Let me tell you the story of one of my dearest friends. A friend that had been by my side through the thick of it, Big John. It was 1948 and I had just moved to a new town to start at a new high school. I did not know many people, and I was kind of quiet and shy. For the first few weeks I just kept to my self. One day at lunch, I saw that a big fella had been sitting all alone at the far table. I decided to go out of my comfort zone and go sit next to him. As I sat down he gave me one heck of a look, the kind of look that tells you to “turn away or I’ll have your hide” kind of look. The boy stood six foot six and weighed 245. Going against my senses I sat down and started to introduce myself. “Hey I’m Pete.” I said, just a snarl in return. “I’m not from ‘round here, and I saw you didn’t have no one to sit with so I was wondering if you wanted to be pals?” He turned and looked at me as if he had never heard that question in his life. His face lit up with happiness and he started to talk to me. He told me his name and where he was from. It just so happens he was from out of town too. After school that day he followed me home so he would know where I lived. From that day forth we were the best of buds.

John and I were the best of friends. For the next 15 years we had gotten into quite the sum of scuffs, mishaps, and predicaments. John even got in a bar fight down in Louisiana over a Cajun queen he had met that night. We decided that getting a job would be a good idea. John told me that we should work at the mine here in town. I said why not and that afternoon we were hammering rocks and meeting new faces. It was the best few months of my live. Until one day, down in the mine, we heard a timber crack. Everybody was screaming and yelling as the rocks came crashing down. I thought it was the end of John and me. When out of the corner of my eye I see John spring up and run over to the broken timber. John took both hands put them on that timber and gave it a mighty shove back into place. There he stood like a thriving oak. Then I heard someone shout, “look! a way out!” Everyman scrambled out of the mine, and I sat there waiting for John to come out. As soon as the last man got out a huge puff of dust came shooting out of the mine. We all new it was the end of the line for John. They never re-opened that worthless pit. They just placed a marble slab in front of it. On that slab it reads “At the bottom of this mine lies a big, big man. Big John.”