Memories of people
Approximately 20 years ago my two-years-older brother came home from middle school with a new friend in tow. The friend’s name was Andy, and all personalities considered, it was probably Andy towing my brother because in Andy’s wake came a whole crowd of new friends, Casey and Jeff being the most prominent of the crowd. This influx of teenage boys added a whole new dimension to life at our house. It was kind of like having a noisy forest with elephant feet move in. (They were all so TALL).
It was all fun and games for the first year or so. I got to be the tag-along sister and join the fun. Then puberty hit. I’m not sure whether it hit me or them, but it hit pretty hard and the relationships got a little more . . . complicated. I couldn’t easily be the tag-along sister anymore because we all became very aware that they were a crowd of boys and I . . . wasn’t. My mature and reasoned response to the new complexity in relationships was along the lines of “AIEEEEE RUN AWAY!” So I started hiding in my room a lot. This meant I missed out on night time laser tag in the backyard, making a movie about a remote controlled robot, creating a role playing game called Exploration, and a host of other fun geekish activities. I would have loved playing the games, but to my loss, I simply wasn’t mature enough to handle the relationships.
When the herd of boys two-years-ahead graduated they pretty much disappeared from my life. I’ve thought of them occasionally, but never with the intent to look them up because in my mind they were complicated people to know. Somehow I never took into account that we’ve all grown up somewhat in the last 20 years. Then a couple of days ago Casey popped up in my Live Journal as Deyo and pointed me at Andy’s webcomic Casey & Andy. http://www.galactanet.com/comic/index.htm It’s a surprisingly addictive strip. I read one and thought “eh” then another and another and then I found myself smiling, then laughing out loud.
Suddenly I was forced to re-evaluate because I realized that “That herd of boys” would all fit in wonderfully with the online crowd I now hang out with. In fact they’ve already been fitting in wonderfully for quite awhile without me even knowing it. Apparently they’ve been Schlock fans for years and just figured out who Howard Tayler’s wife is.
I guess the point of this whole meander through memory lane is to say Hi Casey! Hi Andy! I’m glad to know you again!