love you Correy!!

Dad

MySpace Isn't Always Bad

     I met Correy through myspace originally. I tend to overlook the people I don't know on myspace. I usually give the profile one quick glance and if I didn't recognize them instantly or if they didn't go to my high school/college, I rather quickly hit the "deny" button.
 

     On this particular night I clicked on "Kado's" profile, so I thought his name was Kado to begin with. I noticed I didn't go to school with him, nor did I recognize his picture. I almost scrolled back up the page when I noticed it said at the bottom West Valley Scuba Diving. I immediately accepted his friend request. Then I instantly panicked because I realized I didn't recognize him.
 

     The next day was the first day back to school after break. Walking to my last class that day, I saw Correy walking with Matt (I believe) and I shouted out, "Hey Kado!" I got no response. "Kado!" I thought I was going nuts, like this wasn't the right guy or had a twin or something. So people around me we giving me the crazy lady look. When he finally realized that I was there, he was like hey! I was sooooo confused.
 

     "Are you Kado?" Both Matt and Correy start laughing. I'm even more confused. He said his name was actually Correy but his friends called him Kado. He gave no other explanation other than that. I thought he was strange and funny from that day on.

--> Ashley Caraway

Dad story

     I'm Correys Dad, I have many, many stories about Correy, I guess I haven't written until now because I was hoping to create more memories of him, my realization won't let me grasp that he's gone! I keep waiting to wake up in the morning & just see the Montero keys thrown on the kitchen table, this is where everyone leaves their keys, so when I'd see everyones keys on the table, I thanked God for my sons all coming home. I guess you never really get over losing a son or daughter, hopefully it gets easier because right now there isn't a day goes by without me breaking down at some point, usually more than once! I know everyone grieves in their own way, I just wake up sick to my stomach everyday. Correys girlfriend Rachel is a doll, Correy definitely picked a winner!! A lot of his friends stop by, Matt, Mike, his wife & Trish, our neighbor Kevin stops in daily, all are such great friends & family of ours.We THANK You ALL for your memories & stories.

   

One story about Correy I love is last fall, around the middle of October we went up for a 3 day camping trip, we went to one of our favorite campsites, Eureka Valley Campground. We got there early in the AM, we set up camp, tent, stove & unloaded all the gear from the van. Correy said he was going to the bathroom & he'd be right back, he came back in less than 5 seconds & said, Dad, there are no bathrooms! I just laughed at him & said Correy, I seen you go into the bathroom, it's right there. He said, the building is there but the actual toilet fixture is gone! There is only an open 4' oval hole where the toilet should be. Within this camp site there are 3-4 sets of toilets, or glorified outhouses, we went to each one & sure enough, there were no toilets. Each campground has an assigned campground host, it seems our camp host left for the season the week before. He was told when he started the job, this being his first season; that he is responsible for all the toilets in the campsite. He definitely took it literally, as when he left he pulled all the toilet fixtures from the buildings & locked them up in a storage cabinet in the campground. Not only did he remove the toilets, he left the 4 foot round gaping hole uncovered in each toilet! These are pit or vault toilets, so the pit is no less than 10-12 feet deep, anyone can now fall in. We roped all the toilet buildings closed, then I raced down to the phone & called Forest Service to tell them of the toilets & dangerous situation, they just said the guy in charge is off until the next day, they really didn't seem to care! We went back to camp, we camped in a front corner of the camp near a lot of bushes & a mountain of solid rock, back behind our camp I built a shale rock toilet, pretty cool, it was back in the bushes out of view, I dug a hole to use & piled the dirt up so after each use we could just kick some dirt over our deposits. I didn't make a toilet lid for the toilet because, HEY, WE ARE MEN, WE DON'T NEED A LID!!!

  

