The Terrible Catsafterme

The good news is that in this posting we can finally put to bed the story about ABR and the supposed job that my new friend Keith was offering me. The bad news is that it if you don’t already know the story, you might be left still wanting more. For this may have been the end of ABR, but it was not the end of Keith. That end wouldn’t come until over a year later. But I’m getting ahead of myself…

1992 began in grand style with a relatively large party at my house. My Mom and Bob had gone out to a New Years Eve party of their own that night and my Mom had made the mistake of giving me permission to have my own New Years party. I wasn’t yet 21 so she actually even assisted in getting us some of the beverages. And then there was the  car trunk full of various varieties of liquor that I had been toting around for a couple of weeks that had been a gift from my new friend/boss Keith.

Quite the oddball, Keith himself hadn’t been invited to the party – and most likely wouldn’t have come anyway. It would have certainly been strange to have this guy who was going to be my new ‘boss’ at this affair that included a rather wild and unruly mob of fellow Kroger employees and other friends. To wit, Larry, Carl, James Elsman, Jennifer Dearwester, Matt White, Jeff Flinn, the Dearwesters, Jon Petering, April Elder, Jessica Wenz, my cousin Susan, and of course my sister Denise were all there. Undoubtedly there were others, but it is rather hard to recall. In fact the whole night is kind of blurry and rightfully so.

I had set up my CD player so that one speaker was inside and one was out in the garage so that I was able to blast my Morrissey, Depeche Mode, Electronic, and other assorted gems throughout either location. With the amazing amount of alcohol on the premises, it is a small wonder that I can even remember Denise getting drunk for the first time, Matt White falling all over the garage because he couldn’t stand, Jeff Flinn telling me that it was the greatest party he had ever been to, kissing Jessica out in the street (as Mom and Bob came home and drove right by us), the elder Dearwesters (Cindy worked with us and her husband Jim was a BHS teacher) showing up to party with us, and finally the cops showing up just before my Mom had arrived home.

All was well that ended well and I think everyone involved (except maybe the cops) can probably still recall that party. I had kind of hoped that Jessica and I could begin dating, but she decided that she ultimately wasn’t interested. It obviously didn’t mean that much to me either as I was barely upset by the decision.

But life continued as I went back to school for my Winter 1992 quarter. One class of which I have no recollection was Accounting (3 credit hours, and although accounting would become my strongest trait at Kroger, my first college D). I also had the 4-credit hour Computer Science class and although I was utterly lost throughout it – and barely showed up for it – I somehow pulled a B. Management Science was really Statistics and I quite enjoyed this subject. I got a B in the 3-credit hour class. But by far the class I recall the most was my Chemistry class (4 credit hours, final grade C), but this had nothing to do with the subject itself. It had to do with my friend Amy Caro.

She and Shelly Benson had been in my previous Chemistry class, but only Amy was in this one. I had a great time  and looked forward to hanging out with her each class. Occasionally we would go out to eat McDonalds after the class and at least once I went over to her house to study. Each get-together always ended up with each of us laughing uncontrollably. It seemed as if we always talked about The Brady Bunch. As you can probably tell, I had a tremendous crush on her, but she had a boyfriend at the time, so it never amounted to anything.

The ABR situation resolved itself as I finally made the stipulation to Keith that I was tired of the runaround and refused to make any effort to ‘go with him’ to visit the office. I told him that from now on if he wanted me to see this supposed office that he was to call me when he was already there, I would drive there by myself, enter the office by myself, and meet up with him. From that point on, the job was never – not once – mentioned again. I kept the money that he had given me as his ’employee’. With all the runaround and stupidity, I felt that I had earned it.

