In 1985, in the summer just prior to my 13th birthday, my family moved from the home my parents had built out in the country to a house in town. As you can imagine, it was a real adjustment, a new life with sidewalks and streetlights, a new school, and a need to make new friends.
Luckily, it turned out that just down the street there lived a great kid named Preston who was just a year older than me. One summer morning, just weeks after I moved in, Preston showed up with a couple of other guys that also lived nearby that would be in our same church group named Ben and Tim.
When they came by, I was out front fixing my bike. Like Preston, I had known Ben for several years through Cub Scouts, and we began talking about past adventures at day camp and the like. But this Tim guy was new to me, and at that moment, I was not too sure about him. I continued to work on the bike and as we were chatting, my older sister, acutely suffering from summer boredom in a new home, began to watch us from the large front window.
Tim was the first to notice her. Almost immediately, and kind of quietly, Tim began to sing, "How Much is That Doggie in the Window?" Now, when he began doing this, I did not think that there was an actual window or other subject matter that he may have been referring to. Ben, Preston and I looked at Tim and followed his gaze to my sister and began laughing, almost uncontrollably. This really got my sister's teen angst-ridden goat and she practically stormed outside to find out what we were laughing about. Our increase in laughter confirmed to her that she was the butt of the joke and without any further information, she turned on her heels and huffed back into the house.
And that is how Tim instantly became one of my best all-time friends.
LOL! I love this story--since I know all the "characters" in it. :) I loved Vacaville. It was my favorite area with so many great people.
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