Inspire, Summer 2005

20 Summer 2005 Phil shares the story of his friendship with Jim Black ’96, Brent “Bud” McKanna ’96, Mark Button ’97, and Mike McCleese ’95 and the unique way they stayed connected. J im burst through the doorway: “Bud saw me and he’s coming this way!” I crouched and slid deeper into the corner. Bud, our former roommate, was unaware of the trap we had set for him. Jim’s part of the plan was complete; the rest was up to me. “Be on the lookout for Mark,” I replied. “Bud” isn’t his given name. He was “Brent” for most of his first two years at Cedarville, until one evening after a basketball game when an out-of-town visitor we had just met was saying goodbye to all of us. The man drew a blank when he tried to remember Brent’s name, so he slapped him on the shoulder and said, “See you later, bud.” The nickname stuck immediately and permanently. And that summarizes my circle of friends pretty well, really. Any random moment of time we spend together might be immortalized in a permanent nickname, an often-fought but never-solved argument, or most often, a story that is told and re-told until even our wives and families can recite it from memory. I fully expect to be in my sixties and still discussing the time that Mike got me on Nickelodeon’s “Double Dare” by convincing them that I was under 16, or wondering how Mark always managed to sleep with his eyes half-open, or arguing with Jim over whether he has ever actually filled up a bathroom sink with vomit. From my vantage point in the corner, I saw Bud cautiously step into the same doorway that Jim had just passed through. But we still needed him to come in a little further. “Just a few steps more,” I whispered to Jim. Our friendship started off pretty badly. It was the fall of 1994, my first year at Cedarville after transferring from another university. I had requested a room in Brock, the newest men’s dorm at the time, but I’d been placed in Lawlor instead. I thought I’d make the best of it, but after meeting Mike, Jim, Bud, and Mark, it was clear that I wasn’t going to fit in. Less than a week after moving in, I sent an e-mail to the dean’s office, asking if I could be put on a waiting list to move to another dorm. I’m not sure when the tide shifted. It may have been the night that Mark and Bud made a heroic effort to break me out of a funk after I broke up with a girl back home. Or it might have been the shared trauma of the night that Mike left some of us to sleep in his basement with no blankets, pillows, or bedding of any kind. But by Christmas break of that first year, the guys with whom I once felt I had nothing in common had become my best friends. Xbox Tuesdays P h i l W i t t m e r ’ 9 7 Then and now ... Back row: Jim Black ’96 and Phil Wittmer ’97; Middle: Mike McCleese ’95; Front: Brent “Bud” McKanna ’96 and Mark Button ’97