ANY WAY
This has been a great month. I got to see my friend Reid for the first time in 20 years at the beginning of the month. On Thursday I had lunch in Pioneer Square with my friend Adrienne whom I hadn't seen in 12 years (even though she's been back in the Emerald City for almost 2 years now). Unfortunately there is one friend I haven't seen in around 15 years that I can't reunite with...
I was very much alone when I started college at the UW. I had a half dozen classmates from Hanford High starting there at the same time but none were really more than acquaintances. Fortunately for me I was befriended quite quickly by my now long time friends Bill, Will, Tim (now Allen), Adrienne, and Fred. Fred was a senior still living in the dorm. That might have seemed odd to some but it really wasn't. I spent 3 of my 5 years at the UW living in the dorm. It offered a sense of community that you don't get when you live off campus in an apartment. But any way... one day I was in the McCarty Hall 3rd/4th South lounge listening to my walkman and this guy asked me what I was listening to. I told him the Scorpions and right there a friendship was born. That was Fred's favorite band and it turned out he shared much the same taste in music that I do.
At a time when I really needed a mentor, Fred was the big brother I never had. I spent most of my time that first year hanging out in his dorm room—like many others from our floor because he had all the coolest stuff. Fred graduated after completing summer school that year and spent the Autumn quarter of my sophomore year working in the basement of the ROTC building. He had moved into an apartment off campus which he frequently offered up to me as refuge from my horrible second roommate. He bought a black Ford Mustang after graduation with a license plate that read "ANY WAY" (his favorite saying). He drove me back home to Richland in it one weekend and met my family. I can't remember who said it but someone told me that he "was the kind of friend I would have for the rest of my life".
Fred eventually left the Northwest for nuclear submarine school in Norfolk, Virginia, but I kept in touch with him for the remainder of my UW experience. He stopped by to see me in Richland again one summer on his drive back east. It was that trip that he gave me one of my most treasured possessions, the 87-92 era Seattle Mariners jersey that had been given to him by a former girlfriend (and Mariners ball girl).
Not long after I graduated from the UW, Fred called to tell me he was very sick and being treated for Lymphoma. It was the last time we spoke. He died about a month later...
Today would have been Fred's 40th birthday, so while I'm on house arrest (waiting for someone from work to call) I'm rocking out to the Scorpions and wearing that very special jersey in his memory. I miss you man.
I was very much alone when I started college at the UW. I had a half dozen classmates from Hanford High starting there at the same time but none were really more than acquaintances. Fortunately for me I was befriended quite quickly by my now long time friends Bill, Will, Tim (now Allen), Adrienne, and Fred. Fred was a senior still living in the dorm. That might have seemed odd to some but it really wasn't. I spent 3 of my 5 years at the UW living in the dorm. It offered a sense of community that you don't get when you live off campus in an apartment. But any way... one day I was in the McCarty Hall 3rd/4th South lounge listening to my walkman and this guy asked me what I was listening to. I told him the Scorpions and right there a friendship was born. That was Fred's favorite band and it turned out he shared much the same taste in music that I do.
At a time when I really needed a mentor, Fred was the big brother I never had. I spent most of my time that first year hanging out in his dorm room—like many others from our floor because he had all the coolest stuff. Fred graduated after completing summer school that year and spent the Autumn quarter of my sophomore year working in the basement of the ROTC building. He had moved into an apartment off campus which he frequently offered up to me as refuge from my horrible second roommate. He bought a black Ford Mustang after graduation with a license plate that read "ANY WAY" (his favorite saying). He drove me back home to Richland in it one weekend and met my family. I can't remember who said it but someone told me that he "was the kind of friend I would have for the rest of my life".
Fred eventually left the Northwest for nuclear submarine school in Norfolk, Virginia, but I kept in touch with him for the remainder of my UW experience. He stopped by to see me in Richland again one summer on his drive back east. It was that trip that he gave me one of my most treasured possessions, the 87-92 era Seattle Mariners jersey that had been given to him by a former girlfriend (and Mariners ball girl).
Not long after I graduated from the UW, Fred called to tell me he was very sick and being treated for Lymphoma. It was the last time we spoke. He died about a month later...Today would have been Fred's 40th birthday, so while I'm on house arrest (waiting for someone from work to call) I'm rocking out to the Scorpions and wearing that very special jersey in his memory. I miss you man.
posted by Ryan at
10:30 AM
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