Nick's Butterfly Effect

It is funny how one little event in seventh grade has led me to have the many friends that I have today. Jocelyn often asks me how I know this person or that person. So, for her benefit I am going to try to construct a family tree of my friends. I consider myself lucky in that I have had the same basic core of friends for over fifteen years and in some cases over twenty. So, here we go and I should mention that this is all from the top of my head.

In Seventh grade social studies class, my desk sat across from Mike Doyle. If our assigned seating were off by one space or one less student I would not have the friends that I have today. I became pals with Doyle by talking about the Cubs and we hung out a lot in 7^th grade. In 8^th grade we kind of lost touch and I started hanging out with a different group.

Then during my junior year of high school we ran into each other and we re-kindled our friendship from 7^th grade. Doyle was hanging out with Jon Zaraycki, which meant I was hanging out with Zar. Zar and Doyle then talked me into joining the St. Fabian’s teen club. I meet a lot of people through the teen club and one of them was Mike Dell. Dell had access to his mom’s Chevy Impala and thus we now had a set of wheels.

So, for a while it was the four of us. Then Homecoming came around. Dell wasn’t going to go and Zar and I needed a ride. Zar had been friends with Mike Connors in grammar school and he was now in our gym class. Chuck, as he would become knows as, (with so many guys named Mike we had to start coming up with nicknames. Chuck’s last name being Connors we branded him Chuck after Chuck Connors the rifleman.) offered to give us a lift. Thus we now had another set of wheels and another person in our ever-growing posse. Zar had another friend he used to hang around with who lived by his house, John Rosier. Rose, soon was in a member of our group as well.

Eventually Dell got a job at Kmart. So, he then got me a job there as well. There I meet and started to hang around with Wally Phelps, Chris Hunger and Rob McCartney. By becoming friends with them I got introduced to Mike Rummery, his brother Art, Don Karnowski, Kevin Collins, Ronnie Pavlick, Timmy Moore, and Tony Dobrez. All of whom are now major parts of our click.

Eventually, we all started to hang out with this girl at Kmart named Lydia. Through Lydia we became friends with her boyfriend Keith. Through Keith we met his future roommates Steve and Dave. Dave, Steve, and Keith all rented this house on 95^th street in Oak Lawn that has had one of our friends living in it since 1994 and Don still lives there.

Eventually most of my posse and I went to the higher learning center known as Moraine Valley. My brother also went there and frequently I would join him for lunch in the student center. There we were introduced to Kevin Conway. Con’s had a bunch of friends who eventually made their way into our circle, including Mike Mulcahy, Mike Shields, Ed Beazley, and Chris Ridgeway. My brother also introduced Brian Lannon and Brian Janey into our circle.

That is the basic core of my personal network of friends. Many others have come and gone. And there are still others that I didn’t include because, I don’t want this blog to become a monster. Still there are many things that would have never happened if I don’t sit next to Mike Doyle. For example:

Wally’s sister Dorothy eventually married John Rosier. If I don’t become friends with Wally, he never meets Rosier and neither does his sister.

Chuck never meets his wife Melissa. They met at K mart. I got Chuck the job at the Mart and Dell got me the job. If Dell doesn’t work there neither do I and neither does Chuck.

Dell never meets Mary, his wife. I got Dell a job at IRI, which is where Dell and Mary meet.

If I never meet Wally, he never meets Kevin Conway. If they never meet, then Con’s has no way of meeting Don and Rosier who later form CD’s Nuts (a one-time union of my musical friends) along with Mike Mulcahy and Pete Strustma.

Zar never meets Hunger, who later becomes his college roommate at Lewis University. It is through Chris that Zar meets Jen, his now wife.

There are so many scenarios I could recite like that. It is interesting to me to think about how one turn of events in 1981 could have such a profound effect on my life. I mean I could back even further. If my Mom never decides to move out of Burbank, I don’t go to Wilkins and I don’t meet Doyle. I often wonder how would my life be different if I had made different decisions in my life. In looking back at it I consider myself very fortunate to have glommed onto such a good and dedicated group of friends.