Besides owning a ton of property in Dade county, Gleason owned a home in Plantation Golf Estates which was the next development over from where I grew up. Every year in December you could count on him playing a few rounds a couple times a week on the course.
Since it was on the way to the mall (which was only a short bike ride) we used to stop and watch him play for a little while. It was an interesting time, everyone knew who he was but nobody really bothered him. Every kid there had seen Smokey and the Bandit and thought his BMX bicycle was a Trans Am.
There would probably be 40 kids and half as many adults watching him play from the parking area. If you got there while he was still waiting for the first tee you could ask him for an autograph and he seemed to be a good sport about it, but for the most part mostly people just left him alone.
At the same time a local UHF channel was showing reruns of The Honeymooners every night so we knew him from that as well. I probably watched him play golf every year from 1977 to 1981, it was one of the local traditions leading up to Christmas.
Seemed like after he did "The Toy" he started getting mobbed a bit and couldn't just play as a local resident on an open access course.
It's hard to be a ACLU hating, philosophically Libertarian, socially liberal, fiscally conservative, scientifically grounded, agnostic, porn admiring gun owner who believes in self determination.
Chuck, we miss ya man.
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