Led was actually a friend I had known since before I started first grade. However, I only remember meeting him when I was in second grade and he started attending first grade. He was about a year younger than me. After a few weeks of talking to him, we realized that we lived about a half-mile from each other in Cottonwood. I had always been able to clearly see his house from mine (because there weren't any homes in between). Up to the point I was seven, I had always wondered who lived in that house. And then I found out. What a coincidence!
But the funny thing was that we had actually played together prior to going to school. I personally didn't remember him, and he didn't really remember me, but he remembered my last name. At any rate, we had a friendship that continued up through high school.
Led had two much older sisters who had gotten married and had children by the time we were in high school. This meant he had nieces and nephews. It also meant that his mother was much older than the average parent. I don't think I ever met his father and he may have died before Led started attending school.
We were interested in music. We had both been in the choirs going through the grades leading up to high school. However, our personal tastes in music were very different. He was into country music. I didn't like it because there were TOO MANY STUDENTS AT THE SCHOOL WHO LIKED IT! My limited appreciation for it came much later in life.
Led was often critical of the rock music I listened to. He once saw a guitar ad featuring Pete Townshend in a magazine. I never saw the ad, but apparently, Townshend was doing a leaping windmill with his guitar. Led made the comment that you never see any country musicians doing that. I replied by saying that if someone tried to do that with a steel guitar, they would probably get a hernia.
I mentioned how I had gotten to work at the high school auditorium for special events setting up the lights. I put in word for Led to be our sophomore to train when I became a junior. Led became part of the team that included Rod. Led also took part in Drama Department productions, but he never took the Drama class itself.
Outside of Choir and Drama, Led and I didn't do very much. I remember we went to see "Clash of the Titans" when it came out. A lot of our ability to have friend-only activity was hampered by the fact that my family moved to town when I was nine and he continued to live in the country.
Our friendship remained strong at school. However, there was one time that he chose to betray me somewhat. During my junior year, the Choir did a production of the musical "Bye Bye Birdie." I got to play Conrad Birdie. Led got to play Hugo. At the end of the first act, Hugo punches Conrad on national TV. We did the standard fake stage combat, in which he would make a hitting sound with one hand against his chest while pretending to hit me with the other. This was the way rehearsed and played it the first night. It was fine.
But on the night of the second and final performance, I walked by Led as he was talking to Rod (who was playing Mr. McAfee). I heard him say, "So tonight, I'm going to..." and then he punched his fist into his hand. I immediately figured out that he was planning to actually make contact with the punch. I was not going to let that happen. I still had another act to get through, with a solo. (Unlike the movie version, the punch is at the end of Act One.) If I let him actually hit me, I ran the risk of being knocked unconscious or having teeth broken. (After two years of braces, there was just no way that was going to happen!)
So we got to the end of Act One. He came up to punch me and I moved out of the way before he could land the punch. Since he was expecting to hit me, he didn't do the trick sound effect, so it was completely silent. After we left the stage, he said, "Hey! Why did you move out of the way like that?" "Because I saw you and Rod talking and it looked like you had decided to actually punch me on stage." "Well, you wrecked it!" (An interesting thing to note is that the performance was being videotaped. On the tape, the punch looked real. It just didn't sound real) Come to find out, it was Tad who wanted Led to punch me for real on stage. (One other thing Led and I had in common was our severe dislike of Tad.) Tad would not have agreed to the assault if Tad had asked him, so she got Rod to ask him. (This was strange, because Rod also disliked Tad, to the point that he got all in her face once. It just seemed like EVERYBODY thought I deserved a good punch in the face.)
Going into his senior year, Led was elected President of the Drama Club. Unfortunately, the Drama Club would cease to exist.
I continued to see Led occasionally following high school. I will be putting that information in the next post.
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