A friend's November birthday

I have a high school friend who's birthday is tomorrow and since I'm always late sending cards I'll post a story from those old days when we were inseparable and pretty much always skirting trouble.

Rocky Racoon

"Rocky Racoon checked into his room, only to find Gideon's bible..."

About a block from the park we heard singing. The day was balmy and clear, in the midst of Indian Summer. Lisa and I had cut school to attend a local peace rally and were giddy after a contact high from the pot smoking crowd.

Sitting on the rock wall that surrounded the park we saw a long haired young man playing his guitar. His name was Dan, he said he had come up from San Francisco checking out communes in the country that he was considering re-locating to. Lisa and I wondered if he might be a draft dodger. Lisa grinned at me and asked him if we could hang out, we both had a thing for musicians.

For the next week we kept cutting class to spend time with our guitar man at the park. We would kick back on the grass while Dan serenaded us. I had the feeling that he knew we were just a couple kids from the high school, jail bait. He would bring Boones Farm strawberry wine which we would pass around and just watch the sky roll by.

Dan didn't talk much. He mainly just played songs we would request of him. He showed us how to play a few chords which was pretty hard on his 12 string guitar. But it got him to sit close to me which was the ultimate goal. In my teenage mind I actually thought he might get around to choosing one of us to have for his girl.

One day trying to leave campus we got busted by the dean of girls. A few weeks later when we couldn't stand the thought of not seeing Dan we ditched again. We ran all the way, arriving out of breath. The leaves were beginning to fall and the only sound we heard were birds chirping. There was no sign of the park troubadour.

As time passed Lisa and I sang that Beatles song and assumed that Dan, sort of like the lyrics had checked out. At least from our lives. "...Gideon checked out and he left it no doubt, to help with good Rocky's revival."