The Challenge! Friendship!

Describe your best childhood friend and your relationship with them. 

I have given this topic a great amount of thought over the past week. My initial idea was to post something from each time period of my life much the same as the favorite teacher post in recent weeks. After some careful consideration I decided that I would, potentially, offend more of my friends by not choosing them to be highlighted here. There are many that I call to mind with very fond, and a few uncomfortable, memories. Many of you shared the same friendships and acquaintance that I did growing up in western Colorado. If you are like me (and I know I am) just the mention of someone will bring to mind some humorous story or a remembrance that often brightens your day for just that moment (or longer). For me those names begin with Mike Peterson, Tommy Means, Pat Macdonald, Carla Ray, LuAnn Paulson and her brother Lanny, Reggie Everett, David Cole, Scott young and his family, John Young, Mike, Scott, and David Hawks, Gary Doyal, Jimmy Etzler, Travis Mays, Paul Lister, Rich Idler, and many many others. Sorry - if I listed all who have impacted me as friends you all would be bored to tears.

The list is long.

There are two not included in the list above for different reasons. The first is my sweetheart Cindy Gray - whom I did not meet until high school and who I will not be writing about here today other than to mention that the friendship continues to blossom even after 36 or 37 years (34 married) of getting familiar with one another. No, I think most of you who really know me will agree that Mike Hoaglund was the best friend I ever had, outside my marriage.

Mike was a year ahead of me in school and I remember him initially at Shelledy Elementary. We only interacted on the playground there, as his class was coming outside from the lunchroom as mine was going back inside to try and learn something. His mom was a second grade teacher in the school and everyone knew he was her son. I don't remember ever interacting with Mike at Fruita Elementary School but once we got to Junior High School we became very good friends. Football, wrestling, and track and field brought us together as teammates and began to solidify the relationship. We also had the Church in common - we both attended the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints there in Fruita. We participated in the Boy Scout Troop there and spent time in the outdoors with other good friends (Reggie, Matt, Dennis, Jeff and many others). We rode our bicycles up and down the Colorado National Monument and all over the drainages and dirt hills in the Fruita area - just a grand time to be alive.

Mike's sophomore year in high school is when the friendship really took off. He got his driver's license and we could go into the outdoors to fish, and hunt, and just spend time hiking. We didn't catch many fish or have a lot of success in the field but that did not deter us from getting out there and having fun. As we graduated from school, in successive years, we continued to be friends and he was the first to know, besides me, that I was thinking about getting married. He always had an opinion on any given topic and he did on this one as well - which he did not hesitate to share with me (or anyone).

Mike and I worked together, played together, went to school together, and became friends through all those interactions. What a good man he became. Most of you know that Mike died from a self inflicted gunshot wound not long after his marriage began to unravel. I don't remember exactly when this occurred my recollection is sometime in the late 1980's though it could have been as late as 1990. As with many friendships we had drifted in different directions following marriage and living in different parts of the country.
He was a good friend. Always willing to back me up but not afraid to let me know when I was wrong (and I was wrong often). I'm not sure that all friendships have the strengths and trials that ours did - but I do cherish each of the experiences we shared.

The blog challenge has now ended for me, who knows what you will find here next time?

Thanks for checking in. More to come soon.