This story is a great illustration of Marty Linvilles’s sense of humor and his ability to laugh at himself. In fact, it is also a great illustration of the sense of humor of two groups of old guys both of which Marty and i belonged.

i began playing with the San Diego telephone guys in the early 90’s. Navy friends and my brother, Dan Boggs played with us until he moved to Tennessee. Others really good guys played with us and then moved on.

Marty, Rod Stark and i played our weekly game, which began when the three of us were on our twilight tours at the Naval Amphibious School in Coronado. That group also has had a number of folks join us and move on. Currently, there are about a dozen regulars.

So there was a melding of curmudgeons in both group who earned that “curmudgeon” moniker long before we were really old.

Marty became a mainstay of both groups and our foursome in each one.

As mentioned before, Marty suffered from angiospapgelitus; to repeat it is, “a disease that fuses spinal discs. This caused his head to naturally point down. His ability to withstand the pain and the inconvenience was a testament to his will.

Our foursome of Marty, Jim Hileman, Pete Toennies, and i were was playing in the telephone club’s annual tournament, this one at Terra Lago in Indio where they held the Skins Game a bunch of years ago.”

We were all milling around and Marty Marion, one of the SDTGA leaders went into the pro shop. There he saw what he thought was Marty Linville. He walked over, said hello, and started to talk when he realized it was not Marty Linville, but a mannikin with a broad-brimmed golf hat placed on top of the no-headed manniken.

When he told our group, we decided to honor the other Marty with this photo.

Marty Linville thought this was hysterical. His grandson Carson almost hurt himself when he saw it he was laughing so hard.

The Linvilles have a great since of humor.