In Search of Todd Olsen...

(This is not a great picture, but it's the only one I have.)

Todd and I must've met around 1980. I don't remember meeting him at all. We went to the same high school, but never had a class together until the last quarter of our Senior year. We didn't live in the same neighborhood, and we didn't have the same circle of friends. I'm not sure how we became such good friends so quickly, but we did. We had a brotherly bond- deeper than any bond I felt with my own brothers at the time. We spent every day together after school- mostly watching MTV (it was new then, and they actually played music videos, if you can imagine that!), singing Hall & Oates songs, or watching the movie "Arthur". It was our favorite! We started smoking on the same day-- loved sharing C-sticks, (cancer sticks) as he called them! We got part time jobs together, working for Forehand Builders and we each saved up enough money to buy our first cars when we turned 16. We both got 1966 VW Bugs- his was white, mine was red. We were inseparable for 4 years. Like I said earlier, we never had a class together until our Senior year- it was an Algebra class, taught by Ms. Doris Collins. We both failed our first class that last quarter of high school, and I later heard that Collins referred to us as "the two most rambunctious rednecks that she'd ever had the displeasure of teaching". I guess we brought it out in each other.

We graduated from Parkview in 1984 and I was accepted to the University of Georgia. I had hoped that Todd would go with me, but he decided to stay at home and attend DeKalb Community College. When it was time to go to Athens for orientation, Todd came with me and he was able to mix in with the other students and go through every step of orientation with me. We stayed at my brother's apartment. Joel had graduated and moved out of the apartment a few months prior, but the lease ran through September, so he was still paying for it, even though it was empty. There was no furniture, no electricity, no running water. The Summer heat had built up for months and it became a breeding ground for fleas, left over from my cat Friskey's brief stay there. There were so many fleas that when I laid some paperwork on the floor you could hear fleas jumping on it. It was totally infested, but we were young and stupid and it didn't bother us to sleep on the floor with fleas covering our bodies like blankets.

After school started, Todd came to visit me once. As I remember, we had a good time. We didn't argue or anything, but it turns out that that visit would be the last time I would see Todd, or talk to him until 5 years later. Somehow we got in touch with each other and talked about the 5 year high school reunion. We decided to go together. We had a good time and I ended up spending the night with him at his parent's house. Just like old times. In the morning I got my things together and we hugged. We said how great it was to see each other again, and promised to keep in touch. We both broke that promise and never saw each other again after that. It's really sad that over the years I have tried every avenue I can think of to find him, short of hiring a private detective. I would really like to know what became of him- and I'd like him to know how my life turned out. It's been nearly 20 years, and I'm sure we have lots to catch up on. One of these days I may just drive over to his parent's house in Lilburn and knock on the door. Chances are that his parents aren't living there anymore, but it's about the last thing I can think of.

Or maybe someday, Todd will sit at his computer and Google his name and this blog entry will pop up and he'll get in touch with me. Stranger things have happened! Todd- if you find this someday, please contact me. I'm in the phonebook!