     Towards evening Correy & I went fishing to another camp, just below our, Pidgeon Flat. After fishing we used those bathrooms, yes they still had toilets! While using the restroom I felt how comfy the toilet was to our cold, hard, rock toilet I build for us, I decided I didn't want to squat over rocks for 3 days. Correy was in one bathroom & I was in the other next to his. I decided right there this toilet was going with me! The toilets are wedged in VERY securely inside an oval hole in the floor, so I had to rock the toilet back & forth, all the while kicking it like crazy & spouting obscenities at it, yelling for it to come out already! Like I said, Correy was in the toilet right next to me & he yelled, Dad, What did you have for dinner???? As Correy finished, he was standing outside as I kicked open the outhouse door with my foot & with the entire aluminum/plastic toilet over my head, I told Correy, open the back of the van! Correy shook his head no & said, YOU ARE NOT PUTTING THAT IN THE VAN! I said do you want to crap in a rock toilet for 3 days, Correy quickly opened the back of the van & covered his mouth & nose as I put the toilet in back. It was less than a mile back to our camp & it was getting pretty cold out, it was now about 7 PM, Correy rolled his window down & had half his body out the side window all the way to camp. Once in camp the van hadn't come to a stop yet, but Correy bailed out & ran. In our campground there were at least 8 other campsites with people in them, all in full view of the toilets. we decided to wait for dark to put our new found toilet in the outhouse nearest us. It was after 10 PM, when it seemed dark enough to do our mission impossible of carrying the toilet to the outhouse & installing it. It was very dark, I told Correy to go over & hold the outhouse door open & I'll bring over the toilet, place it inside & set it. As OUR PLANS usually go, I put the toilet over my head & was running with it, a bout 5 feet from the building, I didn't see the low hanging branch of a cedar tree & it whipped the toilet from my grasp & sent it rolling & making a loud noise, it was made of aluminum with a plastic clattering toilet seat. All the campers were now startled by this racket by the bathroom. Soon there were no less than 3-4 flashlights & spotlights on me chasing this toilet through the center of camp! Oh, Correy managed to make his way back to our camp & hid out! I tried to be as graceful as one can be with a toilet, I walked to the outhouse & installed it, while in the there I felt I should be the 1st to use it.

     Within the next half hour every camper there was blessing our toilet, no one asked how or where it came from. Early the next morning Forest Service showed up with 2 trucks, they unlocked the Host storage locker & began re-installing the toilets, when they got to ours, they just looked, scratched their heads, lokked around, did a recount, shrugged their shoulders as to why they had one extra toilet. We never told & no one else did either! Whooooo, I'm POOPED!

Joe Fedor

Correy Can't Dance

     So Stephanie, Correy and I were clueless as to what we were going to do one night. So we decided to get together anyway and see where the night took us. We picked Correy up for one of the first times at his house without scuba gear needing to be piled into the car at super speed because we were running late.
Anyway, we pull up and we see Correy do one of his funny backward looking glances while he laughs (one of his laughs that is still so memorable in my head), and he sees and shouts, "Ashley! Stephanie!" And I'd always shout back, "MONKEY!"
 

     Anyway he gets in the car and we start our adventure... we all loved to try and get lost, and we would for about twenty minutes and then we'd find our way back to a freeway or a major street we knew the name of. We ended up at one of those major lights and Thriller came on the radio. Stephanie and I got out of the car and started doing what we thought was an awesome and accurate impression of Michael Jackson (I'm sure others would disagree). The light turned green and there was no one behind us so we made Correy get out of the car or we threatened we wouldn't move the car. So he got out (and I wish we had a video camera then) and starts kicking his legs all around and pointing his fingers and quickly got back in as a car finally approached us from behind. So we jumped in and decided to get lost again.
 

      I don't know how we got into a target conversation, but we did as we girls often did and wanted to make a target stop for a Grease CD. So while in Target there was one of those music demos for CDS that Target had created like for different genres. So as we're listening we are dancing and singing at the top of our lungs (Correy included), and we probably did that for about an hour until some Target worker asked if we needed any help (probably thought there was something wrong with us) haha. We finally got our Grease CD along with some of the CDs we heard on the demo.
 

     We hop back in the car and start heading for Stephanie's house. We popped in the Grease CD and Correy knew absolutely no Grease songs! We were flabbergasted! We finally pulled up the driveway, and then... Grease Lightening starts playing. We turned up the song sooooo loud and we start dancing on the lawn "Go Grease Lightning, You're cutting up the quarter mile... Grease Lightning Go Grease Lightning." Correy caught on quick to the dance and before you knew it, he was singing and asked to play it in the house to dance again. I must admit... Correy can't dance! Even the most simplest dances. I loved every moment of that night!

(Ashley Caraway)

Sand Boobies

     Correy was on this downer at one point in his life because he thought he would never find a decent date or girlfriend that wouldn't screw him over. I immediately called Stephanie and told her to get her hispanic butt over to my house before I kicked it. Correy laughed, and we waited.

     She got there and I told them to grab a sweater and some flip flops because I was taking them to the beach. So we hopped into my car and we blasted Nysnc and Back Street Boys all the way up to the beach. Laughing and singing the whole way up.

     We finally got up there and I waddled my way over to the beach although I was only three months prego I still like to milk the fact that I was prego because Correy would carry me. And truthfully I enjoyed being carried before I would have to do it myself with a baby in six months from then.

