*BC Note:  Momma Roo drafted this article quite a while back – though, it was finalized after her death.

Everyone agreed that Miss Roo should get the authoring credit since she knew the story the best of all of us!

We all also agreed that she should be the one to close out “Throwback Thursday”.  Hope you enjoy!

Unlikely …

REALLY!

By Rooney*

Yeah … it really was an unlikely pairing … kinda like Budweiser and Quiche!  Or even, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pork Rinds!!!

They met in college, but weren’t really friends … they just knew each other … never really gave each other much of a second thought.  Dad was actually buds with his roommate, Rodney – they didn’t have any classes together, but dad did take MANY meals at their apartment (all three of the guys that lived there were really good cooks too!), was loaned an old International Business workbook to study with (that, as it turned out, was what the current professor was using for the tests … dad made an A++ in International Business!),  and had more than one cup of his whiskey (though one of them was really a curse!).  But when they graduated, they simply went off on their separate ways!

Mom-D and dad wound up in that foreign land up north and kept trying to figure out a way to get back to Texas … someone told dad that he was some sort of bigwig with the USDA in Marfa … dad tracked him down and gave him a call – he was busy at the time, but did offer the name of a person to contact in College Station – her name was Fran – but he wasn’t much more help than that.  Well, Fran wasn’t much help either, so dad just continued on his own.

Dad was able to get his folks (that’d be mom-D and Shooter, at the time) back to Texas on his own – and they spent a couple of years up on the plains … then the Great Reorganization of 1995 occurred … dad and mom-D (mom-D was actually “reorganized” first) were headed to where they really wanted to be (along with Shoo and Hardway)!  When they got there … so was he!  This “Great Reorganization” was really just a second marriage for two different thinking Federal Agencies – dad’s people were simply the step kids.  Dad’s friend’s folks were the “origi” kids (Dad had plenty of experience being a step kid and his friend was accommodating!).  They met … frequently … through the process (generally over beers at Sarah’s) and decided that neither wanted the other’s job and that they would set the example of how this “marriage” oughta work!  They did … and it did (for them anyway - much to the chagrin[i] of the SOB “leaders”).  In the process, the unlikely thing occurred and before you knew it – they became really good friends!

They both grew with each other, learned from each other, taught each other, and generally THRIVED!  They had their similarities, but also their differences!  It often confused their mutual customers since, as a result of the “marriage”, most everyone assumed that either he or dad had to be the “boss” of the office, but they were actually “co-bosses” and that messed up a lot of folks – but it worked – with THEM at the helm anyway, and with their respective staffs … it was a really good place to be back in the day.  He moved on, but not away, when he decided to follow his arrow … the friendship continued, and blossomed!  He remained a very important part of the family!

Yeah, their friendship just continued to grow – I believe that they each contributed pretty much equally to that relationship – they each took as much as they gave!  They spoke pretty much every day on the phone, and saw each other 3-4 times a week (and almost always on Thursday – hence, the reason that the majority of these postings are on Thursdays!)  But, it ended abruptly … no questions were able to be asked, and no answers were given.  Damnit!!  I know that one of these days, they’ll have the opportunity to discuss it – and they can settle the score at that time!

Yeah, it really was unlikely, and it reminds me of some other famous friends/duos:

10.  Beavis and Butthead

9.  Laverne and Shirley

8.  JD and Turk[ii]

7.  Wayne and Garth

6.  Chandler and Joey[iii]

5.  Fred and Barney

4.  Norm and Cliff

3.  Bert and Ernie

2.  Felix and Oscar

And

1.  Hawkeye and BJ

How did these other folks unlikely “deals” work?  Why did theirs?  Who knows?!  Does it matter …

At least BJ got to say GoodBye!

…

While this story gave only particulars about one individual, and this past month we just focused on a few folks, this whole deal always goes out to all of our friends …

You know, families come with baggage.  Romantic relationships come with challenges.  But friendships, the good ones, feel easy and aren’t messed up with fear and uncertainty.  We don’t overanalyze our behavior with our friends like we do our spouses or our family.

Our parents weren’t wrong when they warned us that “we are the friends that we keep[iv]”.  Fortunately, this can be a wonderful thing.

We just had to write this story for ol’ Donald (and all of our other friends) that mean the world to us … THANKS!

Well, we hope that you enjoyed this final installment of “Throwback Thursday”!

Roo … and ALL her Crew

PS – We’re still looking for, and accepting, all of ya’lls articles!  They don’t have to be related to this site at all … just YOUR musings, issues, and concerns .. (oh, by the way, that is the reason for this site - so they are related!!!!)  Go ahead and submit them!!

Some Appropriate Quotes

Great thinkers, even the most curmudgeonly among us, have mostly been unanimous in their beliefs that friendships are necessary for happiness. Here’s a brief look at what three of the masterminds have said about friendship throughout history.

Epicurus on choosing people over fortune:

Of all the things that wisdom provides to help one live one’s entire life in happiness, the greatest by far is the possession of friendship.

C.S. Lewis on the beauty of life:

I have no duty to be anyone’s friend and no man in the world has a duty to be mine. No claims, no shadow of necessity. Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art, like the universe itself … It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which gave value to survival.

Ralph Waldo Emerson on comfort:

I do not wish to treat friendships daintily, but with roughest courage. When they are real, they are not glass threads or frost-work, but the solidest thing we know.

And along all of those lines …

Don't think of organ donations as giving up part of yourself to keep a total stranger alive.  It's really a total stranger giving up almost all of themselves to keep part of you alive.

Author Unknown