The Bro

1990. Skinny leather tie with zipper. Stylishly fluffy hair. Waif-ish good looks. Youth truly is wasted on the young.

The folks in this picture ... from left to right ... are Chris O'Donnell (not the actor), Fabian Cascante, Pat Amon and me.

Almost 18 years later, Chris and I still are best of friends. He lives in Alberta, and daily deserves strong emotional punishment for his poor choice. ;)

It's hard to condense 20 years of friendship into a handful of paragraphs. In someways, we were polar opposites: Chris - a trumpet playing basket-baller, with an undying love for cars, Iron Maiden, fishing and the code of friendship; me- a skinny, nonathletic, KISS-loving ladies man, with an intricate knowledge of baseball, pro-wrestling, 70's television shows, and glam rock. (I kid on the ladies man thing.)

We had differing philosophies on many things - Chris believed in quality over quantity, the necessity to stay out as late as you wanted, and he pioneered the concept of "Bro's before ho's" long before "Bro's before ho's" had it's name. (I don't know how to write this phrase without apostrophes. Otherwise it looks like this - Bros before Hos. Which makes it read like Bross before Hoss. Which brings to mind ...

However, I bet that these guys firmly believed in Bro's before Ho's as well.)

Me, I loved a good value - especially when it applied to used records and books. I had to be home at 1:00, or my mother paced the floors and called people's parents. And while I believed in Bro's, I also liked the Ho's.

Not that we didn't have bonding topics - politics, the Saskatchewan Roughriders, Canadian entertainers, the work of the Traveling Wilburies.

We also shared a love of 70's culture and 80's heavy metal. Chris was the type of guy who understood where "Dyno-mite!" came from. (Remember that this was Canada and "Good Times" wasn't necessarily a big show.) We spent hours reviewing his record and tape collection, which contained the first time I'd ever seen the booklet that came with the Kiss Originals album. (A big frickin' deal for 16 year Kiss fan in 1988.)

Along with Fabian, we engaged the perpetual three way battle of who rocked harder - Kiss or Iron Maiden or AC/DC? (I attempted to enter Cheap Trick into this epic contest, but the combination of "The Flame" and later, a cancelled 1990 Regina concert because of poor sales, left them too open to ridicule.)

We also debated lots, pushing each other buttons on sensitive issues. I kept failing my driver's license road test. He rarely had a girlfriend. I could not bench press anything more than the bar. He had to shower before going out anywhere. I knew nothing about cars - he rarely had a girlfriend!

We each went thru phases and trends: I grew my hair out and became Mr. Alternative; he got a truck and started wearing cowboy boots. I went to Moose Jaw and took public administration while he moved to Lethbridge, Alberta and took criminal justice.

But we've always remained close, and it's because of the following: Chris is definition of loyalty and class. I've had my struggles and problems, and I can always count on Chris to be there. Chris is the kind of person who puts the proverbial bro before anything else. (And on at least occasion, he literally chose a Bro (me) before this bro's ex-Ho.(Janelle Audette - who probably wasn't a Ho - but that's beside the point. All this Ho stuff is going to get me in so much trouble with Mr. Wood.)

When I got married, Chris was there, tuxedo and all. (Despite his theory that buying a suit was so much better than just renting a tuxedo.) When my Dad died, Chris dropped everything and drove 9 hours to be there for me.

Opinionated, honest, funny, loyal ... necessary qualities for friendship and for being a good human being, in my opinion.

Twenty years later and still my friend.

P.S. - Kiss still rocks the hardest.