“John was a guy you could count on no matter what but he was also fun to be around sometimes soft spoken and other times loud. He could calm you down or fire you up.”(Jim Perkins) One of the many things my father Jim Perkins and John had is common was they were well read and were deep thinkers, but on more than one occasion they could easily coax each other into doing something stupid/fun, they were both tough men but never shied away from being silly and laughing at each other or themselves. One of my favorite stories is of my dad was visiting John in Reno not sure what year. They wanted to have a big dinner and a party so John assigned different people different task and he said Perk and him would get the meat. One of John’s roommates had a sword that the guys dad had brought back from Asia/WWII. In true Loyalton fashion John and my dad went to some park in Reno chopped the head of a couple of ducks and geese cleaned them and cooked them up for their party guest. One of my other favorites is that there was a game warden in Sierra County that was always after my Grandfather even though Charlie never hunted out of season (He may have fished out of season) and so his dislike naturally transferred to my dad. So, John and my dad came up with an idea and they spread rumor that they would be hunting out of season and at night in a certain area. John and my dad parked up on the top of a hill had a few shots of whiskey and waited there was only one road in or out from the top of the hill. When they saw a truck coming up the road that night they got out with lanterns and headed down the hill making sure they had plenty of distance between them and warden. The warden got there and started making his way after them. John and Jim hiked about 5 miles down hill where they had another truck waiting and drove around the mountain picked up the other truck and let the air out of the warden’s tires. Think about this you had two division one athletes at Loyalton at the same time and if Eddy Hood had the grades maybe three, Eddy was most likely good enough to play at Reno with John but maybe not DI. The three of them dominated and beat schools much bigger in basketball on many occasions. John’s lived his life exactly how he wanted too, he educated himself, saw the world, worked his ranch, help mold thousands of kids, married a woman who he loved deeply, and raised a loving family. I don’t think John ever second guessed his life but the competitive side of my dad always wondered how John would have faired competing at a higher level in the PAC 10 at Stanford, his bet is he would have been pretty dang good.