Today’s question:
Did you have any friends who went with you all the way from elementary school through high school? Are they still your friends?
Just one in particular – Nate Roth. Nate was always a good friend, even in my “finding myself” stages of high school. He moved to New Mexico once or twice but was mostly close by and we spend many a year hanging out. In high school we both hung out with other friends as well but we always got along and had a good time. We mostly went our separate ways since high school but I’m sure we’d still get along well if we met up again. I think he joined the Navy but I’m not entirely sure. I can’t find him on facebook. Here are some of my foremost memories with Nate Roth:
- Accidentally setting a huge trail on fire in Winsted because we were flicking matches (from a matchbook) at each other and one must have escaped our extinguishing efforts. We turned around to find a huge fire in our wake. We were freaked out and didn’t know what to do so we took off our shirts and used them to beat the fire out. Someone called the fire department and they arrived moments after we finished extinguishing it. We wadded our charred shirts into our hands and walked off as if nothing had happened. Close call.
- I went on a trip to New York with his family (his mom and dad are awesome) and I had a crush on his older sister, Heather. I don’t know if Nate ever knew but we held hands in the back seat (hands under a pillow) the whole time. I hoped desperately to play hide and seek in the woods that night so we could make out but we all got in trouble and nothing ever happened. That was the end of that. You so missed out, Heather.
- One time Nate and his sister were beating each other up so I grabbed a muscle massager thingy and harassed Nate with it for a while when he couldn’t defend himself. After he was done with her he got pretty mad at me (he was always stronger than me) and started to fight me in the kitchen. I remember him grabbing me by the hair and kneeing me in the face. I got a black eye and he jumped on my back. I rammed him backwards into the refrigerator in an effort knock the wind out of him and loosen his grip. Instead, I managed to knock all of his mom’s cherished fridge magnets off the fridge, which sent panic through both of us. We immediately called off the fight and began to clean up.
- We used to go swimming all the time at the Highland Lake. We also did a lot of sledding with Matt Faulkner and generally did whatever mischievous or daredevil activities we could think of.
So, Nate was always a good friend and I hope that he’s doing great, wherever he is.
Rock on,
– Nils