Rusty

Steve has had...and I am sure will yet have.... MANY nick names. But probably the time of life that I spent the most time with him was before he went on his mission. We were both out of highschool, going to the U and working at the pool. Steve had this thing going all summer long where he didn't wash, comb or cut his hair. What was the point when you are in the water most of the day, right? Well his long staw-like locks took on a redish hue and thus the nick name "Rusty". Rusty was very popular with the receptionist crowd. Most of the ladies that worked up there were about 4-5 years older than him, and a lot more sophisticated than a recent high school grad (especially since he wasn't a Farmer). But they LOVED him. I was managing the pool on Friday nights then and I would often find Rusty on his breaks leaning over the counter chatting with Reagan. I would join the crowd and we would huddle over issues of SL Weekly or the Private Eye and read the "Men seeking Men" or "Women seeking Women" personals trying to guess which of our swimmers posted them. Good times.

There were a couple of guys that would come and jump into the pool at about 8:45 p.m., 10 minutes before we would clear the pool for the night. Scotty would always get out of the pool when you asked, but there was a guy Rusty named, "The Minute Man". When you finally broke down after yelling at this guy that would not stop swimming and grabbed his foot after he did a flip turn, he would pop his head out for a second and say, "I've got another minute" and keep swimming. It was infuriating. We all wanted to GO HOME!!! Instead of hating his guts like the rest of us did, Rusty made friends with this joker. An ingenious move, as how can you be a jerk to a friend. The Minute Man would still say, "I've still got a minute" but he would willingly get out after one more lap for Rusty.

The other "Minute Man", Scotty, was a single guy that taught 6th grade. He was actually a pretty good guy. He and Rusty were pretty good friends, although their friendship was pretty much based on lies. Rusty had convinced Scotty that he was the lead singer of the Ocean Blue and that I played back up guitar. But looking back on it, Rusty probably had pure intentions as he pretty much had convinced himself that he REALLY was the lead singer of the Ocean Blue. Me being a proffesional back-up guitarist was much more laughable. I don't remember how it came to be, but one night after the pool closed Scotty took Rusty and I out to Litza's for a Pizza (sounds pretty creepy looking back on it). Rusty popped in a tape of "his" latest album. Scotty was REALLY impressed.

Rusty was always a good sport. He ALWAYS got stuck teaching the rotten day care kids that came in for swimming lessons. Of course the kids LOVED him. He also became the go-to guy for teaching Down Syndrom kids. He has a way of connecting with people that I have always admired.

One last story... one morning Rusty and I were both on the 5:00 a.m. shift. Which really meant that we had to get to the pool at about 4:45 a.m. to get things opened up. We did this shift ALL the time. I was driving The Bruiser and strangely enough Rusty pretty much kept his mouth shut (he must have been asleep, there was no way I was actually driving up to his expectations). We were heading down I-215 and Rusty calmly said, "I think that car is coming straight at you, you should change lanes." So I changed lanes. It wasn't until after the first hour of work that Steve wandered out on deck after taking his "break nap" and said to me, "Was that car driving on down the wrong side of the highway?" I thought back and it finally hit me, "Ya, that car was TOTALLY driving down the wrong side of the freeway." Good thing Rusty had enough presence of mind to tell me to change lanes, even if it didn't process until much later.

Happy Birthday Rusty! I love you! I hope you have a good one Saturday!!!!