Among this group of friends was our buddy, Paul.
We met Paul in the autumn of 1992. He lived across the hall and one over. One afternoon we knocked on his door to borrow some scissors. He was playing Madden and we asked what that was. We've been close ever since. He's an Eagles fan but don't hold that against him.
Paul's from down the shore, as we say here in New Jersey, and got us into flag flying; it's a thing down there. One of the most thoughtful gifts we ever received was from Paul, an Israeli flag. We still fly it.
Paul is partially responsible for our conservatism. While we played Madden, he put Rush Limbaugh on the radio. We were in student government together, ran the Wesley College Republicans and stole the state chair right out from under the University of Delaware CRs.
That summer Paul and I had Capitol Hill internships, he worked for a south Jersey Republican wanker, we for Delaware Senator William V. Roth. Mostly we ran errands and made copies. We used our hill IDs to get into the Senate gallery to watch the floor vote to remove the arms embargo on Croatia. Back then Joe Biden spoke eloquently and thundered from the floor, 'A nation has a right to defend itself! That was the 104th Congress. The Congress where the GOP was going to clean up Washington, the Congress of Newt, the disastrous Waco hearings, the government shutdown.
It was a hot, sticky Washington summer. We lived in an efficiency at GW University. We got to know some CRs from all over the country (Pittsburgh, Houston, Miami) over Armand's pizza; burgers and beer at the M-Street Fridays two blocks from the White House. They had a lovely porch and we'd run up a tab in the still night DC summer air. Paul got us hammered for our 22nd birthday. We still don't think we're aloud back. Pictured, Will Stroock, the Chris Farley years.
No comments:
Post a Comment