ERIN HYNEK

In honor of Erin's appearance yesterday, here's what I remember about her.

My first memories of Erin are from Clarke Middle School. She may have been with us at Magee. But I don't recall. Quite honestly, I don't think our paths crossed until 8th grade.

I had her in first hour math class with Mr. Stodola. It also happened to be our homeroom. During the morning announcements (if any) Mr. Stodola would read off the names of anyone in his class that had an overdue library book. This would sometimes prove embarrassing to people, as he would also read the name of the book. Thus if you happened to be reading something that others might deem uncool or something, it could be embarrassing. Erin was in this situation once. I don't recall what the book was. It was probably no big deal at all. But once her name was read, Erin told Stodola that she knew what book it was, and that he didn't need to read it out loud. No sooner were the words out of her mouth, when he rattled off the title anyway.

Also in 8th grade, when Ms. Koeppe read the morning announcements over the loudspeakers, she would always end it with, "Will the following students please report to the office..." This was usually not a good omen. Surprisingly, Erin's name was called on occasion. But most of the time, it was in error. Because while we were in 8th grade, there was also a 6th grade male student named Aaron Hynek. Eventually Ms. Koeppe figured it out and would then say, "Aaron Hynek... the 6th grader."

In our freshman year, our school had at least three suicide attempts. One of them was successful. Suicide is contagious. When one does it, others inevitably try it as well. I think that school officials went into some sort of panic mode. At one point, a list of phone numbers was handed out to every student. We could call any of the numbers to speak with someone if we had any suicidal thoughts or something. The phone numbers were those of student volunteers. If I'm not mistaken, Erin was one of them.

See my Jason Anderson entry for a funny story involving Jason tying Erin's shoelace to her desk.

Throughout my childhood, I did a lot of bad things. I did a lot of strange things. I've grown up since then, and am a pretty decent citizen today. I've always maintained a strong belief that I should never have to apologize for anything that I may have done prior to adulthood. What's the point? I'm an adult now. Why should I apologize for something I may have done 20-25 years ago when I was a stupid kid?

There is one exception.

If you read my entry on Richard Wheeler, you'll see a detailed description of our mock suicide pact. Richard and I enjoyed playing with the heads of anyone we came in contact with. Like they say, it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt.

Erin went up to Richard one day and asked," You're not really going through with Burt's plan are you?" To which Richard blasted back, "Are you kidding? This is all my idea!" Erin walked away dejected. A few days after the suicide date, I'd heard that Erin had dedicated her entire creative writing packet that week to our suicide plan. I asked her to show it to me. She reluctantly did. Her words hit me like a bullet to the head (no pun intended). "They say he's the walrus. And the walrus means death..." Ms. Sapa sympathized with her in the notes she scratched on the pages. I felt like total shit. Richard and I never wanted to hurt anyone - least of all someone as nice as Erin. I was just stunned over her words, and sheepishly handed them back to her when I'd finished. I was too shocked to even tell her I was sorry. Although I didn't dwell on it, not apologizing to her bugged me for years.

In our senior year (I believe) Erin was elected queen of one of the various dances - prom or homecoming perhaps. Her king was Nick Novachek. I don't believe they were a couple though. Perhaps at that dance or a different one, Erin also helped out decorating the gym. She and her fellow classmates enjoyed the moment when it was all finished.

About two weeks before I started this blog, I happened to see Erin's name on CLASSMATES.COM. I siezed the moment, dropping her a line, and apologizing for the stupid event from December, 1987. She wrote me back, cheerful as ever, saying there was no need to apologize, and that she was very happy that it turned out to be a joke. Too cool Erin.

I ran into Erin many, many times at the video store. She remained friendly as always. I think she went onto school somewhere. Eventually she married, and is now known as Erin Meara. I believe she has three kids and a dog. Last I knew, she was working in some sort of medical field - perhaps in the area of hearing defects. She now lives in the St. Louis area.

UPDATE - 2/13/06 - Erin has joined the ranks of the brave souls who have sumbitted a photo. She gave me three. I chose the one with her and her daughters - presumably at Busch Stadium. Is it just me, or does she look exactly the same as she did 17 years ago? Remarkable. Thank you Erin.



UPDATE - 8/10/06 - Another recent picture of Erin can be seen below. It was taken in Colorado last month.



UPDATE - 10/4/07 - Back in July, Erin visited Two Rivers. One night she went out with Paula Jonas and Brenda Gordon. While they were out, they ran into Mark Gordon. The results are the picture below. The picture of her daughters may be from the same trip.





Over Labor Day weekend, my family and I went down to visit Erin. Rather than rehash the whole story, I'll just copy and paste my blog entry from September 6th. Here it is.

So after a few weeks of planning, the TWORIVERSWALRUS family set out for St. Louis. Why? Because we were invited to spend the weekend with Erin Hynek. How could we pass that up? So on August 31st, we left my work about 5:00 and headed south for a mere 418-mile trek. Onboard were myself, my lovely wife and our two girls - ages four and two. There was also some junk food.

Erin doesn't live in St. Louis. She lives outside of the city. Could it have been on the northeast side - closer to Wisconsin? Oh no. She had to settle down about 40 minutes northwest of the city - out in the boonies - very dark. On the surface it doesn't seem to make that much fo a difference. But when you've been driving for 5.5 hours, it'd be nice to be done, rather than go those extra 40 minutes. Oh well.

So we arrived at about 11:40 and settled in, carrying our girls up to bed. Erin had to get to bed right away, as she was doing a triathlon the next morning, and had to be up at some ungodly time like 5:30. My wife and I had done our triathlons the week before. So we slept in.

Expected back around 10:30, I think Erin actually rolled in around noon. We ended up officially meeting her two girls shortly thereafter. And let me say, her kids are two of the most well-behaved, well adjusted little girls I've ever been around. Kudos to Erin on her mothering skills.

We went to the mall. We went shopping. We ate toasted ravioli - and potato chips, a restaurant buffet, cookies, and various other tasty, unhealthy stuff. Ah... vacation! I played Pictionary with Erin's girls, batted balloons around, went swimming, and had an all-around good time.

On Sunday we went to Grant's Farm - free, save for the parking. It's sort of zoo, with horses, deer, bison, kangaroos and more. They even had elephants. Not one to pass up a unique photo opportunity, I got a picture of Erin and I (and one of her daughters) in front of an elephant. This marks my first classmate photo with a giant beast in it. I'm sure there will be more.



On Monday morning, Erin's youngest tried to do something with my oldest's hair.



Her big sister then tried to undo the tangles.



When that didn't work, Erin had to come in and fix it. I believe it required scissors.



After the hair episode, we took them out to IHOP for a final breakfast. It took about an hour before we actually saw our food. But when it finally did arrive, it was tasty and plentiful. When we were done, we posed for the obligatory group shot. I'm in the back - the only male in the photo.



All-in-all, it was a fabulous weekend. Apparently Erin's girls were a bit teary-eyed after we left. How sweet. When I told my daughter that, she said, "I was sad to go too." After 18 years, here I was, a guest in the home of a former classmate that I'd never even hung around with back in school. Life is surreal sometimes, isn't it? Erin was an excellent host and made us all feel very welcome. Perhaps we can do it again over another three-day weekend. I sure hope so.