Recently I celebrated my 45th birthday and had a conversation with a friend about how I now felt officially old since I am as close to 50 as I am 40. My friend strongly disagreed with my assessment but it did not make me any less convinced that I was old. That is until yesterday when I heard the news of the death of a high school friend, Tim Bosley or as his friends referred to him, "Boz." In that moment I realized just how young I am. Because there is no way Boz should be leaving us yet; he was way too young.
I first became friends with Boz when we played basketball together at North Carroll High School. Anyone who has ever played on a championship sports team knows someone like Boz because although he was never a star and often struggled for playing time he was as essential as the person who scored the most points, threw the most touchdowns or hit the most home runs. He was the guy with moderate talent but the heart of a champion. The guy that you hated to have to gaurd in practices because you knew he would be giving it everything he had all the time and if you let up the slightest bit he was going to make you look bad. In that way he made his teammates better. He was also the guy who was always cheering on his teammates the loudest and the first to greet you in the huddle on the sidelines during a timeout. Boz loved sports for the simple most basic reasons of all; the joy of playing and being a teammate. He recognized and cherished the camaraderie that comes with competing for a common goal. Also, the grueling long bus rides after tough losses and sheer exuberance of winning a playoff game and the feeling of togetherness each end of that emotional spectrum brings. The gift that Boz brought to those teams most of all was his positive nature and his unparalleled humor. He turned those long bus rides into some of the most fun experiences I have ever had. His ability to come up with "one liners" that could have the entire team rolling with laughter was only outdone by his impromptu skits using members of the team as his targets.
Over the years since graduating from high school I lost touch with Boz. We would run into each other at an occasional Orioles game and immediately get lost in laughter recalling those North Carroll basketball days. His name would often come up in conversations with other high school friends. He was simply one of those rare people whom every time you hear his name or recall a memory of him it brought a smile to your face. That is because Boz loved to make people laugh. And that is a wonderful gift to have.
As I have thought about Boz this weekend one particular memory came to mind. On one of those bus trips to a game I was listening to my "Walkman" (for those of you wondering what that is think of an IPod only much bigger and it plays cassette tapes....hard to envision right?). Boz came up to me and asked me what I was listening to. The Rolling Stones, I replied. Boz handed me his earphones and said, "listen to this, these guys are going to be the next Rolling Stones." The song "Bad" by U2 was playing. I immediately thought it was one of the best songs I had ever heard. I suppose you never forget some things from high school. Perhaps your first kiss....your first car....and for me, the guy who turned you onto the epic rock and roll band that would come of age at the same time we did. Thanks for that Boz!
For many years now running has become my emotional outlet. It is the place I go to to try to make sense of things that make no sense. Things like losing an old friend long before you should. Today I went on a long run which I dedicated to Boz. I don't need to tell you what the first song was that was blaring through my IPod as I began my run.
So long Boz. You will be missed.
Perfect tribute, Mark. Straight from the heart. I could not have described "Boz" more perfectly, and to think he introduced me to "pre-Unforgettable Fire U2" is truly a coincidence, or maybe not. It was the '84-'85 season/school year and Jenny Nickerson/Danny Patterson had turned me on to the "new" U2 album, "The Unforgettable Fire," but on an away agme bus ride, Boz turned me on to the "young," or shall I say, "old" U2 - "U2:Live at Red Rocks Under a Blood Red Sky." THANK YOU, BOZ!!! I think the only time I saw him get a little fired-up was when after having kept the cassette on continual loop in my car's tape deck for at least a month, he semi-demanded it back by saying something to the effect of, "Greenie, I know you don't know what jones-ing means, but I'm jones-ing for my U2 tape. We can go buy you a copy for you at Tape World." Then he just laughed and laughed and I handed it over. A month had passed and he was never mad at all. THANKS, BOZ!!! I like to look back and think he was letting me hear the U2 he had long loved while he was listening to older U2 like, "Boy," "October," and "War," while falling for the "new," "The Unforgettable Fire" at the same time. I also remember a certain teammate turning me on to the Beatles(more than the plain old radio stations did) because his older brother loved them. Yep, you on the back of the bus to an away game telling me, "No, it's called,'Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da!'" You see, I didn't own that album until I bought in a record store in San Francisco. What awesome teammates I had, right? Right. You expanded my Beatles horizons and Boz broadened my U2 horizons. THANKS, BOZ!!! I guess I can even say that if it weren't for Boz, that when my wife and I went to Ireland, I would not have put Slane Castle on our destination list because I had to see where "The Unforgettable Fire" was recorded. Now, this IS a coincidence; Just this past Friday during class, I stopped my students when I heard "Pride," coming from the classroom next door. They were watching an MLK documentary and U2 was providing the intro to the soundtrack. I have countless "favorite songs," but that song is my all-time favorite. It takes me back to times when the only responsibilities were school and sports. Jenny Nickerson went to Ireland with her church youth group and brought back bootleg U2 and man, we'd ride around and listen and listen and listen. THANK YOU, BOZ!!! You made people smile and laugh, for sure, BOZ. Thanks!!!People definitely benefitted from knowing Tim Bosley, I know I did...and that's a understatement. So, after all of this rambling, HERE'S TO BOZ, IN THE NAME OF LOVE!!!
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