Thursday, November 2, 2023
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When I first met Darin, on one of those long, yellow school buses, I think we had just boarded it where they were parked at the north end of William Knight Elementary School. At that time it was called something like the Grant Street Elementary School. We didn't know each other's names yet. We were maybe five or six rows in from the front, and he was sitting on the outer end of a seat on one side, I one row ahead on the opposite. It was crowded, and I think we were still parked off the street as the buses were about to head out to take all the kids home. I don't know what got us talking to each other. Maybe it was just sizing each other up. Maybe by then we knew we were in the same grade, probably fourth or fifth. It seems that's when I, for some reason, asked him when his birthday was. Maybe we had tried to gauge who was the older. Maybe he had already asked when mine was. I had it in my head it was cool to be older than someone in your own grade, that somehow it gave you some kind of superior edge. When he answered, I knew it was two months ahead of mine. So that was an ego-buster, not too cool for me.
But the important thing is Darin was a cool dude. Rest in peace.
220 E. Main Street