For many years, country music was Wayne's favorite.  The past year or so, he began listening to classic rock and we were actually discovering that we liked many of the same groups.  One of Wayne's favorite songs was November Rain by Guns 'N Roses.  And since November is such an important month in the dates of Wayne's life & death... I selected it as the music for this page.   The following are the lyrics:

When I look into your eyes
I can see a love restrained
But darlin' when I hold you
Don't you know I feel the same

'Cause nothin' lasts forever
And we both know hearts can change
And it's hard to hold a candle
In the cold November rain

We've been through this auch a long long time
Just tryin' to kill the pain

But lovers always come and lovers always go
An no one's really sure who's lettin' go today
Walking away

If we could take the time
To lay it on the line
I could rest my head
Just knowin' that you were mine
All mine
So if you want to love me
Then darlin' don't refrain
Or I'll just end up walkin'
In the cold November rain

Do you need some time... on your own
Do you need some time... all alone
Everybody needs some time...
On their own
Don't you know you need some time... all alone

I know it's hard to keep an open heart
When even friends seem out to harm you
But if you could heal a broken heart
Wouldn't time be out to charm you

Sometimes I need some time... on my
Own
Sometimes I need some time... all alone
Everybody needs some time...
On their own
Don't you know you need some time... all alone

And when your fears subside
And shadows still remain
I know that you can love me
When there's no one left to blame
So never mind the darkness
We still can find a way
'Cause nothin' lasts forever
Even cold November rain

Don't ya think that you need somebody
Don't ya think that you need someone
Everybody needs somebody
You're not the only one
You're not the only one

BOOKS

When Wayne was young, he loved to be read to.  He had tons of children’s books and  could look through them for hours.  Once he started learning to read, we would cuddle up each night and read for approximately 30 minutes from his ‘chapter’ books.  Eventually he read well enough that we would take turns reading chapters. The books ranged from factual stories to fiction. The following are just a few of the books, that I still have, that Wayne and I read together each night:

THE TITANIC: LOST…AND FOUND by Judy Donnelly

POMPEII…

THE MOUSE AND THE MOTORCYCLE by Beverly Cleary

RUNWAY RALPH by Beverly Cleary

CHAROLTTE’S WEB…

THE CRICKET IN TIMES SQUARE by George Selden

THE SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON by Johann Wyss

THE BOXCAR CHILDREN series by Gertrude Chandler Warner

MY SIDE OF THE MOUTAIN by Jean Craighed George

THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London

MOBY DICK by Herman Melville

As Wayne grew older, he read less.  He did read some and they were usually books about nature, hunting, fishing and living in the wilderness.   He enjoyed the spooky stories too..like the GOOSEBUMPS series by R.L. Stine. The following are a few of the titles he selected to read:

20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA by Jules Verne

HATCHET by Gary Paulsen

MR. TUCKET by Gary Paulsen

THE PERFECT STORM by Sebastian Junger

FAST FOODS:

When Wayne was younger, his favorite drive-through breakfast was: Hardee's sausage biscuit with hash rounds and orange juice

The last couple of years, his preference seemed to change to: McDonald's sausage mcmuffin with hash brown and orange juice

Wayne loved SUBWAY ..and would always get a 12-inch Classic BMT with lettuce, pickles, banana peppers, jalepeno peppers and oil/vinegar.

Taco Bell was another place Wayne liked to eat.  He would eat 3-4 taco supremes without sour cream.

MEALS:

Wayne loved spaghetti!  But when he was little, he would only eat it if the sauce and the pasta were separate.

Fried chicken was a favorite too

Pizza...Wayne loved to brag about how many slices of pizza he could eat!  It was usually pepperoni and/or sausage.

Chinese...Wayne could outeat almost anyone at a Chinese buffet!

RESTAURANTS:

GOLDEN CORRAL was Wayne's favorite when he was young.  And he always got most of his food from the salad bar,

KANKI was for special occasions.  He liked to watch the chefs twirl their knives and chop up the food as they preformed for the table.

DIXIE QUEEN in Winterville, NC and the MAYFLOWER in Raleigh, NC were his seafood favorites.  He used to order shrimp but in the past 2-3 years he always ordered catfish.

LITTLE ROCKET In Farmville, NC was Wayne's favorite footlong hotdogs.

Wayne loved Disney movies when he was young.  He would watch them over and over until he could recite them line by line, complete with needed accents and dialects.  His all time favorite was PETER PAN.  His favorite character was Captain Hook and he playacted as Captian Hook for many years.  His other favorites were: JUNGLE BOOK, SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON and PARENT TRAP.

When he was older, he beagn to watch the action movies.  Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Then along came THE TITANIC and PEARL HARBOR, which were 2 events he has always been fascinted by.  THE PERFECT STORM movie actually inspired Wayne to read the book and quickly became a favorite too.