For Mike

Tonight I'd like to tell you about my friend Mike, so that you can get to know him a little bit, or if you already knew him you can reminisce along with me.

My family moved to Rathburn Avenue in June 1970. We'd only moved a few blocks, from Osborne Street where we lived in a big two story house when Dad was flying high in Hollywood, but Dad lost his position in December 1969 and suddenly we couldn't afford to live there anymore. My Mom found the Rathburn house and we rented it instead of buying. My Dad was depressed about this turn of events, but I was happy about the move once we settled in, and I think my brother was, too. The reason? There were lots of kids on Rathburn Avenue. Yes, we'd moved to a much smaller house that didn't have a pool or basketball court or the treehouse we had at Osborne, but on that street there were no kids, and thus no one to play with. I did have one friend on Osborne, but he went to private school and was hardly ever home.

But Rathburn was a Kid's World. I was 10 and Chris was 6 when we moved there.

And the first kid I met was a guy a year and a half older than me. He was pushing 12, a little pudgy, and very outgoing and talkative. I remember him coming over to our side yard to introduce himself one day not long after we moved in. That was Mike.

I was always a shy kid (until you got to know me), and so Mike being Mike, a real wise guy with a joke a minute, I came out of my shell at his seeming insistence at being my friend. Right away at our first meeting, he wanted to know "what do you like", i.e. what kind of kid are you? He was sizing me up and I responded because he was welcoming me to the neighborhood. Soon after meeting Mike, I felt at ease meeting all the other kids on the street, and even a few from around the corner, which in Kid Distance is like being in another town.

I spent a lot of time at the house of David B and his sister, and they became close friends as well, but it was with Mike that I would have many one-on-one adventures. With the other kids, we were often a group. With Mike, it was usually just me and him, and we did a ton of stuff together.

One of the first things I can tell you about my friend has to do with music. I was always a huge music fan since coming out of my crib and putting on my sisters' Beatles records, but even by age ten I had never gotten past Top Forty radio. Now, that wasn't a bad place to be in the 1960s and early 1970s, when every single song on the radio was great, but I knew nothing of "hard rock" or any of these new bands emerging at the time. Mike had first introduced me to an album by Three Dog Night called "Seven Seperate Fools". I knew all the hits by the Three Dogs, but buying an album never crossed my mind. Soon though, I was in possession of that record and Three Dog Night was my favorite band.

Then, in March 1972, when I was in 7th grade, I went over to Mike's house one day and he asked me if I'd ever heard of a band called "Deep Purple". The name rang a bell, I knew they had an earlier hit on the radio but I couldn't place it. Really I didn't know anything about them and I said so. Mike handed me an album he'd just bought, with a cover that looked like a warped photograph of the band members. It was called "Machine Head". He let me take the album home, and it was my introduction to Deep Purple.

As I listened to the music on my parents' console stereo, I was amazed by the guitar sound and the heavy groove of the music, and the wailing vocals. The album cover opened up into what was called a "gatefold", and there were pictures of the band members inside.

I saw a photo of the singer, the drummer, etc.....I didn't know any of these guys. Their music was a whole new world to me, but I was used to famous names like Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger.

One photo in the gatefold stuck out, however. As I listened to the music on "Machine Head" I was a bit mesmerised by the stare of the guy on guitar.

He had a cool sounding name, too : Ritchie Blackmore.

Looking at his slightly unshaven and staring face in that gatefold pic, I became an instant fan.

"This is the guy who is playing those guitar solos"?

He looked like the guy who would be playing those solos, and those songs, and that music.

I was sitting there in our living room on Rathburn Avenue, and I was listening to Deep Purple, a band I previously knew nothing about, and my life was changed permanently. You have to go back to your memories of being very young and being exposed to new music to understand, and I am sure you have your own experiences.

But for me, on that day I was introduced not only to Deep Purple but also - most importantly - to Ritchie Blackmore, who became not only my favorite guitarist but also my favorite musician of all time.

And that was because of Mike.

He introduced me to my favorite musician. About eight years later, Mike would take a photo of me standing next to Ritchie Blackmore after a concert, a photo that I have on my Facebook.

To have a friend who did all of this would alone qualify that friend as a very special soul who you were meant to meet in your life. But that is just one of the cool things that happened with Mike and me.

I had meant to just tell you all about Mike in this one blog, in short sentences and snippets, but I see that I can't. It is late now and I have to get up early for church in the morning.

I guess I will keep telling you about my friend until I am all done, maybe all at once if I can do it, or maybe in longer anecdotes like the one tonight.

The larger point of all of this, is :

Think for a moment about life. Think about your life and the people you have met. Some of those people are peripheral, and maybe not all have played a major part in your life. But stop and think of those who have.

Think about your closest friends, and the times you have had together.

Think about what you have shared and why you are so close.

Think of all the things you have done with a friend. Think of the bond that resulted.

What you will see is that your friendship with that person was meant to be, because it resulted in outside things being discovered and brought in.

Friendship is not static. It is a creative force.

I wanted to write about Mike in just one blog and wrap it all up in a neat little bow, but I see that I can't do it. So I'll try to do more as we go along.

It's hard for me and I'm a bit spaced out. I'm tired of losing my friends so early.

I will see you in the morning after church.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)