My oldest friend turns 50 today.
Glenn Young and I were born two days apart, in the same hospital, and grew up in the same neighborhood for the better part of over 30 years.
We didn’t actually meet until Mrs. King’s kindergarten class. About a couple of weeks into that school year, Glenn was reassigned to the afternoon class, and we didn’t attend school together until we were in Mr. Van Pelt’s Algebra I class in freshman year of high school.
In between that time we’d see each other around the neighborhood, on our way to the corner store or going to or from school. I recall one day when I saw Glenn coming home from the store, arms full of every pack of the 1976 Star Trek trading cards that they had. Or so it looked that way.
Glenn has been my conscious at times throughout the years, helping me through matters of the heart and head, and generally helping me keep sane.
He and I pretty much share most if not all of our interests, from comic books to Star Trek to baseball to Star Blazers.
Glenn fed my interest in tabletop gaming and role-playing games, introducing me to both Star Fleet Battles and the Star Trek Role-Playing Game during high school. He helped me get a job at Gamemasters Distributors in the early days of college.
And we’ve been going to baseball games together for about as far back as the late 1980s.
We’re both avid Barry Bonds fans, having attended most of the significant events of his career as a San Francisco Giant, including milestone home runs, the day he hit his first grand slam as a Giant (vs the Rockies) and the night he hit the 500-500 mark in his career (homers-stolen bases, vs. the Dodgers). We plan to take the trip to Cooperstown the year he gets into the Hall of Fame.
The most interesting dynamic between us is that although Glenn is a Kirk fan and I’m a Spock fan, Glenn is more Spock to my Kirk: calm and collected to my over emotional outbursts.
And as I said about another friend who turned 50, Glenn probably knows me better than I know myself.
Happy Birthday, Glenn. Thank you for telling me what I needed to hear, instead of what I wanted to hear. I have been, and always shall be, your friend. Peace and long life.
