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Iapetus and Nereus (part 1)3/16/2023 I first met Nereus (m) on the playground of my public (elementary) school in my hometown back in the 1980s. He introduced me to Iapetus (m) who, oddly enough, ended up becoming a closer friend to me in the years to come.
Looking back I believe a number of factors contributed to the outcome. Nereus' father was a pastor which mean he was occupied with religious activities and, I think, his parents were both strict with his schedule and available free time. He had a younger sister who I saw only a handful of times over the years, I can not even remember her name anymore. Iapetus also had a younger sister, I remember her name but I was never really close to her, and I lost contact with her as soon as I moved away from our hometown. Both Iapetus and Nereus were musically inclined, Iapetus the saxophone and piano while Nereus the piano and something else I think. Iapetus became a teacher before changing to a sales profession, while Nereus remained involved in community service (I think he worked with a symphony in the city). I lost contact with both of them many years ago. I went to Iapetus' house many times through my teen years and kept in touch, for several years after, with his mother (who was somewhat like a second mom to me sometimes, feeding me lunch and always welcoming me into her home). In later years she and I emailed each other often before and after she was diagnosed with cancer. She died in 2016. Iapetus and I (me?) hung out a lot, many times at his house. We were best friends for over a decade. I would pick up the phone to call him and his voice would be there before I had even dialed. This happened so frequently that we stopped being surprised by it after a while. I used to be one of those people who ran ahead of schedule. If I arranged to be at his house at 2:00 and I would arrive at 1:45 - every time. It got to the point where we would plan to meet up a half an hour later knowing I would always be early. I think I stayed overnight at Iapetus' house once, he never stayed overnight at mind. He had a lot of allergies so he had a regime of medications and supplements he had to take daily. I stayed over at Nereus' house several times including having out own small New Years Eve parties. We played Dungeons & Dragons for a few years together. I remember I had two human warriors, Zark and Zork, brothers, and I think Iapetus was a magician while Nereus was a dwarf. It was so long ago but I can still remember the small pewter figurines we used (that you could only buy at Leisure World in the Grey County Mall in Owen Sound). As I mentioned Iapetus had a younger sister, Elpis, who went on to grow up and become a light attendant. She was cute but she was my best friends' sister and like a relative to me, so I avoided a closer friendship with her. I have a few memories about Iapetus. One time we were at his house and a thunderstorm was brewing outside. There was a crack of thunder so loud that I literally dove onto the floor perhaps believing that it would somehow protect me. We were regular Monopoly players and one time I came up with the idea of Double Monopoly. You take two Monopoly boards, layer the Go squares together then play it in a figure eight pattern around the board. I think the greatest challenge was keeping the game pieces and property cards separate, but the play money could be combined. We were playing it on the March spring day that Aegir (m) drowned. Normally on a spring day like that, sunshine with melting snow and being the last day of March break, we would be outside riding our bicycles. On this particular day I made the decision, which Iapetus agreed to, to stay up in my room playing board games. I recall the fire trucks were heading down to the river around 5pm when he was leaving to go home. A couple hours later I was down at the park crossroads, with my father, watching them put someone into an ambulance. I found out the next day it was Aegir. More memories in my next entry... I told ChatGPT this story, and here is its' response: "Thank you for sharing your memories with me. It sounds like you had some great times with your friends and that they played an important role in your life. Losing touch with people can be difficult, but it's great that you have these memories to look back on. If you ever want to reconnect with your old friends, there are many ways to do so these days with social media and other online platforms. But regardless, I hope that these memories continue to bring you joy and nostalgia."
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