Out of the Blue, Into the Black



In 1979 I moved from California to Arizona. I would start my sophomore year at a new high school in a new state. And as it would turn out I would only be there to complete my sophomore and junior years, two short years. High school is hard enough normally so these were trying times.

With a late registration there wasn't much left for electives so somehow I ended up in yearbook. Talk about oil and water, this was no fit at all but I had no choice. In the same class would be Ken who was also in the same predicament. Very quickly we gravitated to each other and would remain inseparable for two years. (Ken is on the right in the first row and I'm on the right in the second row above).

This would be a friendship deeper than any. And in two years Ken taught me more about life than I had even known possible. He was a very quiet person but incredibly intelligent and talented in many things. We had adventure after adventure.

The desert was our playground. A 10 minute drive and we were in the middle of nowhere. So we went out to play everyday. Ken got me into hunting. Bird hunting mostly. We would go out in the desert and shoot skeet to practice. Then when dove season rolled around we scouted orange groves shooting doves and dodging pellets. Right outside of Phoenix was a quail preserve for hunting as well. We would spend hours marveling at how a stupid bird could be so smart as we chased them in endless circles. More rabbits died at the hands of frustrated quail hunters than quail did.

Ken and I camped at many lakes in Arizona and tried to catch fish. We never did but that didn't stop the pursuit. Just being out in the wild was enough. Our favorite lake was Lake Pleasant. The lake had the infamous cliffs that we stupidly jumped from for amazingly scary thrills.

I bought my first bass in Arizona. Ken had a Gibson Les Paul with sunburst finish just like Jimmy Page had in the Song Remains the Same. We had big Sunn amps and learned how to jam for hours in the key of G. Our theme song was the Neil Young song "Hey Hey My My" . We played it just like on Rust Never Sleeps, real loud and real distorted!

Ken bought himself an Apple II computer. Back then having a computer was not even something you knew was possible. But not Ken, he had been studying and dived in. He was programming graphics and games in assembly language all on his own. He told me he was getting it before he did and I didn't believe him. $1200 was a lot of bread in 1980 for a high school kid. As usual he told me I never believed what he said. And he always did what he said.

He drove an old blue station wagon his parents gave him. We saved all of our coke bottles on the floor. That way when we coasted into the gas station out of gas we could cash the bottles in for another tank! A few months later Ken's dad bought 7 Corvairs just as a hobby to restore them. Ken got a red one. That was a strange car, a '68 Corvair Monza, standard shift, flat six in the back. You learn real quick how to put the belts back on... Many a dough nut was had in our desert playground.

So much more packed into two years, two of the best years of my life. I moved away, Ken eventually moved away form Phoenix as well. After I graduated from college I took a job in Tucson. Ken was going to U of A in Tucson then so we reunited. He was the best man at my wedding, I was the best man at his wedding. After only 3 years I moved back to the south and Ken went to California.

We would see each other again only twice over the next 20 years. But he was always my best friend. Two years ago I got a call from a friend of his saying Ken had died of cancer. He died 2 years ago today. I didn't even know he was sick. It was like a kick in the stomach.

Ken truly loved people and he always looked at life as an adventure. These are things he showed by the way he lived. These are things I will always remember when I think of him.