The Boys

I may not have had any real close girl friends but I had a couple of very close guy friends. I'm not exactly sure when we all came together and it sort of just evolved over time but by the end of Junior High School Me, Lester, Tom and Rick were soul mates. We shared everything together and we did everything together. I suppose they had friends outside of our group but I really didn't. If I did anything it was with these guys. Even in the summer time when we lived in Waterton I saw Tom often because his Dad delivered gas to the Texaco station and Tom would often ride up there with his Dad and we'd spend the day together.

When we lived on the farm Rick actually lived on a farm that was just over the hill from our farm. I never knew it then and it was probably too far for a six year old to walk to but I find it interesting that we lived so close to each other. After we moved to town it wasn't too much longer before Ricks family moved less than a block away from us. They moved into this giant old house that would fit perfectly in a movie about a haunted house. I kid you not, it looked just like what you see in movies with huge trees all around it and it was set way back from the street. I think that thing must have been three stories high. We loved to play there. It was right next door to the United Church which was important because the United Church had a gymnasium that was a separate building from the church. Rick got to know the minister there and he always let us go into their gym and play badminton. Rick and Tom loved it way more than I did but I got to be pretty good. I could rarely beat them though. Sometime during High School, Ricks family moved again but this time they were right across the street from Tom's house. Unfortunately that house was much smaller so Tom and Rick now lived in small houses but we were older and bigger and we didn't need to play in a house since we had cars.

We did spend a lot of time at our house. Dad had a pool table and a ping pong table in the basement and I was a little better at ping pong than I was at badminton. It was Tom and Rick who went with me to catch my pigeons and we played kick the can and generally terrorized the town. They were both obviously much more adept at social skills than I was because they both had girl friends in High School.

OK, Tom may hate me for this but I have to tell a story about him that will be almost as embarrassing for me as it will be for him. At one point in high school Tom decided that it would be cool to have his arm in a cast. The problem was that in order to get a cast he would need to break his arm. I thought he was nuts but there we were one night sitting in his truck trying to figure out how to break his arm. Finally he decided that the best way would be to drive over it with his truck. I really didn't think he was serious and I joked, "yeah sure and who's going to drive over your arm." When he said I could do it I replied, "no way". After a great deal of begging and pleading and some threats for some idiotic reason I agreed to drive Tom's truck over his arm. Of course all it would do if we drove over it would just crush it so we propped his arm up on a board so it would make a nice clean snap and there we were in the parking lot of the hospital and I actually drove Tom's truck over his arm. I clearly remember looking out his window seeing his body convulse as I drove over my best friends arm. We then parked his truck and walked into the hospital. We gave them some story about a snowmobile falling on it and we had them x-ray his arm. Unfortunately his arm was just fine. I always tell my girls that teenage boys are stupid. Looking back on some of my antics I suppose you can guess why I believe that to be true.

It's funny that I don't remember what Tom did when I headed off to BYU. I do know that his birthday is in February and he headed off on his mission to Indiana before I got back. I then got back from the Y and headed off on my mission to Belgium and before I got back Rick headed off to San Diego. Isn't that funny, right now I live in Ricks mission. He actually baptized people in the ocean at the beaches where I go boogie boarding. I keep telling him he needs to come and visit his old mission. Some of his apartments were in my stake. We'd be glad to put him up but he hasn't taken me up on my offer yet. And then Lester was the last of the "boys" to head out when he left for his mission in Uruguay.

That was kind of the end of our group. Rick married a girl from Texas and so I never saw him again for years. Actually, Lisa reminded me that we did visit them once while they were still going to the Y. Tom got married and went in his own direction and we rarely saw them. Lester and I were both in Edmonton and we both got married the same summer but he headed north to Yellow Knife and I headed south to Rosemary and we rarely crossed paths after that.

Interestingly enough, about ten years ago once email became popular we all hooked up again. Tom brought me up to speed on his life (which was quite spectacular), I hooked up with Rick again (even though I hear from Karen more than I do from Rick) and Lester emails more regularly than anyone I know. It has been really nice. I've actually been able to see Rick a couple of times in my travels. I love it. I saw Karen (that would be Rick's wife) once when they lived in Texas but that was a very long time ago. I've never been so fortunate to meet Ronda but I can't wait until I do. With Kira living in Calgary I expect that won't be too long now.

I think we need to have a "boy's reunion" where we all get together and do something fun. We used to ride bikes a lot so I think we should all get some big motorcycles (Lester already has his) and meet in the middle. Let's see, Lester in Florida, Rick in New York, Tom in Calgary and me in San Diego. The middle should be somewhere around Kansas City, what is there to do in Kansas City?