A versatile boy… with a giant heart.

• 1899: Sidney “Riptide” McMingus is born in Effervescence, Texas, with an enlarged heart: two times the size of the average newborn at the time.
• 1907: Riptide is awarded ‘Most Obtuse’ in a statewide math competition, catching the keen eyes of Pinkerton Detective Agency scouts.
• 1910: Two weeks after his eleventh birthday, Riptide declines an ‘early commit’ offer from the Pinkertons, electing instead to serve his community by taking a job at the Effervescence bank, where he works tirelessly to remind local farmers to pay their mortgages.
• 1913: At fourteen, Riptide is faced with a decision no young man should ever have to make; evict his parents and seven siblings from their family farm, or no longer work at the bank.
• 1915: Riptide moves to New York City, where he takes a job as a recruiter with the US Military. Over the ensuing four years, Riptide will enlist over 700 Serbians, mostly from meatpacking plants.
• 1919: Upon returning to Texas, Riptide takes a job as a ‘Kicker/Spitter’ for the United States’ first private prison, further sparking the young man’s interest in the world of free enterprise. Riptide enjoys the job and remains in it for nearly three decades.
• 1940: Riptide’s wife, Mary McMingus (née Mudge) gives birth to twin sons: Quick Red and Buster John, who will go on to make history in 1980 when they become the first pair of brothers ever elected to share the position of Sheriff of Yucker County, Texas.
• 1973: Riptide attends a screening of Sydney Pollack’s ‘The Way We Were’, having erroneously believed that the Vocation Cinema would be playing the ‘Dirty Harry’ sequel, ‘Magnum Force’, that evening. Riptide repeatedly urges the projectionist to ‘shut this crap off’ before threatening to kick him and spit on him in the parking lot after the film. Tragically, Riptide chokes on his popcorn before this can happen, leaving us too soon, at just seventy-four.