SOCKS

I’m guessing it was July 1981.

There we are: four fellas at Camp McCall. From left to right: Kevin, Stephen, Jamie, and...me.

I’m pretty sure I set up this photo shoot, though I’m not sure who snapped it. My 110 viewfinder camera produced the image. I’m the only one of us trying to smile. Jamie’s giving me rabbit ears. (It’s what you do to the kid who makes you pose for a scrapbook picture at camp.)

I pretty much know the story that followed. The four of us left our charmed, South Carolina boyhoods the following fall and started middle school...with the inevitable successes and failures. Life happened to each of us. Summer camps were left behind...fuzzy pictures and complicated childhood memories.

Man, would I hate to do all that again. Had no idea then how bumpy the next thee years of middle school would be.