The True Story of Max and Lou

[Flack]

When I was a kid my town had six separate elementary schools. Each year, from kindergarten through sixth grade, I had a single teacher and a single classroom and, for the most part, the same kids in my class year after year. This all changed the day we hit seventh grade. Four hundred kids from six different schools were funneled into a single middle school, where we began changing classrooms and teachers six times a day. There were kids I had sat next to for years that were suddenly gone, replaced by a changing sea of new faces.

Where old friends left new ones were made, and within the first few weeks of seventh grade I had made two new ones: Max and Lou. Max was into computers and video games and Dungeons and Dragons and horror movies and cars. Lou was into... well, pretty much all the same things. I mean there were minor differences of course -- Lou liked skateboarding and rap while Max liked ninjas and heavy metal -- but for the most part, you could totally see how these two guys would be totally compatible.

By the fall of seventh grade I had already spent the night at both Max and Lou's houses. Lou had a PC (some Tandy something-or-other) that the two of us played on. We spent our evening watching movies and skateboarding around his neighborhood. We had a great time! Max had a Commodore 64 that the two of us played on. We spent our evening watching movies and listening to bands I had never heard before, like KISS and Black Sabbath. We had a great time!

And then I made the horrible, terrible decision to invite them both to my house for a slumber party.

While the details have been lost to time, I remember the night was a complete disaster from the moment they arrived. Lou wanted to play on the PC in the living room while Max wanted to play on the Commodore in my room. Lou wanted to go outside and skateboard while Max wanted to stay inside and watch movies. Later that evening when they agreed to watch a movie, they couldn't agree on which movie to watch. In fact, they couldn't agree on much of anything. And not just that night, but like, ever.

About a year later Lou and I both got our motorcycle's licenses. During the summer the two of us would meet up and cruise all over town with our skateboards in tow looking for new spots to skate. There was also an arcade pretty near to Lou's house where the two of us would go and play games. There was also an arcade pretty close to Max's house, but Lou didn't like going to that one (naturally). When I went to Max's house the two of us would walk to that arcade instead. Max liked foosball, Lou liked billiards. Lou liked Pac-Man, Max liked Galaga.

I spent the next several years trying to get these two guys like one another (or even tolerate one another) and it never once worked. Lou didn't attend Max's birthday parties and vice versa. On paper you would have thought these two would have been best friends but every time I got them in the same room it was like oil and water.

Lou moved away our senior year, and without the convenience of cell phones or e-mail he and I quickly lost touch. Max remained in town, and the two of us remained friends over the years.

Four years ago was our 20th high school reunion, and the first time Max, Lou and I had all been in the same room in more than two decades. Lou owns his own construction business while Max works in IT. I made dinner plans after the reunion so that we could all go out with our families and kids and catch up. Within five minutes of the two of them reuniting, Lou had made a comment about Max's kids and Max had made one about Lou's wife and that was the end of that. I cancelled our dinner reservations.

Throughout high school Lou and Max were two of my closest friends, and the whole situation made things awkward for me. I tried my damndest to get those two jigsaw pieces to fit together and they just never did. I 've asked each of them what they didn't like about the other and neither one could ever give me a definitive answer. They just didn't care for one another.

Never did and never will.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Just want to make sure, does this story have something to do.... with us??

I have found that friendship is usually not transitive, and the people involved do not have as much in common as Lou and Max do.

It does make me sad that former JC posters Da King and Jethro Q. Walrustitty do not hang out in real life, back in Rochester, any more. But it also makes me sad that they don't post here, so what are ya gonna do.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Oh! I was a fool.

Max and Lou in this situation is pinback and Flack. I would be Flack in this particular situation. Further evidenced by the fact that it was Flack's last post here.

I get it now.

[ChainGangGuy]

Just like Jack Straw the writing was on the wall. How could we've been so blind?

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

The writing wasn't the only thing that was on the walls for Jack at the end there.

[Flack]

Oh! I was a fool.

Max and Lou in this situation is pinback and Flack. I would be Flack in this particular situation. Further evidenced by the fact that it was Flack's last post here.

I get it now.

Nope. It was just a story.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Oh! I was a fool.

Max and Lou in this situation is pinback and Flack. I would be Flack in this particular situation. Further evidenced by the fact that it was Flack's last post here.

I get it now.

Nope. It was just a story.

I was a fool..... again! Seriously, this thread has taken a bit of the shine off my work here.