My Three Amigos

 I wanted to take a moment and tell you about three friends that I had while at seminary.  I said a little bit about them during the last installment of my blog, but I wanted to write a bit more about them.  Doug, John and Darrell were there names.  Doug and I were from SC.  We would refer to ourselves as "arteests".  We played a lot of Monopoly games during our down time in school. 
 When I had to move out of the dorm after the "witch hunt", the three of them let me stay in their apartment off campus.  I had a bunch of record albums, which I put in the kitchen next to the dining table.  John had his nephew come over one Saturday, while I was at work.  His nephew spilled red Kool-Aid over my albums.  I was very mad, when I got back from work and saw what the boy had done.  Some of the album covers were ruined.  John suggested that I not have them in that area anymore, so I moved them into the bedroom, and I had to crawl over them to get out of bed. 
 For my birthday, they got hold of a 16mm print of "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" and borrowed a movie projector to show it in the apartment.  They really surprised me.  We had popcorn.  It was just like being in a theatre.
 The VCR was being introduced, and John and I bought a Beta VCR.  We enjoyed recording TV shows and movies.  When it came time for me to move out (after the landlord found I was staying there unauthorized), John took the VCR, and I got the tapes.  This was a monumental event in my life, because it introduced me to home recording.  At one time years later, I had over 2000 hours of tapes of movies and music.  I later had the second-largest Beatles video collection in the world.  I converted all of them to DVD.  It took me three years to do that transfer.  All because of John and I starting out with a few tapes and a VCR. 
 One fun thing we would do was to go out to D/FW Airport and ride the free trams in between the terminals.  It was like riding a slow roller coaster.  We would also go inside a terminal and find a coffee shop.  We would then look for a guy sitting by himself at a table and then sit at the table next to his.  We would then talk about our trip to Vegas and how we won so much money.  It was all made up, but we wanted to see the guy's reaction.  One time, my friends brought cameras and pads to the airport and one of us would pretend to be famous and being interviewed while walking through the terminal.  Just to see the reactions.  We learned that anybody can be famous, if others believe it.
 After being with my three friends, I do not like to listen to Roger Whittaker or Johnny Mathis anymore.  That was about all that we would listen to in the car.  I can live without Roger and Johnny and still have a fulfilling life. 
 I don't know what I would have done without Doug, John and Darrell letting me stay there during my trials at seminary.  Thanks, guys.