I have been recently thrust back into the early 1990's due to certain events that have caused a lot of us from East Kentwood H.S. to become nostalgic for the "good old days." It was enough to compel me to dust off my old yearbook and take a little trip back in time. This is indeed a rarity for me. I am not so misty for my high school days. In fact, I have said it before and I'll say it until I have drawn my very last breath; you couldn't pay me a million bucks to go back to high school. Not even knowing what I know while inhabiting the body of my former glorious (in relation to the present) self. Not as the mind of the older me but with the hair of the younger me; and the Mustang and the spending cash and the many soft lips of many pretty girls.
I hated high school. I suppose in that I am not alone. My dad used to revert to the old- "these are the best days of your life"- line that we have all come to know and love. It made me want to punch him. I am glad to say that these (the ones I am living now) are by far the best years of my life so far. My 30s have been mostly awesome, even though I am not wealthy as I had hoped, or famous as I had once imagined. I am happy. On that you cannot put a price.
Back to the yearbook. In the first pages is a small graphic called: How Much Was It? It goes on to tell me that gas was $1.03, a school lunch was $1.45 (and not altogether terrible for that price), almost all fast food value meals were $2.99 (it was the middle of the now infamous "burger wars" and I was on the front lines) and cigarettes were $1.99 a pack.
Let's pause here, shall we? What a different world it was that the cost of cigarettes would be referenced as a casual metric in a school yearbook! Imagine if you will the yearbook committee of any school in the land of ours doing this today! They would be on the six-o'clock news for Pete's sake!
Our class songs were Forever Young (and not the good one by Bob Dylan, but the shitty one by Rod Stewart) and End of the Road by Boyz 2 Men. This was back when Bobby Brown hadn't squandered all his talents and become the rusted out hulk of a crack-head he would become. Oh well, it's his prerogative. See what I did there? Two of you will get that joke and it isn't even funny.
Best hangout and worst restaurant honors both went to Denny's. That's like winning an Oscar and a Razzie for the same movie! We were slackers, indicating that "NO JOB" was the best after-school job. The beginning of the apathetic "so what?" generation had begun.
I am glad to say that by and large, except for some large-ish hair, we don't look silly and outdated like the yearbook pictures of my parents. Most of the fashions can be recognized as the progenitors of today's fashions. I smile when I see a lot of people I had completely forgotten about.There are others who I am Facebook friends with, today. Some faces pop out and still create in me an involuntary seizure due to the rushing back of some repressed bad memory. Dude, let it go. It's been almost twenty years.
Robert Gaines is one of the people pictured. He was (and I imagine still is) a big man. He literally stood head and shoulders above everyone in the school and was broad as he was tall. His skin was very dark and his smile was very wide. That dude scared me. He never gave me a reason to be scared of him, but he was a big black man and to the eyes of a mid-sized white kid from the 'burbs, he was scary. We were a predominately white school with a close knit African American population. Robert was a "crossover" kind of guy. He was revered by students of all races. In that sense, I suppose he was a unifier of sorts.
Robert had a lot of friends and was our Homecoming King. He was a state champion wrestler and a standout on our football team, which at that time was a perennial contender in it's division.
He was, I recall a nice fellow. And many people lately have recalled that, too. I don't remember having classes with Robert, or spending a lot of time with him outside of the weight room. I didn't know him well at all. But I knew him well enough to be shocked at the recent news he was being extradited from his home in Illinois in connection with an unsolved murder of an eight year old girl here in Grand Rapids all the way back in 1993, the year we graduated.
According to reports Gaines and another man, Bobby Brown (not the famous one from the song) were involved. Brown is alleged to have done the shooting into a house- a supposed retribution for being mugged earlier. It was thought, apparently that the muggers lived in the house. Instead of hitting any alleged muggers, eight year old Lativia Johnson was struck and killed while getting a late night glass of milk out of the fridge.The family has not been able to rest; and who could blame them? The tragic and random death of a young person is that hardest thing in the world to cope with.
Why this is shocking is Robert is just not "that guy." I know in my heart he did not do the shooting. I cannot say how I would have reacted in the same situation if I were present when that went down. It is beyond me to judge the actions of any man. It is my hope that Robert is heard in court and that he is to some extent exonerated. Surely if he was there and if he knew what happened and did not report it and withheld information during the investigation (he was investigated at the time) then he clearly did wrong. But that kind of wrong is a far bit off pulling the trigger and killing an innocent little girl and for the sake of Robert Gaines getting a fair trial, I would like the news to draw that distinction when they are reporting on the more sensational aspects of this tragedy.
As for the people on the various message boards who without information, without knowing the people involved, without having been there- you can all shut up. Withhold your opinions as you have nothing to add. When Robert's friends and classmates express their shock and disbelief that this was "their Robert", let them. It is shocking and it is unbelievable. And for those who would immediately judge and call these men scum and worthless, I say to you there is nothing to be gained from that debasement. Especially because you don't know the people involved. Lastly, I touch on this point again, you were not there. You don't know. You can't know everything that was involved.
I have done some things in my life that I am deeply regretful for and at one time or another I have said I would never do that. Then it comes time to walk in those shoes. I do not take away the grief or closure to the family of the slain little girl. I could not possibly understand their pain. I would never try to make it small.
But I also know that there is more to this story that no one but two people who are alive on this earth knows. One of those is my friend, Robert. I for one am sticking by him, regardless of what happened that night, what has happened since and what happens at the trial.
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