My computer became a TARDIS temporarily...

This morning, an email crossed my screen from an old friend/roommate from my old college days in the land of snow and ice, Marquette, Michigan. I had not heard from this fellow in many years, and you can just imagine the joy I had as I read that he was alive and well and living in Chicago.

Reminiscences are dear to me; It's nice to hear and see how the people that had such effect upon my early life have grown up and such, but it's much more entertaining to me to recall those earlier days, when we were younger, somewhat wilder, far more immortal, and bound together by the day to day living in a university dormitory.

There were many of us, truth to tell.....our suite of rooms on the first floor of Gries hall at Northern Michigan University was an endless parade of friends and friends of friends. We always had a pot of coffee brewing, and something interesting on the stereo, and plenty of places to plop your ass down to study, or to just jaw for a bit. We were equidistant from the cafeteria and the theatre. But the four of us who actually lived in the suite were myself, John Ruskowski, John Martek, and Ron Rowland.

We had a grand time passing around the phone when somebody called for "John". It was something like this:

Caller: Can I speak to John?
Me: Yeah, just a minute.
(hand phone to John Martek)
John: This is John.
Caller: No, I'm looking for the other John.
John: Oh, sorry, just a minute.
(hands phone to Ron Rowland)
Ron: This is Ron.
Caller: No. I'm calling for John.
Ron: Oh, I'm sorry, I thought he said, "Ron". I'll get John.
(Back to me)
Me: This is John.
Caller: Oh, for the love of God. I'm calling for John Ruskowski.
Me: Oh, why didn't you say so?
Caller: Yes, I should have been more specific.
Me: John's not here. Would you like to talk to somebody else?
(Caller hangs up.)

We would do this often.

Another favorite story is our "fifth" roommate, a fellow named Irv. Actually, Irv was a stuffed set of clothing with a Werewolf mask for a head. He sat in the last seat closest to the wall. He was often the life of the party, but he didn't really say much. The girls loved him, though......until the night Marty (which is what we called Martek after awhile, because even WE could be confused) snuck back early from a party and dressed himself as Irv. We all brought people home, and one of the girls sat next to Irv. She politely said hello to Irv, which was pretty commonplace.

When Irv turned his head, the freakout was classic. I have to admit, I was heading for the window before common sense stopped me.

This did not happen often....largely because the aforementioned girl beat the living crap out of Marty.

But my all-time favorite story is about comic book heroes. We all loved comic book heroes, and in the throes of the drink one evening, we concocted alter-egos for ourselves and became a SUPERHERO TEAM.

We considered various names, but a lot of them had been taken already. The AVENGERS was taken. THE DEFENDERS was taken. THE X-MEN was taken, and we didn't really want to be known as ex-men. So, we became THE OFFENDERS.

Ron was MAJOR MUSIC: He could fly using the sound of his voice, and could fine tune a note to disable his opponents.

Marty was PROPMASTER: He could magically produce any prop needed between his hands, like magic.

Ruskowski was HAPPY LEPRECHAUN: John had a rubber face, a stretchy body, and a penchant for smokin' the herb.

I was ANTITHESIS. My power was the ability to shoot upside-down horseshoes at my opponent. I also had the secondary power of magically producing cardboard signs with pithy sayings like, "We're doomed!" and "How do I get out of this Chicken Outfit?"

Ron was a graphic artist as well, and produced a comic book that has since been lost to antiquity. I have a birthday card he sent me one year, with out characters on it. And Ruskowski made action figures. I still have mine.

We all eventually went our separate ways. Marty is married and living in Central Michigan, a honcho in the local community theatre up there. I see him when I can. Ruskowski is also in Michigan, married with children, and I hear he still paints. Ron is doing graphic design in Chicago, married with pets, and still as full of good humor as ever.

And this whole thing is just to remind us all that:

Love never dies.
Creativity is like energy: it can be controlled, dimmed, but never EVER destroyed.
and
The stories of our youth are to be cherished. Trap them in amber if you can.

LONG LIVE THE OFFENDERS!