REFLECTION, MY ERA OF HYPE. PART 2.

Apr 26

I remember this time when I was at my buddy Mike’s house. It was in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the winter so there was a bunch of snow and was quite cold out.

Mike and I decided to go build a fire… and make some marshmallows. So we decided to start the fire with gasoline… Terrible idea for a fire intended for marshmallows. Mike poured some gasoline on the wood we placed on the snow and lit it on fire. We decided to add more gasoline… of course. At that point the flame had ignited the tip of the gasoline can. This was not a modern gas can. It did not have the safety features that we have today.

Mike started yelling, and was flailing the gas can around in attempt to put out the flame… This caused the gasoline to fly all around him. The tip ignited the gasoline and it was shooting around him like a flamethrower. Gas was on the ground and there were flames everywhere.

While this was happening I was laughing so hard I barely could breathe. I said to Mike, broken with laughter. “you’re going to die!”

I at one point thought the gas can was going to legitimately explode and ran into the back door of his garage.

I forget if I told him to, or if he did it on his own, but mike shoved the tip of the gas can into a snowbank and that stopped the carnage. I remember the gas burning past the time the can was put out. We used our feet to stomp it out.

Mike and I did so many things together. I believe the first time we ever hung out he came over to my house on Ki Sawyer. I had a paintball gun and we wanted to have some fun. We went on the hill behind my house near some woods and brush, a playground very near. Mike took his shirt off and was running around while I unloaded a lot of paintballs. He ended up with so many welts. When his mom came to pick him up, she was not surprised… It was mike.

▽

We have done so many random, crazy things together that I don’t think I could legitimately recall all of them.

The first time I ever tried dip it was with Mike, he had been doing it for a while and I finally wanted to see what it was all about. He only chewed Grizzly Wintergreen. I was in a break between my morning Class in Marquette doing Heath Occupations and my afternoon regular High School classes. We met up and I took what I would say now as an admirable size dip. I felt horrid, I am pretty sure I puked. I drove woozy to Gwinn high School for my classes and when I arrived, I felt very sick. I ended up going home.

▽

We also were in a Metal band together called Ash Season. Originally my buddy Billy was the bassist, but he moved to a town in Wisconsin. So, Mike took his spot. I think Mike actually used his Bass for a while until he got his own. We played some pretty sweet shows at the cornerstone. It was a building literally right on Marquette Senior High School. This place would get packed. At that point in time the emo, hardcore scene was poppin.

Ash Season at Corner Stone.

One time we were at the church helping with some type of massive sale of people’s belongings. It was like a massive garage sale. There was a bowling ball… So, we decided to play catch with it. Mike and I threw it up and towards each other. We did it until the bowling ball came directly down and onto my face. That wasn’t very intelligent.

▽
When we were in high school, I started seeing this girl “S” after we had gone to Prom together. She was the sister of “C” one of my friends in my high school class. I had set up Mike with C as an out-of-town Prom date.

After that it was amazing, for a while. C and S’s family has a beautiful home on a lake which also had Jet Ski’s. The ladies would relax and sunbathe on the dock while Mike and I would go out with the Jet Ski and Innertube and launch each other high into the air attempting to cause as much destruction as possible… as always. It was literally another excuse to have so much fun together.

▽

I do miss all of my friends from those years. Those days were probably some of the best I’ve ever had. I had found myself forgetting them for many years. Distracted by the new objective Infront of me. But those were the days with a very different type of hype.

▽