VERA-ELLEN

Four Pictures

My Mom caught me practicing soccer before school. This was not an unusual thing to see. I had a dumbfounding drive to be great went I was a kid. I would spend every moment of the day training for whatever sport I was into. I suppose it came from the push of my Dad or the mindset of my Dad. Maybe it was the effect my success at sports had on him that pushed me harder. I guess I never really backed down on pushing myself, though I soon moved to other endeavors.



This is me, learning to ride my bike with no training wheels. Its in the driveway of Sit & Jid's where we lived for a few months before my parents went to college in Kentucky. I don't think I really got the hang of it until later that year.



Probably my favorite family photo. Me and my sister Abby in front the KCC sign. That sign is long gone now and it isn't even called that anymore. Ironically, even though me and Ab swore we wouldn't go to KCC/KCU, we both went there for a short while eventually. My brother and other sister are currently there.



Believe it or not, this is a picture of my varsity soccer team in High School. With only 60 boys in the small school, beggars can't be choosers. Half of us were Jr Highers. I'm in the second row on the right. I'm in 8th grade (probably 5': 3''). The girl in front of me (the team manager) was my first real girlfriend. She was in 9th grade. We weren't allowed to sit in the same seat. I sat behind her and secretly held her hand between the seat and the window on the way home from the game.

Three Stories

In my senior year of High School, all the guys went to El Gordo's Tacos after school one day. This day was a special day that we had talked about all year. T-Bear was to eat, not one, but TWO El Gordo borritos. And that he did. We were very proud. They took a Polaroid to put on the wall, but it didn't turn out so I grabbed it. They took another and put it up there with all the other heavy hitters. T-BEAR will forever be a legend.



Calibretto 13 (2 years before I joined the band) played the underground stage in 2000. There were thousands of people there, and they knew all the songs. The last song of set was High-Five as it always was. As soon as they started it, all our punk rock heroes came out on stage; the Squad 5-0 brothers, members of the Huntingtons, One-21, and Blaster the Rocketman. They used the T&N hands to high-five each other - they were hitting Joe on the head with them - stealing his mic - it was a riot. I was right in the front against the stage smiling from ear to ear. It was a huge moment for us all.



My buddy Nate worked in a factory at Chrysler in Kokomo. He worked all the time and hated it. He was miserable and depressed. The worst part of it was that he couldn't get off work to go to Cornerstone, which at that time (and only at that time), was the greatest place on Earth. We all felt SO bad for him.
About half way through the week, I was asleep early in the morning and heard someone yelling my name from far away. It was Nate. He had driven all night and knew I would be camped out in that general area so he was just yelling my name until I heard him. The story was that he had messed up on the assembly and ruined a whole days work for the factory. They suspended him for 2 weeks, so he drove straight to Cornerstone. He was SO happy! That night, I saw him in the pit at the Blaster the Rocket Man show at the Underground Stage. I have a forever-lasting picture in my mind. Blaster was his all-time favorite band and instead of working in the factory he was there; in a packed crowd, in a tent, drenched in sweat, with a huge smile, big black framed glasses falling off his face, with a pair of legs draped across his shoulders, turned sideways with his eyes clothes and his fists pumped straight in the air. I've never seen anyone so happy.

the Bud

This is the Bud.



We were best friends.



Sleepin' buddies.



Workin' buddies.



He was a peekapoo.



He looked funny as a kid.



He was not like other dogs.



He was sad to see me leave.