A Friend in Need

 Aerial view of Del Norte High School, circa 1972. Today there is no parking lot, the main building is gone and what looks like a three-story office building dominates the side facing Montgomery Boulevard. Del Norte Baptist Church across the street is now completely hidden by apartment buildings.

In 1997 my parents drove to Pueblo, CO. to Dad's 50th reunion. Mom kidded him, saying "Did you really go to school with all those grey-haired women?"

Now it's my turn.

My God! Fifty years go by in a blink and getting into contact with people I haven't rubbed shoulders in decades, all of a sudden, the memories come back. The sorrowful part is the number of classmates many I went through Junior High and High school with are no longer with us.

I read the names recognizing friends and foes, some since the size of our class was so large, I didn't know, but recognized their yearbook faces. One name stood out for me.

Class of 72:

KARDOKUS - Memorial services for Daniel Charles Kardokus will be held at 3 p.m., April 8 at New Life Chapel, Foursquare, 500 N. Washington. Daniel was born March 12, 1954 in Los Angeles, Calif., to Charles and Wilma (Palmer) Kardokus. He went to be with the Lord on March 21, 2001, at the age of 47

Danny and I had little in common. I was the athlete, and he was chubby and clumsy. I was always mentioned in the school paper sports section, he was never mentioned. We ran in completely different circles. In high school we didn't share many of the same classes.

What we did have in common was our faith. McKinley Junior High was 60% Hispanic. in 7th grade Danny and I were Anglo and didn't go to the same elementary schools, so we didn't have any friends. There is no grade in school worse than 7th grade and for both of us it was pure hell.

For that year he was the one person I could encourage, and he encouraged me by our belief in Jesus. He was Pentecostal and I was a Baptist. I went to the church across the street from the school. That didn't matter we shared a faith in Jesus.

In high school we met during lunch or before school and talked. He was effeminate in manner and speech. The jocks always gave me a funny look while we were laughing and joking together.

After graduation we lost contact. I went to college on a track scholarship and most of my high school classmates were out of my thoughts. Then a funny thing happened in 1989.

We had a Volkswagen Westphalia and, on a Saturday decided to go camping. Son was 8 and daughter 3. We drove to a state park not far from Albuquerque, pitched a tent for daughter to stay out of the sun and she had her toys to keep happy. We played a little baseball with plastic balls and bat with my son. That lasted about thirty minutes and we were attacked by gnats. A swarm of them and they were biting. Decided not to set up the badminton net. This wasn't fun anymore.

We packed up and went home. A few hours later I got a phone call, this was when we were in the phone book and had a land line. Danny called. He and his wife and two children were in town and their car broke down. His grandparent surprisingly lived a block away from wife's parents. He wanted to know if we could pick him up and drive them to the other side of the river.

It was a good thing we had the Westphalia, and we were back in town. We picked them up and took them to a diner for dinner then down to his grandparents. We had a great time catching up, his wife and mine talked, which is rare for my wife who is rather shy around strangers. His kids and our kids had a great time in the back of the van, good thing there weren't any seatbelt laws at that time. 

We stopped afterwards and paid a surprise visit to wife's parents. On the way home it was crazy, but did God send a plague of gnats so we would be there to help a friend in need?

WC092122

 Today's challenge is: What is your least favorite chore and why?

Sorry if this is icky, but cleaning the bathroom is at the top.

My wife's attitude is, "You make the mess, you clean it up."

I have to do this chore not only at home, but at the office. Since I get to spend time writing for free, (I used to get paid, but pleadings are now done electronically) still I get the mail, let S. know if he needs to come in or not and keep the place clean. If you stay on top of it not a big deal.

WC 091422 What makes you buy a book?

 Today's challenge is, what makes you pick up or buy a book?

1. It's recommended. I've bought a number of books mentioned in Top Ten Tuesday and Wednesday Challenge, as well as Berthold Gambrel.

2. The author. Tony Roberts, Mark Dawson, James Clavell, Tom Clancy, are recent authors that when they come out with a new book, I download it or buy it. I'm strictly e-book due to eyesight issues.

3. The bandwagon, if there is a current book that everyone is raving about and it's in a genre, I enjoy I'll give it a try. This is hit and miss. I've tried to read a book everyone was raving about and couldn't get past twenty pages.

4. The title or book cover catches my eye.

This is one, and I enjoyed it and all the others that followed.

5. Book by blogger friend or a local author I know from Southwest Writers or Writers2writers.

Hank Bruce, Dr. Irene Blea, Jonathan Miller, Joseph Badal, Paula Paul, Berthold Gambrel, Audrey Driscol and others.

6. Twice a year the downtown library in the basement lets you buy books by the bag at only six dollars a bag. My only exception to hard copy books, I pick hard cover where the print is bigger.

WC: Favorite Plot Line

 

Today's challenge is my favorite plot line to read or watch.

I'm going to toot my own horn here. My favorite plot line is Redemption.

Optimus is a hard living, strong drinking Roman legionnaire only interested in his basic needs and pleasure.

He's assigned to guard a pesky Jew while awaiting trial. The Apostle Paul.

 He is converted to Christianity and his life is transformed. He marries and fathers two sons. He stops getting drunk and gambling and tries to right the wrongs he committed before his conversion.

While serving in the Praetorian Guard along with other Believers in The Way plots to place a Christian on the Eagle Throne.

Eugene Vanders is a happily married university professor with a fifteen-year-old daughter. He's well respected and is content.

His house is invaded by the police, and they plant drugs in order to arrest him. He's tried and sentenced to three years in minimum security. He loses his reputation, livelihood, and while in jail his wife is raped and murdered, his daughter commits suicide. (I did not describe these events.)

He tells to judge while sentenced that he will make Billy the Kid look like a boy scout and vows he will make all those who ruined his life pay for what they did.

He was working with simi conductor material and had come up with an idea to create lift by electrifying small holes creating mini tornados.

Once out of prison along with his dorm mates they create Magic Carpet Inc. and start using the Magic Carpet plates to make cars fly.

As he becomes rich with his new invention, he is able to uncover the police chief's policy called plan B, that when a raid finds nothing, they plant evidence. 

In the book Vander's never kills anyone, he forgives those who ruined his life, and he makes society pay in order to regain what he lost. Berthold Gambrel in his review called Vander's the anti-Walter White.