We Won't Get Fooled Again

I've meet a only a few male friends in my life that I would say I had a deep connection with. In fact there are three, Phil, Ken and Todd. I'm not sure why there haven't been more. I suppose this is something that isn't too uncommon with men. Lots of acquaintances but few true connections. Seriously this is something I wish I could change but don't see it changing anytime soon...

Anybody who knows me knows that one of the few things I hate is Ohio. Mainly its the victim of circumstance but you know its hard to get excited about corn fields and pig farms.

In the summer of 1981, I moved to Beavercreek, Ohio. This was another move courtesy of the Air Force. Only two years before I had moved from California to Phoenix. Warm climates for a warm blooded southern boy. But Ohio had no similarities. What was significant about this move though was that in 1981, I would start my senior year of high school. Beavercreek High School would be my third high school. Think about moving during high school. Then think about moving during high school AGAIN for your SENIOR year?!?!

After a few waits at the bus stop in the dark in sub freezing temps I noticed a '69 blue chevelle rumbling by the bus stop on the way to school. Turns out this was a kid living down the street who was also a senior. He had lived in the neighborhood all his life. His parents had divorced a couple of years before and he lived in the house with his mom. He was an only child. The divorce had been rough on him and similar to me he was a teen caught in a situation that tweaks the angst beyond what should be. Todd and I would become inseparable for the next 2 years.

The chevelle had transmission problems so getting to school was always an adventure but anything beat the bus.

Escaping the parking lot at lunch to go to Burger Chef was a daily chess game. Beavercreek H.S. was a closed campus and the vice principal was sure to be lurking. Burger Chef, or Burger Death as we called it, was just down the road a mile. You could get cheap burgers there and they had a salad bar like setup to fix your burger. So you took a 99 cent burger and piled it up with a ton of fixings.

John Bryant park outside of town had a rock gorge in it. Todd and I learned to repel in that gorge. We had a friend Obee that knew how. First time I walked off the cliff backwards I was petrified but exhilarated! I busted my glasses on that first trip though :-( Slipped on a rock and they fell off of my face to the bottom of the gorge.

More rocks and rock climbing was found an hour south of town. Old Man's Cave was an awesome gorge and huge cave. We would spend an entire day there playing in nature.

You find out that ever town in the Midwest has two things. The first is suicide hill. Suicide hill was the death defying hill in town, in this case in Dayton, that we would ride tubes down piled high with people. By the time you got to the bottom there would be people strewn from top to bottom and everyone was bumped, bruised and grinning ear to ear.

The second thing is the 100+ lane bowling alley. The second I despise is bowling. I got roped into playing the winter season. 36 weeks of bowling while the world is gray, cold and dark. Its not fun but there isn't anything else to do.

Todd taught me that full service gas is worth the extra money. We would drive up to the Sonoco when it was well below freezing. Pull up to the full service and crack the window 1/4 of inch, yell out $10 worth please and slip the $10 through the crack to the poor kid pumping your gas in the cold.

Todd showed me the tunnels under Wright State University. This is a college in North East Dayton (Fairborn actually) near Wright Patterson Air Force Base. It is a decent size campus with numerous large buildings like any college. But these buildings are all interconnected by tunnels. The tunnels are wide, 15 feet, are ramped for wheel chairs (no stairs) and have smooth polished floors. This was how people moved between buildings when it was really cold or snowy out. But the tunnels were open 24 hours. And I having lived in California only a few years before had skateboards. We would spend all night long skateboarding the tunnels when no one else was around.

Todd and I went to the Who farewell concert in Louisville, KY. That was a road trip. The Who would continue to have farewell tours that are still going on to this day :-O We went to lot of shows at Cinci, Columbus, Cleveland and Dayton. Once we mail ordered for Yes tickets for Columbus the day the offering opened. The money order was return rejected. We called the radio station and complained. Turned out the main DJ answered our call and he gave us 2 seats on the bus the radio station was taking to Toledo to see the tour. Tickets were amazing.

Todd and I rode the Beast at King's Island when it had just opened. It was the biggest coaster in the world at the time.

And we talked a lot about technology. Todd was set on becoming an electrical engineer before I met him. He showed me the world of engineering. He and I could go deep in math, science, and technology. He was committed to going to Ohio Institute of Technology in Columbus. I would end up following him there.

Todd and I started at OIT in the summer of '82. We were freshman roommates. Within a week we had our first RA write up. Todd had gotten a new Hitachi integrated amp and Cerwin Vega speakers. The inaugural blasting was the Who, "We Don't Get Fooled Again". It was at 11, we were jamming, Daltrey was screaming. We found out a little later that the RA was pounding on our door for at least the last half of the song and we never heard it!! Welcome to college.

Todd and I moved from the dorm to an apartment the next semester. This brought on two more roommates we had met first semester. As people dropped roommates consolidated. Me, Todd, Scott from Detroit, and Faren from upper Michigan holed up on the east side of Columbus.

Todd got us all into fish. Tropical fish. That semester we had 5 tanks going including lots of cichlids and even a piranha tank. Todd was always getting into new stuff.

That semester Todd's Dad died unexpectedly. It changed him, he took it hard. Not unexpected. At the end of that semester we all went home for the break. When we came back Todd had moved out. The roommates knew about it before the end of the last semester, but Todd couldn't tell me.

Todd enrolled in Wright State, he would eventually graduate from there in Electrical Engineering. We saw each other ever now and then after that. But it was done. I graduated in '85 and moved to Tucson, AZ to thaw out. I haven't seen Todd since.

There were a lot of mad cap adventures in that 2 years. We were tight. Maybe by then the moves had conditioned me to find these connections of a few years and then move on. Maybe that's just the way life is.