Denise Y. My first "love," though in retrospect it was more first "lust." She was the girl upstairs my freshman year, then my sophomore year, after she dropped out, we "dated," meaning we saw each other on holiday breaks. One more fling with her that following summer and she called to tell me she met some guy the first week of my junior year. So much for honeymoon in Hawaii, as we planned (though I just realized I did end up there, just with a much better companion). I never had closure from that "relationship." Well, until I ended up in Cindy's "lap" shortly thereafter. ;)
Tami L. We hung out a ton through the first part of my junior year, as we thought we'd someday rule the world of radio. Turns out though, she was a fucking loser destined to drop out of school. What's worse is that she was being stalked. Later those of us that knew her compared notes to find out she was stalking and punching herself, and even told some people it was me. Psycho! Fortunately she just disappeared from the college scene.
Scott P. Good friend and academic advisor. He had weird ass requirements for keeping all kinds of secrets, but he was a fairly inspiring kind of guy that left me with a lot of principles I still adhere to. Among these is the idea that a lot can happen in two weeks. Indeed. He moved to Florida into corporate radio and bought houses on golf courses. Haven't heard from him in years.
Bob H. Bob was the shit. He was a psych major (Dr. Bob, today), and a great friend. We were in res. life together, and he always had a way of counseling me into success. We had similar tastes in girls (we both did see Cindy naked), liked similar music, and did some pretty hilarious film impressions. I lost touch with him when he went to grad school at Wright State, and it kills me that I can't track him down. He's apparently working in the Greater Cleveland area.
Stacie M. Oddly enough, Stacie was Tami's best friend. After Tami went back to Whitetrashistan, Stacie and I kept in touch, and I introduced her to my then girlfriend Stephanie. She ended up being our maid of honor. Two years after that she misinterpreted a blog entry of Steph's as being about her, then brought up all of this hostility about the cost of being in our wedding, and we haven't heard from her since.
Frank L. My best man. Of all the people from college I've lost touch with, I miss him the most. Frank was more than my token Asian friend. We had so many good times doing just stupid shit around school. He went to school film and later moved to Hollyweird. We had good times talking about chicks, film geek gear and porn. He did a great Robert Smith and Morissey imitation. He got me hooked on KMFDM. Frank was the bomb, and I hate that I never get to talk to him.
Kam K. I met her as a high school senior my freshman year. I can't explain our friendship, but it was another one of those that somehow made her seem like one of the guys (or maybe I was a gay guy from her perspective, who knows). My sophomore and junior years we hung out a lot, made late night runs to 24-hour stores, and just generally liked being around each other. My senior year, she got very into having a boyfriend and her sorority, and I got into having a girlfriend, so we didn't see much of each other. Today, she has two kids and lives with her husband less than two miles from me. We still haven't seen each other since 1996.
Jen A. Like many of my female friends, at first I just wanted to get naked with her, another res. life training lust. Instead we became really good friends. My senior year we became roommates. Living together put some strain on our friendship, but thereafter we both worked in Medina and had lunch frequently. When she got married, we kind of just lost touch.
Jen P. I met Jen at the same time as Steph, and I guess at that time I looked at her as a back-up interest in case Steph decided she didn't like me anymore. It never came to that, but we became friends anyway and struggled through American Literature together (it wasn't difficult, I just had senioritis). She was also in our wedding, Steph was in hers and I read a prayer. We never had anything in common I guess, but she was just generally good company. We still chat from time to time, but ever since the birth of her daughter, she's in total mommy mode.
Stephanie G. This one I married, and I see every day. She gets cuter by the day and puts up with my shit. Thank God I held on to her!
Time passes, friends change. That's just the way life is. It's just weird that people so much a part of my life are "gone" now. Some of them I could care less about, others I regret losing touch.
Mary lives in Arizona. She was once married to my ex-husband and didn't want to deal with me after I told her she was making a huge mistake in marrying him, but after 6 years of an on-again/off-again relationship with my ex, she divorced him for the second and final time, and contacted me again to tell me I was right all along.
Terry lives in California with his significant other. Funny, back in the late 1950's and early 1960's, we didn't really know what being gay meant...at least not until we were in our teens. But I think we all knew Terry was gay from the time we were in elementary school. He didn't accept his sexual orientation until college, and it took him another 4 years after college before he told his parents. His father, a huge, burley truck driver responded with "hell, I've known that since you were a little kid". His mother, the one he thought would be the most understanding, was the one who wailed and wondered what she'd done wrong.
One of the best memories of our group was when Denise, Linda, Rachel, Terry and I were at a local bar for one of our few get-togethers. Terry had just told us the story of his coming out to his parents and we were all laughing and having a good time when two men approached our table. One man leaned down and said to Terry "I don't know how you managed to have four beautiful women all hanging on your every word, but man, you must be doing SOMETHING right". We simply roared with laughter. If that fellow only knew.