The bonus money bag remained in my car for almost the entire year. At one point in December, my friend Matt Bohlander was visiting and we were drinking and chatting and I told him this whole story. He was amazed by it and said that I just simply had to open that bag to see if there was any money it it. I didn’t do it that night, but finally did a few days later. I assumed at that point that Keith would never mention the job again. After simply cutting the locked bag’s zipper with a pair of scissors, I found an envelope with pieces of paper cut to the size of dollar bills. The band around it said “Brad Bonus Money”. There was also a note inside that said “Brad – You disappoint me.” How this would have played out had we still be ‘talking’ about the job when I opened it, I’ll never know.

As for Keith himself, I remained friends with him for the entire duration of 1992 and into 1993. I told them at the beginning that if he had wanted to be friends, there was no need to make up a story about a phony job. But he must have felt that he still needed to ‘buy’ my friendship, as soon he would begin to purchase all sorts of items for me whenever we would stop at CD Connection or go browsing for Laserdiscs. He would also buy lunch each day that we met and buy concert tickets that we would both go to. Had I not been a foolish immature kid at the time, I would have naturally declined such gestures.

I know what the situation sounds like, but there was honestly never any ‘inappropriate’ advances or behavior (other than the whole friendship itself) coming from him. I assumed that he was just an incredibly lonely guy who felt like he need to buy a friend. And I guess as selfish as it sounds, I was selling. I knew he was a flagrant and compulsive liar and should have nixed him at that point, but there never seemed to be anything harmful…at least not for a while.

Knowing my interest in music, Keith gave me several backstage passes to a Guns N’ Roses concert that was going to be taking place at the Nutter Center on January 13. I went along with Jon Petering, the Dearwesters, and perhaps some other co-workers. When we took the passes to security, we found that they were fakes – which didn’t surprise me one bit. It seemed that everything about Keith was fake.

Besides the concert mentioned above, I also went back to the second show that Guns N’ Roses peformed at the Nutter Center the next night on Janaury 14. I had drank a few beers  before this one and actually fell asleep during part of the show.

Keith then took the opportunity to get into the act of actually attending the concerts and I believe our first one was the Cheap Trick show at Bogarts in Cincinnati on February 26. He bought the tickets not only for him and me, but also for my friend Jeff Flinn. The three of us ended up meeting up with Chris Demeter at the show and afterward walked back to his place to see his apartment.

On March 2, my co-worker Jennifer Dearwester and I drove to the Riverfront Coliseum to see Metallica. I’d have to say that 1992 would hold the record for most concerts attended – especially after Keith got involved. It seems we were going to some show or another every other week throughout the summer.

I don’t have any photos from any of the events described above, but do have some others from the end of the Winter months of 1992. Ashleigh’s second birthday fell on Saturday, March 21. We had a gathering at my house most likely on that exact day, with Christi, my parents, and some of my Mom’s family attending. The only pictures that appear to have been taken were these black and white ones by my Dad.

Christi with Ashleigh and her two-candled cake

Ash and a new stuffed animal

Ashleigh’s had her hand in the cake. Uh-oh

Ashleigh reading her Garfield book…about the cat, not the President

Susan, Chris, and Grandpa Murphy watch some TV after the birthday proceedings

Although these chocolate Ashleigh photos (including the more ominous one at the top) were taken in late May, I grouped them with her birthday pics since she appears to be covered in cake

There was a definite theme of “Ashleigh from different angles”

And finally, here are some photos from some of my Kroger friends at the time. I have had difficulty dating them, but as near as I can tell these were from the early Spring of 1992. Although definitely not up to the wild standards set forth by the New Years party, they certainly represent some of the times I had with this group of friends, hanging out and drinking on our patio.

This one taken in the garage should be on one of those anti-smoking billboards

James rides Ashleigh’s tricycle and Laurel wants to check it out

Larry and James whip out the obligatory Ouija Board. I think all the boxes of junk  on the patio were getting ready to be either sold or donated

Serene insanity with James, April, me, Carl, and Laurel

Trying to snag a kiss from April as James and Larry look on helplessly

April and Jennifer wave goodbye. At least they’re in the back of the car rather than the driver’s seat

1992 will continue…

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 8th, 2009 at 6:30 am and is filed under 1990's - Early. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.