Category: General Posts (Page 5 of 21)

I’ve known Roger since we were both 13 years old.  We met in 1976 in Jim Gross’ Algebra 1 class when we were both freshmen at Bishop Egan High School.  He wore a rust colored leisure suit.  We shared many of the same classes that year: Fr. Terry’s Social Studies, Bro. Frank’s Religion, Mr. Manzo’s English.  We both tried out for the Blue and Gray Day skit that year: Roger was cast as the Cowardly Lion, and I as Dorothy.  We found that we had a common love of music, and that was enough to bind us together for the next 34 years.  We would catch the bus to the Oxford Valley Mall, where we would cruise the Listening Booth and Wall to Wall Sound record shops.  I remember one such trip when Roger bought Al Stewart’s Year of the Cat, and I bought Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life.  We hung out together at the Friday night dances, and in the summer when the school year was over we’d hop on our 10 speeds and ride to the Mall, to buy more and more records.  Roger bought Lynyrd Skynyrd’s One More For From the Road; I bought Leo Sayer’s Just a Boy.  We shopped at Jeans West, where Roger helped me pick out the right style gauze shirt;  sporting goods at Herman Brooks; lunches at McDonalds. 

The following school year I attended Bucks County Technical School, and our shared classes ended, but our friendship endured.  Still bound by our love of music, we explored more and more new albums, pushing and feeding off of each other.  We both played under Coach Zaren on the BEHS inaugural soccer team, and we joined more clubs together, staying after school for more and more activities.  I remember when Roger earned his learner’s permit, as he drove up to Steve Wolf and I gathering used skids to be used for our Spirit Week bonfire that November.  At the end of the year, when Roger decided to run for Student Council as a sophomore (gasp!) I was there to help with his campaign, designing the flyers and hanging them along the hallways and stairwells.  Roger did not win that election, but he did force a run-off.  Pretty ballsy for an underclassmen.

Our friendship continued into our Junior year – still more dances, but we explored new territories as Roger earned his driver’s license and the road was ours.  By the end of the year I was named as the Editor in Chief for our Senior yearbook, and I hand-picked Roger as my co-editor.  We painted the yearbook office together, along with Tommy, our Associate Editor.  We worked together to deliver a damn good yearbook, but we also discovered a lot about each other in the process.  In June we graduated, and celebrated Senior Week, followed by our first Genesis concert at the Spectrum, together.  Summer evenings we spent on the Mann Music Center lawn listening to JT, just before we headed off to La Salle College as roommates.  On just our second night as college freshmen I was three sheets to the wind when, from the top bunk of our dorm room, I puked onto Roger in his bed below.  I remember none of it, but he was there to make sure I got cleaned up.  College was a bit of a trial – external and internal forces, combined with excessive alcohol, challenged us at times, but our friendship survived.  When I received front-row center tickets to Bruce’s July 1981 Spectrum concert, it was Roger with whom I shared the extra ticket.  One morning, at Penn State’s Phi Psi 500 weekend in April 1984 we nearly died laughing together over a runner’s leg that “wasn’t right.”  We graduated college, but we remained together for ski vacations to Killington, and summer vacations to Myrtle Beach.  I taught Roger how to drive a stick-shift on my old Tercel Wagon at Tyler State Park.  He witnessed me at my drunken worst one New Year’s Eve, hovering over Neville and Donna’s toilet like a thirsty mutt.  He’s also seen me at my best, as an usher on my wedding day, just as I had been for him barely 10 months earlier… I know I’m missing out on countless number of other times we’ve shared, but I think I’ve made my point:  I can count my close friends on one hand, and Roger is usually number one. 

Which brings us to today… Roger phoned me this evening on my drive home from work, to catch up but also to let me know of a personal crisis he’s going through.  I’m not sure that I was able to convey my truest feelings of sorrow and sympathy while driving, but I do honestly hope that things work out for the best for him and his family – they are in my prayers, and I ask that they be in yours as well.