John Caruthers |
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16 December 2024 - Κισσόνεργα
When I was a small boy I did not have many friends. We moved several times when I was in elementary school, and I was a troublesome child because of my high intelligence. When we move to Georgia at the beginning of the summer of 1989 I met John Caruthers. He lived just down the street and was the year between my brother Packie and me in school. John was also a troublesome child and much mischief ensued that summer and many summers after. We dammed up the creek. We played tricks on neighbors. We played videos games when it rained, but if our mothers could they kicked us outside. We built a whiffle ball field on some abandoned lots between our houses we called the erosion pits. We explored the forest. We learned to play tennis together from a man who's mother had used thalidomide so he had T-rex arms. We fought off imaginary enemies from the foxholes I dug in my yard. We had fires. We made up sketches and videoed them . We played golf on the two hole course John built in his backyard. We went to church together. Me and John and Packie.
After high school we drifted apart as we went to different colleges. We still saw eachother on holidays as our parents still lived nearby eachother. We both ended up studying math, but he went on to teach young students whereas I went to grad school. He stayed in the South while I moved around the country and the world, but we kept in touch. He provided emotional support during my divorce. I didn't make it back to the states much and our parents no longer lived near eachother, so every trip I always thought I make time to meet him the next time I came to the states. Then this week I received the terrible news that John had died of a heart attack. He was 44.
