Let me take you back to a younger time in my life; a time when Vikings and Witches were only dreams in our head, in mine and my younger acquaintance Dale, an awkward kid like we all were, who was trying to find himself. 

          There are always those boys in school who you see around.  Boys who remind you a little bit of yourself and you appreciate it and find it endearing.  That was Dale, he was charming in a way that he was misunderstood by most of the people I hung around with.  But to me he was a fellow artist, a photographer in his own world, and so was I, as always.  My Senior year I saw him around, here, there, he seemed to be everywhere.  I knew his name. 

          And then I met him.  It was a cold day, but not so cold that it kept me from my usual spot on the bench in front of the school sitting alone during lunch.  I sat there almost every day and never thought any one really noticed.  I had been out there most of the lunch period when Dale showed up.  He sat down beside me and I don’t remember saying "Hi."  I don’t remember what he said first.  But I remember his long black hair whipping around his face in the wind and we both wore long black trench coats.     

         Photo by Julie Calvario
Dale as Barnette Lloyd in Crimes of the Heart.
  Taken from Mifflin's 1992 Lasso Yearbook.