Thank You for Being a Friend

I'm having fun using lines from '80's sitcom theme songs as post titles these days. Prizes go out to those who guess which sitcom. All prizes are in the form of "Them Bournes" bucks, redeemable at any of our "Them Bournes" stores. Look for one in your neighborhood.

A while ago, some of my high school buddies and I got together to tell each other some hilarious jokes and reminisce about old times. Some of us actually go back as far as elementary school, and the topic of our favorite school library books came up somehow. Yeah, it was that kind of party. I remember there were cards in the back of some books at Jerry Potts Elementary that had my name on every single line. I wasn't a big reader mind you, but I loved (and still love) to draw, so I would sign out every "how to draw such and such" book they had on the shelf and spend hours in my room practicing my skills. I got pretty good at drawing such and such after a while. I would also sign out any book that just had cool or funny illustrations in it, like "The Art of Star Wars" or anything by Shel Silverstein, and try and duplicate them in my own sketchbook. It was a real passion of mine, and I've even spent time recently trying to find some of these books on Amazon or eBay, but they're either too hard to find, or too expensive to buy.

Anyways, one of the books that I used to sign out all the time, and I've tried to track down, was a Garfield book that was entitled "Garfield, His 9 Lives". It's not a collection of Garfield comic strips so much as it's a collection of stories, written by various authors and illustrated by various artists, that tell the tale of Garfield's other 8 lives. I mentioned it to my high school chums that night, and we all did that kind of squinty smile as we vaguely remembered it's contents. None of us could remember if it was all that good, but if nothing else, it had a certain sentimental value. Long story short (or is it already too late for that?), this past week I got a package in the mail from one of my friends who flew back to Toronto the day after our get together, and in it was a copy of the Garfield book. It was from his own childhood collection, and he had gone through some difficulty finding it. I laughed and laughed when I saw it, and reading it was like hitting the refresh button on the part of my brain that stores memories of childhood library books. He gave it to me with the instructions that I pass it down to my posterity, and that I never let it leave our bloodline, and I've given my word that it shall be so.

I don't want to embarrass him by mentioning his name, but I will say that our oldest daughter was named after him, and his last name is a two letter word that starts with an "H" and ends with an "O". I don't even know if he reads this blog, but I'll say my thanks anyways. Thanks buddy, you're a pal and confidant.