In the Beginning (which is ironic, since we don't believe in that, unless you are speaking of the Big Bang)

So... it all began almost exactly 50 years ago.  Blackhawk School (what is now the Schaumburg Township Building).  Schaumburg Il.  I don't remember much of anything from that time.  Just a couple quick fleeting pictures from the recesses of the back corner of my mind; sitting on a rug in a circular Kindergarten room....  one of the bus arriving.  Sometime during that stretch of early September (Schools didn't start until after Labor Day back then... now the summer ends too quickly, get off my lawn you young whippersnappers...) Darren Franzen and Rob Kaye met.  Since then... school, work, theater, families, friends, gaming, fecal containment units, Dr. Who, Turtle Lake... all of those things and SO much more brought us together and forged a life-long friendship+...  and now here we are.

My mom (Linda, who you'll read a lot about in this blog, 'cause she was crazy) at some point started calling us Little Kindergarten Buddies.  Thus, the name (I thought kindergartenbuddies.blogspot.com was too long though.  kbuddies was taken by some empty blog from Thailand, I think (WTF!).  So I came up with a non-english-correct version).  Who would have thought that 50 years later those two little dopey kids would have experienced so many adventures, laughs, tears, highs and lows, and still been together as (more than) best friends.

Lets get something straight right now (heh...).  Contrary to occasional (and often in the past, popular) opinion, we are not gay.  We are not lovers.  Yes, we joke about it.  Yes, I saw his doodle when I was helping him one night in the hospital.  Yes, I have been known to dress in drag on stage and we can read each other's minds better than most married couples, straight or gay.  Yes, we have slept in the same bed numerous times and he has stolen the covers from me (confirmed as a problem by his most wonderful wife Laura...).  And yes, our wives really do wonder some times.  Of course, one of the myriad of things we see exactly eye to eye on is that we support and encourage the choices everyone makes trying to find happiness, while not hurting someone else.  But no... everyone who ever thought that was wrong.  Thirty years ago when it was interfering with all our female conquests (oh yeah, a LOT more on that to come) we would get upset.  AND we never understood where it was coming from.  Was it wrong for two men in their early 20's to hang out constantly, finish each other's sentences and have one do all the clothes shopping for the other?  We don't think so.  

And that brings us to today.  We have been making grand plans for a huge 50the anniversary celebration trip. He wants to go to Scotland and hike the trails (I know better... it is to drink scotch).  I had suggested a trip to "the darkest place in America" so we could see more stars than ever before (even more better than the far side of Turtle Lake during Pleiades).  Regardless, it was gonna be awesome.  Believe me we've had some good trips over the years; NASA for a night-time shuttle launch (later...), EPCOT (Quasimodo and the backpack), A Caribbean cruise (four girls from Boston and a suite), Key West (oh yeah, THAT is when we realized people thought we were gay).  No... WAY better than all those trips.  

Then... Covid.  F*** Covid.  And also all the people who have not followed the science who we can blame for letting this drag out so our plans got screwed over.   

Now I have all this pent-up "Fifty year anniversary of our friendship" energy.  SO MANY MOMENTS!  What to do?  Well, stay tuned for the musical I'll be trying to get Payton to write with me, if he'll lower himself to collaborate with his ol' Pally.  But in the meantime, I need to get these memories down before I'm done.  I want Payton and Liam and everyone else down the line to know about us and laugh at our antics.  I want all our friends and family and anyone else who drops down a rabbit-hole to this blog to laugh at us (and maybe understand us a bit better).  Mostly, I just want to enjoy thinking of all these years, all those memories.  And to make sure that gray and slightly red-headed kid still with the goofy smile knows how important he is to me.  Maybe if he is nice I'll let him add a story or two, or re-tell one from his viewpoint.  

Anyway... more to come.  Lots more.  Hope you'll come back... 

See...?  Totally straight.