     So we finally got to the sand and I told Stephanie that we were going to make a sand woman for Correy. Correy turned red and laughed his embarrassed laugh. We gave this woman a pear shaped body and made enormous boobies. We told Correy that we found a woman for him that wouldn't screw him over. So he got on top of her and grabbed those sand boobies. It was soooo funny. We took a picture as proof he finally got to touch boobs. (Sorry Vanessa!)

     Leaving the beach we could see our sand woman and Correy had to break it to her that they needed to stop seeing each other. He was very sweet and said that it wasn't her it was him. We made fake money for the sand woman to take a cab home. Haha! Good ol' Core. I know I know, we were weird.

~Ashley Caraway

Dr. and Mrs. Fedor

We went hiking together in Santa Clara at some Open Space area. We were passing this one girl who Correy decided to say hi to in passing. She looks at Correy asks, "What are you studying?" So we stop. Looking confused Correy looks down at his shirt which reads "OHSU School of Medicine." He looks up at her all casually and says "Medicine." She proceeds to ask, "do doctor's have special time off or something?" (as it was the middle of the semester at "regular" colleges. Correy answers, "Absolutely." She thought it was the coolest thing he was becoming a doctor, and she looks at me and asks if I was his girlfriend. He says, "This is my wife." She gives us the most bummed out look and says, "Well enjoy the rest of your hike, bye now."
Well out of hearing range we crack up. I tell him that could quite possibly be his last chance for a number... he says, if that's so I'd rather live without it, i mean really "special time off??"

So for like a week he was Dr. Fedor, and in the same week he'd call me Mrs. Fedor. It was funny... you'd have to be there I think.

***Ashley Caraway

Our Own Christmas

     One year my entire family left for the holidays leaving me behind to celebrate Christmas alone. :( Correy would hear none of that, so we planned a "Our Own Christmas" event. Only Stephanie, Core and I were allowed in. I bought a honey ham, Stephanie brought green beans and stuffing, and Core brought himself and lots of presents.

     We had set up this tiny little tree not even up to my knee with like four ornaments, and a string of lights wrapped around it like a million times. We didn't have a topper so we just molded a tin foil star and put it on top of the tree. We decided that opening presents first instead of eating was a better idea so we went to work on it.

     The first present I opened was a turtle outdoor hanger thingy (it was beautiful - I have it hanging in my living room). Second present I opened was a penguin poster with all the penguins in the world (I love penguins = my favorite animal). Third was a childhood book I loved "The Giving Tree" which my son now loves. And lastly he throws this huge present at me. It knocked me off the couch and as he's laughing hysterically he helps me up. He sits there with this anticipation like "open it open it open it!" So I take my sweet a** time as Stephanie throws herself at the present and starts ripping at it.... all my clothes that I left in Correy's car from diving spill out (bras, underwears, socks, bathing suits, etc.), and at the bottom was this "Best Day Ever" SpongeBob blanket at the bottom of it! Hahaha! It was awesome!

     Then Stephanie got to open her gifts. First was a bottle of Jose Cuervo (don't ask me how he got a hold of it), second was two pictures of Japanese letters framed and everything. Then he hands her a big box only half wrapped.... So she starts unwrapping it, and she digs and digs and there's nothing in it but just crumpled up paper. Oh my gosh Correy and I were just rolling on the floor at her expression (utter confusion and absolute what the heck look). Then he hands her another present which is a Curious the George book. It was so funny. After we're done, Correy gets this really serious look on his face and says, "Yeah, so I'm going to need that box back, it's my moms." Hahaha, we thought he was kidding, but he was so serious.

     We forgot to set the timer for the ham, so we ate half burnt ham, and awesome stuffing and green beans. Quite possibly one of the most memorable times of my life.

***Ashley Caraway

A London Tale

I vividly remember the day I met Correy, he was six years old and in first grade. I had just arrived home from work and he was playing with our son Grant. I introduced myself to Correy and asked him what his name was, Correy responded, “Cowey” and ran off to play with Grant.  I looked at my wife Louise and asked, “Speech therapy friend?”I have many memories of Correy as a child but I honestly did not know him as a man but I learned much about the adult Correy after I read all the stories written on the various blogs posted on the internet and listening to the stories I heard from his friends and family.

