Thirteen Thursday Number Ten: Friends

Thirteen FRIENDS Number #10 Friendship is a very important thing to me. My Friends are the most important thing in the world to me. You stand by your friends in the bad times as well as the good times. A friend can call me up at three in the morning and I'm not going to complain. I'm going to listen and offer any help I can. It's hard to quantify a friend, saying this friend is more important than another, hence the best friend tag. I think you can have more than one best friend, at different times you have different best friends. I just hate the idea of rating friends, so don't look at this list as being in any special type of order as far as importance. 1. Heather: Still all that being said there are some friends that you consider your best friend no matter what. You know when you think of friend their name is one of the first, if not the first, to come up in your mind. Heather is one of those. I've known Heather for quite awhile now. She started working for me when I was a manager at Service Merchandise when she was only 17 years old. We weren't friends right away. In fact I don't think she even liked me all that. When Service folded and I came to my new place Heather ended up coming too. It was here that we became friends. A lot of people probably think it's weird, our friendship. From the outside it probably looks weird, with the difference in our ages, but it doesn't matter. When I was sick after Katrina Heather stayed with me and helped take care of me. I know I could call Heather at anytime of the night and she would answer. There are some friends that you just can't imagine not being in your life and Heather is one of those. 2. Larry: I've known Larry for about three years now. Larry was born in Hibbings, Minn which is the birthplace of Bob Dylan. In fact he was probably about ten years younger than Dylan, so as a kid Larry remembers seeing a young Dylan around Hibbings. But I digress. We've both been told that we could be brothers we are so similar in a lot of ways. Our taste in music, our taste in books. The way we do things. Larry's daughter laughed once after I did something and said that's the way her Dad did it too. Larry and I work together and lately things seemed to have becomse strained a bit at work, effecting our friendship. But I know no matter what Larry and I are friends, I may have a brother but I consider Larry another one. 3. Mark: Mark is one of my oldest friends. I can barely remember a time when Mark wasn't in my life. I don't have any friends from my childhood, we moved to New Orleans when I was 17 and quicly lost touch with any friends from previous states. There is a core group of people I met when I started work with HJ Wilson that have become friends and are still friends. Mark is one of them. Mark, myself and Sal were knows as the 3 Muskerteers for a long time. If you saw one of us you saw the other two. We went on vacations together, the three of us traveled the entire state of Florida all the way to Key West and back, went to Washington DC, New York, Toronto. Mark and I used to live next door to each other and for many years we would host a superbowl party. I don't see Mark as often as I used to, we finally moved on, all that group from Wilsons, moving and some marrying and such, but if Mark called me up tommorrow and needed something it would be his. 4. Sal: The third of the 3 Muskerteers. Sal was at Wilsons when I started and we've been friends ever since. That's from 1977. A lot of years. It's been awhile since I saw Sal. It's past time to give him a call and get together for a day or night and catch up. 5. Ray: I mentioned Ray in a previous 13 as someone who had influenced my life. Ray was at Wilsons when I started. Ray was always the one to move ahead first, to get promoted first. When I was going through a rough patch and was out of work Ray made it a point to find work for me, off the clock at Service, and since I was not working due to problems with the Distric Manager at considerable risk to himself. Ray has been a mentor as well as a friend. 6. Jason/Claire: These two go together even though I've known Jason longer and for awhile he was a fourth to our 3 Muskerteers, until he married Claire. But when I think of one of them I think of the other. They are a two in my mind. They've moved to Atlanta so I don't see them as much. For awhile every year I made it a point to go visit, but lately have missed some of those visits. When they lived here we used to go over their house every New Years and shoot fireworks and have a good time. 7. Nick: I've known Nick for about four years now. He started at the new company I work for after Service went out of business. Nick is my music/tv/movie friend. Our tastes are very similar in music and tv shows (he has the good taste to be a big fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer). He no long works with me, but while we did it helped the day go by when we could spend it talking about the latest American Idol or what should happen in the new Spiderman movie. The last two years Nick and I have taken our vacations together, first to Bonnaroo and last year to Disney. 8. Paul: Paul is my one friend on this list that is no longer with us. He died this past year, but I have to list him. I hadn't seen Paul in a few years, hadn't really heard from him. He moved to California and got married. The last contact with Paul was right after Katrina, he left a voice message on my cell, trying to find out if we were all right. He sounded terrible, I didn't know it but at the time he had cancer. I tried calling back, but only ever got his voice. I regret the missed chance to talk with him one last time. 9. Mike: Mike and I met somewhere along the lines at Service. I'm not sure, but I know I've know him for a long time. He's a West Virgina boy living in the deep south. Poker night at Mikes was a monthly tradition for years. He just recently moved to Boston to be nearer his daughter and family. 10. Paige: Another friend from the start of my new job. Paige is my token conservative Republican friend. Everyone should have at least one. We can get in some arguments, he thinks Bush can do no wrong and everyone knows how I feel about W. But through it all we stay friends. 11. Mitzi: The last few years of Service Merchandise Mitzi came to work there and we became good friends. After she quit we still got together every month or so. In fact when Service announced they were going out of business she called me that night to come put an application where she was working and I did and that's where I'm working still today. I haven't seen her since Katrina, her house got damaged pretty bad so she's been spending a lot of time working on it. 12. Billy: Billy was my assitant at Service Merchandise. Billy is one of the kindest, gentlest people I know. The very last week we were open Billy's wife had a baby, Billy was out the last week, but he made it a point to come to work the last day. That was the day he picked his wife up and brought her home from the hospital. Afterwards he came to work, he wanted to be there for the last day. 13. My Brother: I have to say my brother is one of my best friends. No matter what I know he is there for me. I can also say that I am very proud of the way he's lived his life and the decisions he has made. I can't say that I would have shown the courage of my convictions as well as he has, he's made me very proud.

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