My parents are out of town, so I have come over to Ma and Pa Gimp's homestead to check on the cat. While I was here, I naturally took off shoes and shirt because my car has no A/C and I just commuted 40 minutes in the sun, so I am understandably baked. Besides, I used to live here and no one is home...

I am on dialup, which is very traumatic to me. It feels weird...from another time. Almost as weird as the fact that I am sitting in an office. There's a desk, bookcase, futon, and of course the guitars for which my family is known. I have been picking a minute, and I begin to notice how much this office has changed since it was Gimp's bedroom.

There used to be a bed right here, and a phone...MY phone line, paid for with Burger King money...which I used to talk on til indecent hours of the night with friends after football games and innumerable fabulous halftime performances. Over there, by the bookcase, was where my 'Dead Presidents' poster was, which usually was bathed in a blacklight and incense while I listened to Sly and the Family Stone and Isaac Hayes in the darkened room. Beads there, glow-in-the-dark posters there...a Wu Tang poster of the ENTIRE clan over there behind the door. Right there was the mirror that had the pictures. Yep, the pictures of SleepyDirty with his hair messed up...of the Whyzeman making a peace sign and wearing an ear-to-ear grin while Violet the OrganGrinder aka Hellfire aka I'll-beat-your-honkey-ass-if-you-ring-that-cowbell-again-Cockerell was doubled over laughing. DoughBoy was saying something in ghetto speak, which was always fabulous, him being a doctor's kid and all and living in the affluent neighbourhood. And of course Luther's in it, in a varsity jacket and medals pinned to it like he was a soldier or something. Actually Luther is. He's a lawyer now, straight out of the hood too and will sue you to oblivion. He signs his name Luther (Lastname), Esq. now!

You know...we dwell a lot of times on the negative impact that school had on us. On the depression, on the failed relationships, the never-was relationships, and the depression of life as we unfolded into adults. It's been 10 years now, and I try not to think about those things. You know what I remember?

I remember Squirt's mom coming to pick him and WhyzeMan up, and the next day Squirt, who was in my trumpet squad, mouthing off to me, Mr. Squad Leader. I said "Don't make me call Cuda to come pick you up," and he looked at me in disbelief for a few minutes then ran around shrieking, intermittently cussing and yelling "NAW YOU DIDN'T MAN!" I remember WhyzeMan with a very brief "you talkin about my mom?" look, then busting out laughing at his kid brother who was still hopping around like a boxer on speed.

I remember untold games of spades during lunch, using the half-assed excuse of a drum-major's platform as a table. I remember ya'll trying to teach me and clue me in, but me constantly re-negging and getting the back of my head slapped. I remember ya'll hopping up and screaming "BOOK, BEYOTCH!!!" and everyone running around clapping.

I remember Kenny G Church Boy with his "Gospel Gangstas" cd trying to spread the love and message through the power of organized religion corporate 'gangsta rap'...and how everyone looked at him just long enough for him to remove it and re-insert Raekwon back into the cd player.

I remember Mary picking her nose and making a booger pile in her hand during pep rallies. I remember the constant thumb sucking and intellectual conversation. I remember being pulled over by the cops and asked why I was in Queensburg at night when I left her at her house.

I remember Mario being kicked out his own home by his mom, and him taking up with a woman he described "as a whore. She moans and EVERYTHING! Wanna come over?" I remember him showing up at school under the big oak tree, plastered, which was always fantastic to me.

I remember WhyzeMan and I going on band clinic excursions and coming home with the usual red-white-blue or yellow/gold medals after reprazentin' the LHS.

I also remember BASIC programming class, and a certain kick ass russian roulette game someone made. And chameleon programmed by hand. And GAPPER, ho's!

Remember them breaks and standing around at the gas meter over by the tavern? And them good candybars they don't make anymore. BarNone's.

Remember when they found the vo-tech bathroom rolled floor to ceiling in toilet paper? Hehehe.

Remember burger king nights and flippin burgers and screaming "I DONT CARE" at the top of our lungs? And them telling Rico to dress better, and him showing up with a clip-on tie with his burger king uniform?

We had good times, guys. Focus on those and not on the bad crap.

Love ya'll.