Fonzarelli The Great

April or so of 1984, Bryant Elementary School, in the second grade. We had an assembly in the gymnasium that afternoon. We perked up a bit when we heard it was going to be a "magic" show, so that was something to look forward to.

After a few words from the principal, the magician came on. No corny tux or top hat or anything on this guy, just a simple suit, and he did the usual tricks for us, which was interesting.

The one thing that I remember happening was that he blew up a couple of those long, tube-like balloons, and put them up to his mouth: "Mick Jagger"' he said, and then sang, "Gonna miss you...".

Hilarious. Then, he challenged someone to come up onto the stage and take part in a balloon "sword" duel. My best friend at the time, Mitchell Campbell, got up out of the audience and was on stage. The magician handed him the "sword" and asked, "Do you have any last words?". Mitchell answered, "Your mama!". Big laugh from the crowd. They did a sword-fight routine for a while, which was hilarious.

Anyway, it was a great show, and before we knew it, it was over, and we were back in class, talking and laughing about the show. Then the teacher told us all who it was: she said the name Henry Winkler, and all of a sudden I realized that that was The Fonz who had given the magic show! We didn't recognize him without the leather jacket, and I should have recognized him from the movie Night Shift, which was on cable TV quite regularly, but didn't.

He pulled a really big one on us with that one!

Requiem for an old schoolmate

In the years since I've graduated, I have always been more curious about the people I went to elementary school with. Forget junior high and high school, you pretty much knew what the people around you were going to be, or turn out like.

In the case of many school friends from the early school days, they were your friend for about a couple of years, and then they simply vanished off the face of the earth; or you moved, and then you vanished from the face of the earth, and, in either case, were pretty much never seen again.

With the advent of MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, I've found some old friends from the old days and added them to my ranks, but didn't bother with "Hey, ya remember me from the time I lent you my crayons in Ms. Swanson's class? I never got 'em back! Let's hook up and have a beer and talk about the old days!". I think we all have better things to do, truth be told.

But there are some people who went off into the wrong direction, not through any fault of their own; maybe it was just the environment, peer pressure, or maybe older siblings who showed them the way. A few fondly-remembered childhood buddies ended up with arrest records a mile long apiece, stemming from back in the early 1990's. I guess it was just as well that we lost touch over the years.

But I would still remember the old days and adventures from time to time, and often wondered whatever became of them, and hoped that they had turned out okay, even if I would never see them again.

I opened the paper this morning, and saw that an old schoolmate, Anthony McCane, passed away last week from pneumonia. In the years after our time together, he had slipped into the gang-member/drugs life, and got paralyzed in a shootout in 2002; he subsequently turned his life around and became a tutor, teacher, coach, mentor and friend to everyone he came into contact with. I would never have seen the former aspect of his life coming, as I remembered him as a pretty good guy back then, but he more than redeemed himself afterwards. I'm happy for him in that respect, but I'm a little sad that I can never be able to reconnect and say "hi" again. This is not the first time, and certainly not the last. Rest in peace, old friend.