Well, I did it again: I took off several months, apparently with little to write about. But I figure, what with all the technology in the world today, my handful of followers didn't miss much.
Hopefully, I can do better.
I am at the computer today still trying to process the death of one of my best high school friends, Rex Crawford. It was about a week ago that I received an e-mail from Loren Lounsbury, who maintains probably the best high school website in the country, that "we had lost another classmate." When I clicked on the link supplied with the brief message, there was a photo of Rex, just as I remembered him from high school.
For the next 15 minutes, I sat at the computer and stared at the photo, not believing what I was seeing. Today, a week later, I'm still having hazy memories of good times we shared when we were nearly inseparable for two or three years. My main memories are of playing basketball on the driveway at his home, where he not only honed his considerable skills, but came up with trick shots which constantly bulldozed me and others at HORSE. When we chose sides for pickup games, He delighted in dribbling the ball through MY legs as I was trying to play defense, dashing past me to field his own pass for a layup.
And then, the big "Chipper" laugh.
As a sportswriter for these 35 years, I loved to cover players like Rex, who made themselves successful through grit and hard work. While others may have had as much talent, he parlayed tremendous inner drive and hard work into varsity letters. Some said he couldn't do it, but he proved them wrong. I know it was a different time, but I doubt many high school juniors and seniors are setting up baseball games after school. I think it was the constant work he put into even these pickup games that make him a favorite.
Off the court or the diamond or football field, Rex was a friend. He picked me up in his green Falcon every day for school, following up by picking up Daryl Walz and Rick Wahl. In some ways, we were the four musketeers; somehow I got in there despite my having no athletic ability. But it is the friendship, the good times, that I cherish the most. Unfortunately, it is the way of the world that you move on from these days. The last time I talked to Rex (to my recollection) was around 1974 --- 38 years ago!! It is equally unfortunate that it takes something we never thought about in these days --- death or our advancing age --- to bring all these memories back, and to make us wish it could have been somehow different.
My sympathies go out to Rex's family, and to all the families of classmates who are gone. Like our high school years or not, they are our history. But when things like this happen, it all seems like it was just ... yesterday.
