December 12, 1986:
I'd made many new friends, including:
Paralyn McClain
,
,
Teri Price
, and Tammy McCollum. Paralynn (I called her Lynn), whom I met on July 21, was a new peson in the office and I was picked to train her. Brand new to the Air Force and just 19 years old, she was very friendly and we soon had a strong chemistry, standing in the back of the office working, and giggling the whole time. Lynn came along with me when I bought Humphrey (my car) and tagged along on my first test drive. We always had fun together. Some of the other 'He-Men' thought we were romantically involved, or should be, although the thought had never crossed my mind. I just wanted to ride my bicycle and chase Karen.
A co-worker named Ralph Smallwood, (who later died of a heart attack at the age of 30) talked Lynn and I and set us up on a date. We had fun. I guess it was my first date. I soon developed a crush on her but it came and went over the next eighteen months. We were good friends.
Phil Gray lived next door to me in the dormitories on base. He'd see me dead asleep in the TV room with my homework on me, so eventually he asked me to go drive with him, and after a while we became best friends. We had similar personalities
(psycho)
and were both loners to a point. And here, on my 21st birthday, I was upset because I was alone. I'd been excited because I thought perhaps, for the first time in my life, I could get together with friends and celebrate. It was important to me, in this particular year. I really, really didn't want to be alone that night. I was still young enough to be optimistic about people then. I'd thought I had plenty of friends, and spoke to many of them about going out on my birthday, but they were all either busy or not answering
their phones that night. I stayed in my room doing laundry and then I became very upset and I tried to break my hand on my steel locker. It didn't work. I asked my roommate, with whom I didn't quite get along (opposite personalities) to shoot this photo of me for my mother, just minutes before midnight. I didn't want her to miss out on another birthday.