I’ve learned from Correy’s life how much a person can impact peoples’ lives through our everyday interaction with people that we see on a daily basis to those we may only meet one time. After reading literally a hundred accounts of how Correy touched individual lives I began to reflect what type of imprint do I leave in people’s lives, do I leave a memory when I meet someone only once in my lifetime? I’ve wondered if Correy realized just how much he meant to all these people, but I suppose he had no idea just like most of us can’t fathom the ripple effects our actions, good and bad, have on all those around us. I now try everyday to smile and say hello to the clerk in the store, when I’m out on a run I stop to allow cars to pull into parking lots ahead of me and I even try to wave. Recently I saw a patient for another therapist for a one time only visit, there was very little chance I would ever see her again. She was 94 years old, legally blind with a huge bruise on her right arm from a fall. I performed my usual magic with her - exercise, safety instruction, gait training and showed genuine compassion for her. On my way out the door she called my name with outstretched arms and told me she wanted to give me a hug and she even added a kiss. To be honest that was not the first time I received that kind of a reaction from a patient but it was the first time I truly realized the affect I can have on another person’s life. For this I thank Correy.

I’ve learned from Correy’s death that I waste too much time doing things that have no meaning or purpose to me-in Correy’s brief time he learned to have passion for diving and realized what he truly wanted to accomplish in his life. I think about the tattoo on Joe’s wrist about having 30 days to live and I remind myself daily that there is no time, this may be my last day to try something new or to talk with a friend or to hit a perfect drive. So I called a friend and I’m going to learn to play the guitar, I’ve picked up the phone and called friends and family I’ve should have called sooner-I think a few fell out of their chairs- and I’ve been playing more golf as it is something I feel passion for: I even hit some long drives but not the perfect one! For this I thank Correy

I now start each day watching the video created by Correy’s cousin Michael to remind me that I have no time; I must make my impact today as I may not have tomorrow to accomplish it. I tell my family that I love them and am trying to spend more quality time with them. I stop to appreciate that I do make a difference in this world and I am learning to feel the joy that comes with helping others. On the day that I take my final breath it is my fervent hope that I can say that I lived my life to the fullest and I understood the affect my life had on the people I have met. For this I thank Correy.

“So may the sunshine bring hope where it once was forgotten…Sons are like birds flying always over the mountains.”

Michael London

It's never too late

"Mom" told me to share my story about Correy, and I haven't really been able to yet. Nor am I really sure how to share it. So I'll just pretend that I'm sharing it with him, because I never got the chance to.

In my life I grew up with a lot of abuse, and by high school I pretty much had a consuming fear of guys. I didn't have any guy friends nor did I make any effort to. My life was routines to stay safe, and soccer to stay occupied and sane. I forget what year it was or even how I met Correy. I do know that at some point he sat behind me in our English class. He went out of h way to be kind to me, and we would always find ourselves in fits of laughter, laughing at something stupid. Correy had to be one of my first God encounters. Something about the way he treated me melted away a paralyzing fear that kept me hiding my entire life. I hid behind silence and behind a hard outer shell. I hid behind a mask of tough tomboy, but it didn't phase or really trick Correy. I'd say his kind heart was the first to crack my shell. It was the first time I felt safe, and for me that was truly a miracle.

You know, I think people take for granted love. We are all longing for some big moment. But I think Correy got it. I think he understood that just simply loving others in all the little ways was what truly mattered. Maybe it sounds corny, but the truth is for my life, that I doubt I'd be alive without my "date" with Correy.

Sometime during that year of English class, I somehow got the nerve up to ask him to our Senior year homecoming dance. I'd never been to a dance, and I'm honestly not sure how I even had the courage to do something like that at that point in my life. I think I made this huge cookie and once it was eaten there was a message asking him to the dance. The best part was that I accidentally embarrassed him really bad. But he recovered a day or so later and said he'd love to go.

It was awesome! I had recently had a major knee surgery so we wore slippers to the dance! I can truly say that I had so much fun. And the most meaningful thing to me was that I felt safe. He made me feel like royalty when I was in the darkest part of my life. It was like a light in the darkness, giving me hope that things could be different.

And now things are. Thanks Correy. I wish I'd been able to tell you this before, but I'm guessing you know now.

Britney Rowland

Sunflower Smile

When our mom (Correy’s grandma) moved away to Washington State – our family kinda fell apart.  She was the matriarch and she held us together.  The first mothers day after she moved, someone (I think it was Nessa but I’m not positive) decided we would take a picture at a studio to send to Mom.  Nessa color coordinated all of the families, made the appointment and we were good to go.

 

The day of the portrait sitting we all arrived at Oakridge shortly after one another and as ALL families do, there was a lot of bitching and moaning about everything.  “Why wasn’t Jonti wearing the same color as Valerie” – “who decided on this time for the sitting because we were all scrambling” – “we’ll never do this again, that’s for sure”.  I’ll be honest, I felt sorry for the photographer, he had no idea what was walking his way.

