Nostalgia: longing for things past that mostly occurred in your mind.
I was quietly out of control the last semester of my junior year and most of my senior year of high school.
My priorities were soccer, boats, buddies, stage crew and girlfriends (serially) in varying order. I did ok in school except for the first quarter of English ap when we worked on The Brothers Karamazov. First and only time I flunked. To this day I react strongly to the memory of that book.
My last quarter of school I was checked out busy with my priorities, and acquiring a taste for bad literature and movies, cheap beer and white Russians (explains my affinity for the Dude?) I owe Angus Rogers for my graduating from high school. He took over from me as stage crew manager for the school's production of Hamlet and finished our graduation project after I checked out. I had a bad habit of not finishing things, and I struggle with it to this day.
I've always wondered what kind of network the Rogers, Zettel, Mansfield, Villar, Fisher, Schimoler, Allen families and my family maintained, keeping tabs on us. Always a place to eat or crash, our families were my guardian angels. Especially because I never called home when I was late. Bad habit which I carried until my mid thirties, when my children became teenagers. A belated thanks to all.
Nostalgia: a longing for memories of things past tarnished by too much handling.
