Floundering & Old Friends

It was the late seventies in the Los Angeles area. I was floundering. No direction in my life. With the wrong crowd. Partying. Not real happy with who I was. Thinking I wasn't really good enough to have a higher quality life. My refuge was a night out on the down, well several nights out in a row. Did crazy things. On a mission to destroy. A mission to destroy myself.

At the time I was working in Long Beach for a company called "Inter-form". It was a temporary assignment. I had a woman boss named Pat. She was the first woman boss that I ever had and I loved her. She at the time was the best supervisor I had in my life. You could go to her about anything. She also didn't believe in overtime. Her philosophy was give me the employee that can get his or her work done in eight hours, I want that employee. However, she was really good at judging the workload. I was given additional assignments, to many really, so she looked for more help for me. At the time there was a temporary agency called "Kelly Girls". We hired a Kelly Girl. But it wasn't a girl, it was a man that had just graduated from U.S.C.. He was a baseball player. Most Valuable Player in College World Series that year. Voted one of the best players to play in the college world series in the seventies. He would later be drafted in the fourth round by The California Angels, now the Los Angeles Angels, and sign a contract with them. A really handsome dude. Also a very smart dude. Later he would go on to get his Certified Public Accountant certificate and go to work for one of the largest accounting firms in the world. He was also a talented musician. Loved blue grass music. He was friends with some pretty well known people. Anthony Davis, if memory serves me right, was one of the first athletes that Nike made a shoe for. Russ knew him well.

While working at Inter-form Russ and I became pretty good friends. He was fascinated by my story of learning how to walk despite all odds. I was fascinated by his many talents. He took me into his circle. A circle of friends that I never thought I was worthy of. They were just like you and I. Neat people. They just did a lot more fun things then going out on the town. Hoedowns? Had them. Blue Grass hoedowns. Damn they were fun. When Russ went off to the minor leagues he and I formed a business. R.B.I,, Russ, Bill, Incorporated. R.B.I is also a baseball term, Runs Batted Inn. We did tax returns for minor league baseball players. When he was in the minor leagues we would write, he would write a line of a song, and then in my returning letter I would write the second line of the song. When he played for the Angel farm club in Salinas, California I visited him. Attended the games. I stood up at his wedding. It was the first time in my life that I really felt accepted by anyone.

Had I not met Russ I am sure that I would have been successful in the mission to destroy myself. Russ changed my life. Changed my outlook. Made me feel better about who I was.

Why am talking about Russ today? We kind of drifted apart. Went our separate directions. Lost touch. It has been several years since I saw him. Several years since I heard from him. Well, that was until this morning. When I got up this morning there was a message from my Facebook account asking if I was "the Bill Dahn." It was from Russ. Damn it was so nice to hear from him. We are now Facebook Friends.

What person most impacted your life? What person that you have lost touch with would you like to hear from?