 

Anyway, we get in – he situates us all – takes several snapshots.  I know I was thinking, cool, we’re done, I’m out - but then the photographer walks up towards us with one arm behind his back, walks straight up to Correy and puts this sunflower felt hat thing on his head. Just shoves it on there.  I was thinking “Dude – that was a bad idea cause someone is gonna freak out” but no one did which surprised me.  I was mostly surprised because Correy left it on.  Correy was 12 or 13 and at the age where he sure as hell didn’t want someone to force a sunflower hat on him but he didn’t freak.  The photographer had a trunk with all these crazy hats/props and told us to pick one and Correy left the sunflower thing on, didn’t even look to see if there was anything else he’d rather have.

 

When we got the photos back – all the serious ones Correy wasn’t smiling but in the crazy one below, his sunflower face is grinning.  His smile was one in a million from the day he was born.

~~Aunt Jill 

CHAMPION

I met Correy when he was about 5 years old as a friend of my daughter Lori Ann. At first when Lori Ann was speaking of her friend Correy, I as her dad thought it was a girl. She was speaking about her friend coming to spend the night and when Correy arrived I was quite surprised to see that in fact Correy was a boy. I had to get over that one because they were together all of the time.

Lori Ann was a soccer player, and Correy would visit Lori while she was practicing. Lori had soccer practice with her brother Matt at the park by the house. Lori and Matt would ask Correy if he would like to be a goalie and he said yes. I asked if he would like to be a Champion as a goalie, he said yes, so I had him practice with Matt and Lori. I told him that if he practiced one day he will be a champion. I could see in his eyes that someday he will be a champion. The day came when he was a goalie for Herman Jr. High School for the championship game. The game was over and Correy was the champion goalie that day for Herman School and team. (the first time ever the school had one the championship). I knew that day that Correy would be a champion all of his life in all he did and liked to do. I thank the Fedor family for giving me a chance to know all of you.

Cornelius M. Lopez

July 4, 2007.

Hi everyone,

The week I found out about Correy I did a lot of writing. Here’s a short piece from one of my entries...

Correy—along with Sean and Trish—were the first 3 friends I made in Monterey. We were all divers for the Underwater Explorers program at the aq, and were inseparable the summer we spent together. After an attempt at dating (we gave it a shot for a couple of months), we stayed friends. I knew at that time that he was someone I was supposed to keep close. Correy was one of the best divers I’ve known. He was completely dedicated to the sport and profession, and was always careful and smart about his decisions. His dream was to dive for archeological purposes professionally, and I’d rarely met someone his age (then 20) with that kind of directed ambition. He was very much in tune with what he wanted and was willing to work hard to get there. I loved seeing him work with the kids in UE—his enthusiasm for diving was evident in his natural ability to get them in the water and excited about the marine world he cared so much for.

One of my favorite memories of that summer was 4th of July. Correy, Trish, Sean, and I spent the evening on a friend's boat in the Monterey harbor. After taking about an hour to find parking, we spent the rest of the night talking about diving, drinking beer, and watching fireworks over the water. It was a fun night, and even with all the noise and fireworks, I remember the bay looking so peaceful. Since August, I've felt like a piece of our foursome has been missing—Correy always called us the Core Four. I keep looking at these pictures from that night over and over again and just wanted to share them. I miss my friend.

Sameen

Sword Wound

     As mentioned briefly during the eulogy, Correy was waaaay into martial arts for a long time. He was particularly keen (do people say keen anymore?) on the martial arts weapons. Arguably his favorite was the Japanese Katana sword, of samurai fame. At some point after him, I too took up this fantastically fun and dangerous weapon. 

     One particular evening, he and I were in the backyard together practicing. And by practicing, I don't mean trying to hack one another. We were merely doing repetition of the key movements and sword positions, on the way to vaguely mastering them. So there we are spinning and flipping and hacking and slicing through the air, shadow-swording some invisible ninja assailant. Correy is really going to town, spinning the sword in his right hand, around and around, moving front to back like one would spin a baton (sharp baton). He is grinning with delight and pride, showing off a little as the razor-sharp blade came back around and immediately stuck straight into his thigh! 

     The sword must have been in close to two inches into his flesh, because the entire tapered portion of the blade was buried. Correy just stared at it in disbelief and started laughing his ass off! Crazy kid didn't even wince. When he was done laughing he just grabbed the end of the blade and yanked it back out of his leg as it oozed blood. He never did go to the ER or anything. The benefit of stabbing oneself in the leg with a super sharp Ginsu is that it leaves a nice even clean slice which fits back together nicely.

     Clean cut or not, he still should have let his Doctor-To-Be brother sew him up with whatever string and pliers he could find in the garage...

Preston