Ice Flow Joe Zikewich will be missed

I can't say the news about Joe Zikewichs' death wasn't surprising. He had been in a nursing home for some time and was declining almost daily.
The strange thing was what put him in a nursing facility relegated to a bed instead of a bucket on the ice of Lake St. Clair.
Joe had been ice fishing. Sometime during what turned out to be his last outing, he slipped on the ice and fell, breaking his hip which turned into pneumonia.
A memorial will be held in his honor and memory March 29 at the Veteran's Hall on Drahner Road in Oxford beginning at 3p.m.
I'm not sure how Joe would react to all of the attention he's been receiving since his passing. He was always on the other end, the end that was doing something nice for others. Now it's his turn to have something nothing done for him in terms of remembering him.
A proud Navy veteran, Joe served as a radioman aboard the aircraft carrier USS Lexington. Coincidentally, I was a radioman on the USS Topeka, a guided missile cruiser that operated with the Lex.
Since there are so many stories about the man known as ice Flow Joe I'll get mine in. We were fishing  off a DNR ramp in Harrison Township. joe had a large ATV with all sorts of equipment on it.
"Hop on and we'll drive out," he said. "I don't have a helmet," i responded. "Ah, don't worry. No one will bother us?
So we road out, cut some holes and fished for several hours. When it came time to come in, we loaded up and made the drive.
Once on the ramp we headed for joe's trailer. About that time we ran into the biggest CO I have ever seen.
"How ya doin'," Joxesaid in his high pitc

Joe Zikewich loaded for ice fishing

hed voice. The three of us chatted for a few minutes before the CO said he had to get going. "You guys be sure and wear helmets next time you're out," he said.
"We sure will," Joe answered.
That was the Joe i knew always with a gift for gab. He go the name Ice Flow Joe for being rescued off floating ice in the middle of Lake St. Clair. Once he had such a inch catch that he stuck them inside his parka and bibs not wanting to leave them behind.
As his regular fishing pal Glenn Uhl said, "I'm going to missing. We all are going to miss a great fisherman." And a wonderful human being.