As I recount the days of my life, I have come to the conclusion that the time period around 1984 contained what I recall as being the best days of my life, although it’s hard to say exactly why I’m so drawn to this era. Thinking about it carefully, it was an angst-ridden time where I was chubby, awkward, and confused. I liked girls but they didn’t care for me – and that about says it all. So why is this time now so well-received by my current-day self? One possible answer is because Eric Welch was my best friend during this time period.
Eric was new to Fairbrook Elementary during the 1983-84 sixth grade year. I don’t recall the exact circumstances of us becoming friends, but I do remember why I was drawn to him. It was mostly because he had a very new and fresh sense of humor. It wasn’t that of the unbridled silliness of most pre-teens I had known. It was a refined and lethal sarcasm, yet polite enough to be an Eddie Haskell-jab in disguise. Of course, there was much more to Eric than that. He was very smart, very witty, and overall was very nice to everyone around him. He taught me that it was much funnier to deflate the pompous than to pick on the little guy.
Over the course of our sixth grade year, although we ran in a circle of friends that included Steve Smith, Mike Sparks, Ron Reid, Jason Painter, Amy Lupini, Lisa Baker, Eric Conant, and probably a few others, I most certainly considered him to be my best friend. It is amazing to me how many memories of that time period are stored in my head: spending the night at each others houses, watching the MTV Top 20 Video Countdown, catching a mouse in his bathroom, inane phrases that we used (555-5555, Baaaahh!, igabauma, etc.), using our black and white video camera to record stupid skits, watching Rich Little’s A Christmas Carol ad nauseum, going to the BX with his folks, going through phases of collecting comic books, View Master Slides, and rock albums of the day (particularly that of the very wild Twisted Sister), and so many more.
We were also on the sixth grade basketball team coached by my Dad and Frank Rosati. I’ll never forget any of these kids: me, Tim Coleman, Steve Deeton, Eric, Rob Bradford, Jason Painter, Neil Kingery, Ron Reid, and Mike Sparks
When I first contacted Eric last year, it was clear that he had many memories of his own. Our Friday nights at my Mom’s volleyball game followed by dinner at Marion’s and our foray into backward masking exploration were two distinct things that stuck out in his mind, but I had long forgotten.
Even during the Summer after our sixth grade year, Eric joined my family on a Disney World vacation. This also stands out of one of the greatest vacations of my life. But unfortunately as young pre-teens are prone to do, I think we over-extended our time together and became annoyed at some of each other’s idiosyncrasies. Things were never the same after we returned.
Eric stayed in Beavercreek attending Ankeney Junior High through the eighth grade year. By that time, we had grown so far apart that I didn’t even remember him being there beyond the seventh grade year. After his family departed the area, it would be nearly ten years until we would see each other again.
In 1995, Eric and his family were back in the area. I was working at the Beavercreek Kroger when his Mom came in to shop and she recognized me. Soon afterward, Eric came in to see me and after I got off work, he came over to my Woodman Park Apartment and we went out for a few drinks at the Phone Booth lounge. It was as if the years and any bad feelings we may have had were completely melted away. I hadn’t laughed so hard in years, as we drove home in his jeep convertible, blasting the Twisted Sister tunes. I’ll never know why we didn’t hang out even once again while he was in the area.
After ample searching, I finally tracked him down again in 2007. He was living in Muncie, Indiana after another series of moves and a college career. Not surprisingly, these days he had carved out a most successful life for himself as a lawyer running his own firm, a lovely wife Anna, and as of about two months ago, the father of four adorable children. I didn’t actually get to meet up with Eric until June 8, 2008 while I was traveling with Jackie and Chris between Indianapolis and Fairmount, stopping in Muncie along the way to see him and his family.
With as busy as he is with work and family life, I was grateful to be able to spend an hour or so with him, just chatting about the good old days, catching up on the new ones, and pondering the fate of many of our classmates with whom we have both long since lost touch. I think Eric and I had the good fortune to be friends during one of the most tumultuous and impressionable period of every boy’s life, and not speaking for him, I personally still find great comfort in the fact that I had such a good friend to help see me through it.
The Indiana trip will continue…
Continue to the next reunion…
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