This is the story of how I met my two best friends from High School. One of which I still regularly chat with on FaceBook, and the other who's wife I talk to on occasion because he might have fallen into a gorge or something... I don't know.
I'll start with Rolland Weekley, otherwise known as Rusty. Which is how I met him. If I remember correctly (and he might end up helping me fix this error), we met in an Algebra class. I think. Regardless of where it was, I do remember the circumstances. He sat on one end of the class and me on the other, and I had no idea who he was previous to our meeting, so it's not like we were glad we shared a class or anything; it was just a happy circumstance. A few of the class members began talking about movies; recently seen, new on video, ones we wanted to catch, and the like, and 'Total Recall' was brought up. Now, keep in mind this is the original starring Arnold, not the newer version that apparently sucks. How people can mess up a Philip K. Dick story so badly is beyond me. But I digress. Rusty mentioned that he wanted to go see it and it seemed that everyone else (people I assumed he already knew) were either busy or just didn't want to. So I said I'd go. And so it was. Literally. Just that simply we became friends. Isn't it sweet? We went to the movie, maybe held hands, shared a bucket of popcorn with a hole in it... okay, probably neither of those things happened, but we did in fact see the movie. What happened was we began seeing movies a lot. In fact, for a while, that seemed to be the lynch pin that held us in such good friendship. Soon, of course, we found we had more and more in common and just began hanging out and doing stuff friends do. It was nice because even at that point I didn't really hang out with anyone in my grade. Rusty was a grade ahead of me, which made no difference especially in High School. It was just nice to have someone to hang out with. And, in all actuality, we've been friends ever since. There is a ton more to our stories, but I'll save those incidences for other times.
As for Kevin Ray, he was a little different, as were our meeting circumstances. There was something about Kevin that appealed greatly to my awkward and goofy side. That side was always there, it was just never brought to the surface like Kevin could make it. When we were together all seriousness flew out the window, especially in school. As I said in the previous entry, I think we met in a Biology class, but it's possible it was an Art class... these things just get buried under far less important things, ya know so I can never be too sure. Either way, we met and it really was (in the most masculine sense of the word) love at first site. We were an unstoppable force of ridiculousness that when combined became its own living entity. It was different with us than it was with Rusty and I, because with Rusty and I things were just standard. Sure, we had our share of silly times and funny things here and there, and they were great, but with Kevin they just escalated into mass hysteria. Eventually they rubbed off onto people around us, including Rusty, but again: tales for another time. Kevin and I would get into copious amounts of trouble in school. Nothing too serious, mostly do to just plain stupidity and hijinx. I would break into a hallway display case across from the art room and Kevin would climb in and pose as I admired the 'Art Work' just as the teacher would arrive freaking her out to no end. We would purposely mess up experiments in Chemistry class just to see what kind of room-clearing mess we could make. We'd draw crude pictures, make rude noises in the library, and just be annoying. But we did it together and it was fun. Like I said: never anything too serious and we were never expelled. Maybe given detention once or twice, but so what. And that was who Kevin was. We were inseparable through High School, and far beyond it. I have to say: I sometimes long for those days with Kevin and Rusty. I really do.
Other than those guys, I had many other friends eventually. Most of whom I talk to regularly on FB (you all know who you are) and life in Paw Paw became a fair bit more comfortable. Ah, but it was just getting started. Stay tuned, there's much more to come...
I'll start with Rolland Weekley, otherwise known as Rusty. Which is how I met him. If I remember correctly (and he might end up helping me fix this error), we met in an Algebra class. I think. Regardless of where it was, I do remember the circumstances. He sat on one end of the class and me on the other, and I had no idea who he was previous to our meeting, so it's not like we were glad we shared a class or anything; it was just a happy circumstance. A few of the class members began talking about movies; recently seen, new on video, ones we wanted to catch, and the like, and 'Total Recall' was brought up. Now, keep in mind this is the original starring Arnold, not the newer version that apparently sucks. How people can mess up a Philip K. Dick story so badly is beyond me. But I digress. Rusty mentioned that he wanted to go see it and it seemed that everyone else (people I assumed he already knew) were either busy or just didn't want to. So I said I'd go. And so it was. Literally. Just that simply we became friends. Isn't it sweet? We went to the movie, maybe held hands, shared a bucket of popcorn with a hole in it... okay, probably neither of those things happened, but we did in fact see the movie. What happened was we began seeing movies a lot. In fact, for a while, that seemed to be the lynch pin that held us in such good friendship. Soon, of course, we found we had more and more in common and just began hanging out and doing stuff friends do. It was nice because even at that point I didn't really hang out with anyone in my grade. Rusty was a grade ahead of me, which made no difference especially in High School. It was just nice to have someone to hang out with. And, in all actuality, we've been friends ever since. There is a ton more to our stories, but I'll save those incidences for other times.
As for Kevin Ray, he was a little different, as were our meeting circumstances. There was something about Kevin that appealed greatly to my awkward and goofy side. That side was always there, it was just never brought to the surface like Kevin could make it. When we were together all seriousness flew out the window, especially in school. As I said in the previous entry, I think we met in a Biology class, but it's possible it was an Art class... these things just get buried under far less important things, ya know so I can never be too sure. Either way, we met and it really was (in the most masculine sense of the word) love at first site. We were an unstoppable force of ridiculousness that when combined became its own living entity. It was different with us than it was with Rusty and I, because with Rusty and I things were just standard. Sure, we had our share of silly times and funny things here and there, and they were great, but with Kevin they just escalated into mass hysteria. Eventually they rubbed off onto people around us, including Rusty, but again: tales for another time. Kevin and I would get into copious amounts of trouble in school. Nothing too serious, mostly do to just plain stupidity and hijinx. I would break into a hallway display case across from the art room and Kevin would climb in and pose as I admired the 'Art Work' just as the teacher would arrive freaking her out to no end. We would purposely mess up experiments in Chemistry class just to see what kind of room-clearing mess we could make. We'd draw crude pictures, make rude noises in the library, and just be annoying. But we did it together and it was fun. Like I said: never anything too serious and we were never expelled. Maybe given detention once or twice, but so what. And that was who Kevin was. We were inseparable through High School, and far beyond it. I have to say: I sometimes long for those days with Kevin and Rusty. I really do.
Other than those guys, I had many other friends eventually. Most of whom I talk to regularly on FB (you all know who you are) and life in Paw Paw became a fair bit more comfortable. Ah, but it was just getting started. Stay tuned, there's much more to come...
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