I was one of three of Rocky's apprentices. I should rephrase that by saying I was one of a few that Rocky allowed to be around him. My older brother Butch was good friends with Rocky, so I growed up with the nickname Little Butch. As a young kid, whenever I could get the chance, I would ride on the train with my step-dad Jim Reynolds, or Big Jim as they used to call him. He was one of the switchmen for the railroad. At that time it was called the Atlantic Coastline Railroad and the word chance meaning that the yard foreman wasn't watching. Rocky was the engineer, and I would sit on his lap and watch him run the train. Once when I was about 4 or 6 years old, I didn't like my cap guns with double holster's because the holster's weren't reversed like "Wild Bill Hickock's." Well, Rocky re-did my holsters so that I could quick cross draw my toy guns just like "Wild Bill." You don't forget someone like Rocky.

  By the time I was old enough to venture around on my bicycle,
Rocky's place was one of the main stoping places. I would show up at his shop and got to help him at making all kinds of machined parts. Rocky taught me what the word center was and how to use it in machining metal stock. I was actually in Rocky's school of Concentricity. It seemed like anything you wanted Rocky could make. Rocky taught me to respect the lathes and mills and how to use them safely. I made a lot of specialty tools and a few camera housings with him when I was around twelve years old. Rocky taught me the trick to keeping body parts. Constantly think safety.

  Often he would say time to go for someone else was coming to the shop to learn about cue making. Over time, I learned this was Wayne Gunn. The other one that learned from the Master of Concentricity, Rocky Tillis.