Well it’s not really a joke although everyday there were a ton of laughs all because of a simple card game-Euchre (Pronounced U-ker). It doesn’t matter if you don’t know the game, just know that the game was the first in many connections between Ed and myself. Just like Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca at the end of the film when he utters the infamous line “Eddie, this looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” Well it was actually Louis but you get it.

Whenever our first encounter took place it was safe to say that the meeting of two animated characters went well. I know I asked before anything else if he played Euchre. I was obsessed from my college days at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. If the answer was yes I knew I had me a northerner. The game is a staple from Ohio to Wisconsin and points in between. It (Euchre) then moved the conversation to our home state and to places I would not have thought possible. We had a lot to discuss and thankfully we had the same lunch.

Lunch during our time at Durant was special. Mainly because it was a full 50 minutes long and if you had a conference period on either side you could really have a nice time. Enter the card game and a need for a couple more players. Since it’s a northern thing and our band director Dan Dubay was from Detroit-3rd slot filled without a hitch. For the fourth we simply told David Peacock he was in and he could learn on the fly. Science teacher and soccer coach. He had our lunch and was also a Thespian so let the fun begin.

Poor Dan was as straight laced and focused as you could be. Ed, Dave and Al uh not so much and that’s where the fun fit in. During any given hand of Euchre a simple gesture, word or look would result in us reliving scenes from our favorite movies all while playing cards. Each of us taking any character and switching on another day (after 10 years we had some reruns). Thing was we all were well versed in many the same movie. Monty Python anything including the TV show. Princess Bride. Blazing Saddles (and yes we are NOT that bloody stupid) was some of our best stuff. Man Ed could laugh. He’d cut loose and shake the room.

You know, the thing with card games is that it allows for simple conversations. 12 years of these conversations lead to much more. I found a friend. Not acquaintance. Not work buddy. The kind of friend that just makes you proud to know them. The kind of friend that made me better. The kind of friend that called me family. Ed and Anita actually have been a part of my life since March 1982 only we didn’t realize it until we connected at Durant 16 years later! (Crazy story not for today )

Euchre started it for me and Ed and 24 years later I tell you as much as he lived life to the fullest he absolutely met this final challenge with the same spirit. He never gave up. In many conversations in the past year he never BPM (Bitch-Piss-Moaned) about the cards he was dealt. He looked at that hand and kept playing. No fold. All in. Euchre is a simple game. Sometimes you get cards that make life easy and sometimes you are dealt a hand that just says oh well maybe next time. Ask David or Dan who was most likely to win a hand with absolute garbage. Ed. He didn’t win them all be but he never thought he couldn’t.

To the man who could take a Queen-9 off Ace and make it a winner I say thank you. Thank you for being my friend.