I've known Allen Perry since he was about 3 years old. He always wanted to hang around with us "bigger" kids but we always tried to ditch him, but he'd always pop up with that grin on his face. We called him "Little Al". I can't remember who Big Al was anymore. Having Allen around became routine and he was always trying to be like us, riding our bikes, popping wheelies. I remember teaching him how to skid. Back then whenever you met up on your bikes you punctuated your appearance with a skid. Allen gave the things he did all he had, even back then. I remember one time he came up to a group of four of us as fast as he could, skidding to a stop. Well he was going faster than he thought and he skidded right into us knocking us all over on our bikes. I can still picture him trying to get out of the tangle of bikes, arms and legs, grinning and trying to see how big the skid was as he ran away from us before we got ahold of him. I guess that says alot about the way Allen lived his life. I had to carry him home with a splt open head a couple of times. Once he fell off the telephone booth at the Community Center. Back then you could actually get inside a phone booth and they were about 8 feet high. This kid was dancing a jig on top of the phone booth until he danced right off and landed on the sidewalk head first! He ended up with stitches that day. I wish things were that simple today. I gave my paper route over to Al and trained him for a week. We set the day when he would go solo. That day ended up being "The Blizzard of 78." Poor kid. I felt so bad I took him around on the paper route in my car in the snow the next week. He loved it! Whenever I needed a hand with car repairs or home matters, Al was there, sometimes nudging me on when I really didn't feel very motivated. But that was AL. He and I rode our motorcycles together a couple of summers and those were 2 of the best summers of my life. We rode up the neck during a tropical storm, just to say we DID. Allen and I had many barrel fires over the years, enjoying the outdoors and the company of friends. Things happen in life that noone intends to happen. Something along that line happened to me and Al and we drifted apart. I saw Allen last summer while he was riding his Harley. He wanted to sit and talk, but I brushed him off pretty bad, "too busy today." I'm pretty sorry today, about doing that.

My sorrows go out to Alendy, Evelyn Joyce and Wendy.