When I was young, I met one of the coolest people I have ever met. Some one who was smart and funny and he was carefree. His passing yesterday has left a hole in my heart that I am having a hard time dealing with. I can’t even imagine how much his family is grieving the loss of a husband, father, friend. A man who said his spirit animal was the Platypus, so when I came home from Australia I naturally brought one in a can home (it was a stuffed animal, not a dead animal) for him.
Let me take you back, dear reader, to a time that was a lifetime ago, when I was young and so full of energy and piss and vinegar and sass.. Wow, there was a lot of sass at that time. I may or may not have mentioned that once upon a time ago, I was in the U.S. Navy. I have been around the world three times, seen a lot of place and people, drank way more than I should have and did some seriously stupid shit before the internet and smart phones were everywhere. Thank goodness for that.
My first duty station while serving, was in Jacksonville Florida. I was in Mayport stationed aboard the U.S.S John F. Kennedy (CV-67). This is the ship I met Joey on, Piper’s dad. We got married and then moved to the other side of the country. We ended up stationed on 32nd St. Naval Base, San Diego California. I went to a C-School, a speciality school for the Cummins engine marine inline 6BTA, and then was stationed on the U.S.S Boxer (LHD-4) while Joey was stationed on the base. Forty seven days after checking in, I would be leaving on my second deployment.
I was to leave in January for the Middle East. For that Christmas, I got Joey a bass guitar. He had said he wanted to learn to play so we got one for him. I leave for deployment and when I got back, Joey had made friends with people that he worked with who he was now in a band with. They were the ones that I met first, Ed and Bill. These two, wow. They were both amazing guitar players with different styles that seemed to blend so well together. Thinking about it now is a little hard, both of them have passed, and both of them were damn young. At least in my mind they were young.
I met Bill and his wife, Sandy along with Ed within a week of being home again. Joey was so excited for me to meet them all. Bill and Sandy were our first grown up couple friends and I was immediately impressed and loved them both. They were a few years older than Joey and I and they had kids. Like more than one kid. And I only remember having fun and laughing a lot around them all. I enjoyed getting to listen to them all play together, Joey had worked so hard at learning to play his bass. He was becoming better and better by the day. And Sandy, she is woman I will never forget. I can hear their voices in my head now as I think on it some more. Joey, Bill and Sandy were all from Louisiana, so right from the get go, they had that bond going for them. Ferris was from Louisiana as well, enlisted with Bill in fact. Best friends, brothers I would say, but he doesn’t come into the story until later.
I digress. I’m pretty sure we were at their house nearly every week for the three years we all lived there together in San Diego. There was one night that Bill and Joey and Sandy taught me how to play Texas Hold’ Em on a Friday night because we thought it would be cool to play in the tournament the following morning at the casino. I won the game that night. As in a totally complete sweeping win. I took 6th in the tournament the next day. We would go to Mexico that afternoon and go shopping. You could find the coolest stuff in TJ. One thing I wish I had gotten was one of those velvet paintings of the devil sitting on the toilet. Classic stuff there, I’m telling you! I loved doing stuff with that family so much. I loved hanging out with Sandy more than doing stuff so I really enjoyed the time that I got to spend with her while the dudes were all playing in the garage. I wasn’t really interested in the music so much, but playing the music made these guys so happy. Their souls were lit up and shinning when they played.
I feel like I’m drifting on the subject, but bear with me if you can. These vines and memories all seem to blend in and twist together in my head. I can’t talk about Bill without Sandy and Ferris and Ed. They were all family. Bill and Ferris were best friends, enlisted together after 9/11 and managed to get stationed in sunny Southern California with all of us. Ferris is Godfather to Bill’s first two kids. Ed was Godfather to his youngest, and Bill was Godfather to our Little Goose. It was the best family friendships that I have had. With all of us together, it felt like home. As I understand it now, that kind of family doesn’t happen to everyone, and it’s not as common as you would hope. For a brief moment in time, it felt like the world was our oyster because we had each other.
I want to say a few months after meeting Bill and Sandy, Joey and I had gone over to their house for whatever reason, I feel like it was a workday because Sandy wasn’t there that I can recall. We had been there only a few minutes when a guy comes out of the bathroom, with a freshly shaved head, exclaiming about how awesome the new razor was, “feel my head”… (this was in reference to the Gillette Mach 3 razor). His head was super soft and smooth. This was my first meeting of Ferris.
Ferris and Bill would talk about home a lot, they would cook together and play music together. They would laugh at silly stories between them and I loved to listen to Bill tell me about how he and Sandy met. They had such a love for one another, there was no denying that. I know Joey and I looked up to them as a couple. And yes, every couple has it’s bad days, but, I can’t ever remember either of them complaining about the other. I know that I whined a lot.
After Joey and I were out of the Navy, we spent even more time with them. Bill and Joey and Ferris had great plans to build this wonderful weed empire and become growers. We were small potatoes, nah, smaller than that compared to what growers do now. One harvest was all we would grow. But it was top shelf stuff. I liked to think that because I played them techno music they were happy plants. None of that sappy sad shit that Joey wanted to play for the plants. And just like now, all of the mother plants had names. All female names, like Henrietta, Louisa, Greta, and two more that I can’t for the life of me remember the names of. But they would have been considered to be an older style of name. It was around this time that things changed for all of us. I found out I was expecting our daughter. The house that Bill and Sandy were renting was sold and they had to leave. Ed had moved in with his girlfriend. I was making very little money and Joey was getting laid off every 89 days. Talk about a shitty thing to deal with. With all of that going on, and us (Joey and I) losing money in the weed venture, things were looking bleak for us. A week or two before we left California, I want to say in July, Bill and Sandy left for Jupiter Island, Florida. Bill was going to come out to Louisiana when I had my baby, but, due to us having to deliver her a week early, it would be the last time I saw Bill.
We would talk from time to time after moving to Louisiana. Bill and I talked a lot about Joey and all the things that went wrong. I told him a lot of things that had happened and he was a ear to listen. I know it wasn’t a cool thing to do, putting him in the middle of our problems. He was a voice a reason to us both. He was the one who told me that I had to get on this new social platform called FaceBook.
The years have crept by slowly, but they were gone in the blink of any eye. Before you know it, you get to the point where your friends start dying. Many of them are divorcing as well, starting over, thinking how do I start again at this age. I know that we will all die. There is no getting out of this alive. So hold your loved ones near. Kiss them and tell them how much they mean to you. Getting old isn’t for the faint of heart, but, it’s a true gift. A long life with lots of happy memories is the best we can ask for. Our lives are short compared to the span of time. We are not made to last forever. You never know when your last day is, so be kind to one another. Take a deep breath and let it fill your lungs. If you think about it, everyday is the first day of the rest of your life. Until it’s the last day. My heart hurts so much for my family. I wish I could come and hold your hand and weep together. I wish I could be there and say goodbye. I wish we all had more time.
Bill, I couldn’t have asked for a better friend. You were a man to look up to. I will cherish the memories of those brief years we all had together. I wouldn’t trade them for the world. Rest In Peace my friend. You were such a shinning spot in all of our lives. May the next ones give us all more time together. I will think of you every time I hear Soul Meets Body. A song you said was composed perfectly in the way the instruments blended together. I will remember you.
Until next time, dear reader, thank you for indulging me tonight. Good night~ 😓❤️💔💔
The Morning High Runner 