by Debbie Ringley Mrozinski
CrockettFoundation.com
Growing up in the Crockett family meant you knew the wrestlers for different reasons other than their ring personas or their win/loss record. We never really knew who was a good guy and who was a bad guy. We only knew them through our personal interactions with them.
Whether it was being taught how to cook Japanese food by a Japanese wrestler or learning to curse in many different languages, down time around these guys was never boring. All of this teaching happened at one of two places, the JCP offices or at Jim Crockett Sr.’s home. Jim Sr.’s home was in an established neighborhood in South Charlotte. It was your typical southern neighborhood with brick ranch homes and tree lined streets so Sunday dinners at his home became a neighborhood spectacle. You see any wrestler that did not have a place to go for dinner on Sunday was invited to come to Big Jim’s house for some home cooking.
The standing invitation does not sound that unusual until you remember that those potential guests were all larger than life characters. Ric Flair, Johnny Valentine, Wahoo McDaniel, but the one that comes to mind is Thunderbolt Patterson...
Read the entire article on the Crockett Foundation website.
Read more about Thunderbolt Patterson on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.