Memorial Day and a young old friend….

Today is a today of parades, marching bands, flags flying and old soldiers dressed in their VFW or Legion caps marching out to a memorial firing off a around or two in remembrance of friends lost in some forgotten war.

Time marches on but this day has a special feeling for me for I can’t get by the day without thinking about a special friend of mine, Mike LaBaron. We were friends during a special time in our lives. We skied together, snow and water, and partied together. We lived in different towns in the winter but spent the summers and Christmas breaks being up to no good. It was the joy of youth.

I was a year ahead of Mike and went off to college and I talked Mike into joining me attending Bradley U. Mike’s freshman year, my sophomore, was a fun time, a little to fun. So, Mike decided to join the Marines to "find himself" was sent to Vietnam. He only survived by his using his hunting skills honed by years of hunting in the woods of Hazelhurst. Mike knew I too was thinking about the Marines and he sent me a letter from over their saying, "Don’t, it’s a death trap!"

Mike had made it through two years of hell, and at Christmas had registered to go back to Bradley but drove north for a ski weekend at Indianhead. It was his last.

On his way back to Illinois for school he didn’t make it through a head on.
Mike is at rest in the Hazelhurst cemetery and each Memorial Day I try and stop to say hello to my young old friend…
good friends are very hard to come by.