My Friend, The Author, Tommy Gaffney

     In ways 1992 seems like a lifetime ago, but actually it seems as though it was just a blink of an eye ago. Time has a way of making you feel simultaneous emotions, such as when you say or hear 1992 you think wow, I am getting old, but then the other side of it is you still remember some of the days so vividly and clear that it's hard to imagine so many years could have gone by. The good times, the bad times, the laughs and even the tears. The memories of great friends, flings, and the glory days of Friday night football and basketball games, feeling that strong school spirit that is hardly ever duplicated in life, even as much as we love our college teams it just isn't the same as feeling that strong High School pride. The friendships you have during those High School years are some of the strongest of your life.

    For the last two years of my High Schools days, one of the classes I had partaken in was Creative Writing, which was taught by good ole Mrs. Wallace herself, I can still hear her echoing the infamous words "show don't tell" which she would etch into our minds as well as the chalk board. The class was a small class with about 12 girls and only two boys which included Tommy Gaffney and myself. Looking back there was a lot of great stuff written in that classroom.

    Whenever our assignments consisted of short stories and poems, I would always ask that someone else read mine out loud, because as I stated to Mrs. Wallace I wanted to hear how it sounded, but deep down I think I just didn't want to stand in front and read out loud. Like a expecting father I would pace back in forth in the back of the classroom listening, waiting and watching for reactions, and I can remember feeling a lack of accomplishment if it didn't make the girls in the class cry, for no rhyme or reason my stuff then always leaned toward the morbid side.

      Tommy and I got to become great friends over that two year stretch, and for a lot of our Senior year, Tommy  practically lived with me and my mom in a small neighborhood ranch style house in the little town of New Castle where at nights we would wait for my mom to get home because usually it meant trips to Eminence so we could get one of Convenient food mart's famous taco salads, just one of the hot spots on what we called the cruising strip where hundred's of people from all ages drove around in circles for entertainment, there wasn't much else to choose from.  Tommy and I also had some amazing Tennis matches back it those days too, along with basketball practice, amazing looking back at  just how good of shape we we're in.

       Sometimes you aren't aware of how much something,someone or both are impacting you while your living in the moment, and that is what that seemingly pointless Creative Writing class being instructed by Mrs. Wallace was doing for us, it very quietly molded and helped transform us into better writers, and it was one of the few classes you didn't mind going to. I can still remember even in those days Tommy was writing some very powerful poetry, in his own very unique style.

        So now here we are in 2011, just one year away from being 20 years ago, wow now see there, that is one of those moments when you feel old saying it out loud, and I am proud to say that for those of you who aren't aware or don't know Tommy now has written two books which are now published, both of which I have read. The titles of these two books are "Three Beers From Oblivion", and "Whiskey Days", both have moments where if you live or ever lived in small towns like Pleasureville, New Castle, or on the tough West end streets of Louisville the powerful nostalgia of it all will overwhelm you at times. These are two must reads if you wanna read poetry and short stories that are written in a totally different style, a style Tommy has made his own.

        Life is short my friends, and like a pebble tossed into the water we are just a small ripple in this infinite lake we call life, waiting for our ripple to reach the shore. So let's all take our time, live in the moment we are in, for you never know when you might be living in a moment that will influence your future.