Bill

My buddy Bill is coming down to visit for a week or so this coming Thursday. He has been dropping in on us in July for the past number of years, and he is always welcome. Bill lives in Edmonton, but you shouldn’t hold that against him, he fell in love, got a job, raised two lovely girls and as of three days ago, he has two beautiful grandsons. I don’t know how he is going to tear himself away from those cuties, but I expect him sometime Thursday morning.

Bill and I met way back in the seventies. I was good friends with his sister Noelle and our paths crossed every now and then. There was a time when we both needed a roommate, so we moved in together. We liked a lot of the same things, music, girls, drugs, girls, drugs and music. We found an apartment that suited our needs, two bedrooms and cheap. It was decorated in early Hippie style which meant pretty much anything that was free or not nailed down. I remember a floor lamp that I made from a branch that had cord wrapped around it and had a bare bulb hanging down. It gave my dad the creeps for years and years to come and he would mention that lamp pretty much anytime he could. It’s his fault for moving out of the city on me.

We had a lot of fun in that apartment. We would sit on the balcony and whistle at underage girls just to give them a thrill. Yeah, I’m surprised we were never arrested either, but those were more tolerant times in some ways. We’d sit on the balcony with cool drinks and a pipe or two to keep us in a mellow mood. Once we whistled at a young girl on the street and she ran towards the building crying “Yes, Yes, Yes… Take me!!” That was a different response than we had ever gotten before and it took a while to get through our fogged up minds that it was June, a friend of ours. We both liked June and June thought of us as brothers. Hmmmmmm…typical!

When I think back, I can remember only snatches of our time together. I remember the water fight we had one hot day that was no holds barred, just as long as we stayed away from the stereo. One morning, I shot Bill in the back with dog spray while he was stretching on the balcony. I seem to remember an urn where we kept about eight ounces to a pound of loose grass. The idea was that if we were ever busted, we would only be charged with possession instead of dealing because it was all in one container. Thinking back I’m pretty sure that was optimistic on our part. Back then if the cops had found anywhere close to a pound of grass, they would have figured they had caught a major supplier for central Canada. Lucky for us the cops were either lazy or stupid, because we weren’t any too bright and they never caught us.

We moved apart, but the next year we actually lived across from each other on O’Connor Drive in Toronto. I was with Louise by then and Bill shortly after that would be heading out to Edmonton to meet the love of his life. We eventually found ourselves in Calgary which is a three hour drive from Edmonton and although we didn’t drive it as often as we should have perhaps, we did see each other on a regular basis. We both got married and our children were born in the years following. We remained friends through good times and bad.

I guess we are getting to be old men and have known each longer than we have known anyone else. When we get together, there is no real need to catch up, other than to find out which one has the cutest grandkids. I do in case you were wondering. I plan on putting Bill to work while he is down this time, but as always we will remain flexible and more likely than not, we will just sit and watch the world go by.