39. Steve

Harley moved us once more, the seventh time since I had started first grade. This move wasn’t far and would be the final move before I graduated. Only 7 miles but it put us in another school district. I had gotten used to being the new kid but it was becoming harder to be accepted into a new group. At this point I wasn’t putting much effort into making new friends. I had friends in the Burg 7 miles away…where I had only gone to school for a year and a half. These are very small communities. The entire High School student bodies names fit on the front of a T-shirt. I think my graduating class had around 30 people in it.

Steve and I had a number of classes together. I had him laughing at the most inappropriate times. He did the same. He passed a note around class one day that said ‘Look at the footprints on the ceiling’ We watched as each student looked up. And then the teacher intercepted the note…the entire cIass burst into laughter as he looked up…I’m cracking up right now as I recall it. By the end of May we had become friends. On the last day of school it would get quite rowdy. We would get out early, rushing to the parking lot to jump in our cars and start the end of school party. Steve asked if I wanted to ride with him to the lake. That might not seem like much but it was a true sign that I had been accepted by my new group of peers. Steve also had one of the coolest cars. A tweaked blue Duster. A hotrod! In fact, growing up, the back row of our school parking lots all looked like classic car shows. It was the beginning of one of the best summers of my life.

The summer of 80 I was working at Safeway as a courtesy clerk (bag boy) in the Burg at the time. Steve worked in the Burg as well, at a gas station on the interstate. He heard about and got me a job running the Texaco station across the road. That summer we saw each other and hung out everyday, traipsing back and forth across the road, waiting for an occasional car to pull into our stations. We live and work in the middle of nowhere so there is a lot of down time…time to get into mischief. We had some Cherry Bomb fireworks that we set off one day. In hindsight not the smartest thing to do at a gas station but was that a loud bang and that metal coffee can went 40 feet straight up and came down inside out. Someone else heard it, probably the hotel next door, the police came…must have been a car backfiring. “I tell you what boys, lets tune those engines so we don’t have anymore “backfires”.

Our “crew” worked on our cars, upgrading engines and sound systems. Washed, waxed and vacuumed them for the Friday and Saturday nights we would spend cruising the streets of the three small towns in our very rural county. Impromptu drag races on a stretch of black top between towns was common. The longest in service drag race track in the in the US is still there today at the old airport. Our cars were part of our identity.

It really was an idyllic summer, the kind you see in movies. We spent our days just hanging out at Steve’s grandpa’s garage, a city park or occasionally we would drive out to spend the night at Lake McConaughey in Nebraska. Warm sunny days and cool summer nights. It was easy, it was fulfilling. It was our whole world.

I think we were all aware, on an unconscious level, that this would be the last summer of our lives like this. The weight of the world and all its responsibilities had not yet been thrust upon us. In hindsight I think we all assumed we are going to move thru life making these kinds of friendships and bonds. I don’t think we do. Those bonds are forged when we are young, resilient, innocent and more forgiving of each other and the world. Hold onto and nurture them. They are rare and fleeting in the day to day grind of adulthood.

Steve and I lived in Ovid. Actually I lived on a farm just outside of Ovid. Steve had been born and lived here all his life like so many of the others . I had a number of very close friends that I had made in the Burg. Jacque was one of them. Like Steve, I think her family had lived here most their lives as well. She lived on our school bus route when we lived outside the Burg. We saw each other each morning. She is such a genuine person, always friendly, happy and laughing. We keep each other entertained on the ride to school. Also like Steve, she was one of the first to befriend me in the Burg at the beginning of my Sophomore year. She eventfully got a car, a beautiful blue Monte Carlo and would visit me at the Texaco station. One day right after Jacque left, Steve came running across the road. “Do you know her?” Not long after that they went on a date. The next morning, Sunday, we had to open our stations. I called him and he came over. I asked how it went.

“I’m gonna marry that girl someday”… and he did.

They were meant for each other. They went together “like peas and carrots”. From then on you most likely found them cruising up and down the drag or anywhere…together. They were fulfilled just being in each others company. My two dear friends were now the best of friends and would be “for forever and a day”. He loves her more than life itself. The kind of love they write songs about.

Steve and I shared personal struggles, big ideas and dreams, maybe things we didn’t share with anyone else at the time. I think Steve knew I was “different” even though we never spoke specifically about it. He made reassuring comments about being ok with who we were. He never stopped being my friend. He was deeper than many realized at the time. Very shy and a man of few words. Those few words however, were always honest and thoughtful. I really did think of him like a brother. I trusted him and he trusted me.

I left home in the summer of 83″. Steve tuned up a car I had bought for a couple of hundred dollars out of farmers barn, a car a son had never returned home to drive, so I could make it to Texas. He’s still one of if not the best mechanic I’ve ever known. Working on cars was something he truly loved with a passion. Whenever I have gone home, I stopped at Steve & Jacque’s first. When she opens the door its as if no time has passed. We sit as if we saw each other just the other day when in fact sometimes it had been years if not decades. Timeless friends are among my most cherished acquisitions in this life. I cherish Jacque & Steve.

I got the news a year ago that my dear friend had passed leaving Jacque to carry on. I cannot imagine how this has shaken her world. I just wanted to run to her and hold her tight. She knows, as do we all, he will move on with us in our hearts and memories. Steve & Jacque walked thru this world, hand in hand, for over 4 decades, married for 39 years. And although my dear Jacque is carrying the burden of grief, she knows what a wonderful and magical life they had together. With all its up’s and down’s, trials and triumphs it was meant to be. A life together that was written in the stars.

Much of the county turned out for his memorial which was held on the fair grounds. He had specific instructions for his funeral. Steve and Jacque had built a very successful towing and recovery business. The largest in the tri state area. He was a Ford man and had a fleet of Ford repair and tow trucks. A custom urn with the Ford emblem on it held his ashes, that would be placed in a hearse, that would be transported to the cemetery on one of their flatbed tow trucks.

Perfect!

I will joyfully remember our yesterdays, mourn the loss of today and carry you with me for the rest of my tomorrows. Goodbye dear friend. Thank you for being a apart of my journey. I love you, Steve.