Rememberin' a Friend

I remember our Senior year in high school, a bunch of us were takin' Journalism from Mrs. Petrey. Or Mrs. Goetz. Or Miss Goetz. Hell, or maybe it was Miss Petrey. It was this or Senior English with Mrs. shaw. I believe I was the only one in our Senior Class that had the distinction of takin' both classes. (Mrs. Bell flunked my school-skippin', smart-alec ass Sophomore year...)

Anyway, as I remember it, you usually copied somethin' outta the newspaper in the Library once a week, then we would all slap together the school paper. Biggest goof off class I ever had in high school. (Thanks, Violet!. One mornin' before class, early in the year, Teresa and me were feelin' particularly "inspired", and decided we would interview one of the teachers that was new to Lincoln that year. Can't remember his name, or even what classes he taught. He was a nice fella- probably wasn't more than thirty years old, as best as I can recall, but he entertained us and answered our questions: Wife? Kids? College? That kinda stuff.

Then Teresa and me sat in the Library and spun this poor guy's stuff into foolishness as funny as we thought we could get away with. We laughed our heads off, gettin' called down several times, which, of course, only served to make us worse. I remember that when we were done with it, we were extremely pleased with the product. We were really pushin' the envelope , Teresa and me.

I can't recall any of the stuff that we thought was so damn funny from that article, save for one thing. We had asked Mr. New Guy what his hobbies were, and he answered "Keeping Apis Mellifera." Boy, did our eyes light up. He went on to explain that Apis Mellifera was Latin for Honey Bees, (or, more precisely, bees that bear honey.) We used that in our article, just as he had told us, including his explanation about what Apis Mellifera meant, which we followed, in parentheses, with "but, we have our doubts..." I laughed 'till my gut ached. I kept copies of those papers for several years, but I haven't run across them in my junk in a long, long time.

A buncha runnin' around with Teresa. Me and her and other good friends. And a whole lotta just actin' silly and laughin'. Just enjoyin' bein' around each other.

Funny, the things that take up residence in your head, stayin' still, until somethin' happens that causes 'em to come floodin' back, good and bad.

Sure gonna miss that girl. Already am...