KEVIN MINKEL

Kevin joined us in 8th grade. Where he came from is a mystery. As I recall, two new students joined us that year. One was Jim Sanford. The other was Kevin. I liked one of them. I didn't like Jim.

Kevin was kind of a big guy - not overly fat mind you, just a tall, thick guy. He was a big fan of professional wrestling. He and I used to talk about the WWF - especially around the time of the first Wrestlemania, which took place in the spring of that year. Wrestling was such great campy fun back then. Roddy Piper was the man! Anyway, I digress.

I don't have much to say about Kevin. For the most part, he and I got along just fine. But we were never friends or anything.

In gym class, perhaps in our freshman year, I believe we were playing two-on-two basketball. I think my partner was Mark Schreiber. Kevin was partnered with Chuck Yauch. Mark and I were trying to be annoying as possible, cheating, running around while holding the ball... whatever. The more I think about it, it may have been Richard and I. If so, it was sophomore year. Anyway, Kevin and Chuck really got annoyed with us. So I guess we were happy.

One thing I cannot forget is something that happened in our freshman year. Kevin and I sat in study hall together. He sat directly across from me. One day he was talking to me, and I swear to God, his breath smelled like semen - freshly squeezed semen. It was so nasty! Of course being the super macho male that I was, I could never ever tell this story to anyone, for the reason of course that I would have no clue as to the odorous qualities of such a substance. Whatever... My inhibitions on such things have long since vanished. I can say it now. Yes, on that given day, Kevin's breath smelled like cum. How it got that way, I don't know. I don't think I care to know. But I doubt it got that way in the way that a pervert might think it did.

Kevin was sometimes referred to as "tinks" - which was actually short for "tinkle." I'd prefer "tinks." Although it is a clear violation of the rules of nicknaming.

In our sophomore year, I had Kevin in Mr. Conrad's biology class. One day Kevin's zipper was open. Ross Hofmann began to make a few jokes about not wanting to see Kevin's "big snake" come flying out. It was funny. Who knew that Ross had a sense of humor?

I ran into Kevin many times at the video store. He was always friendly. To my knowledge, Kevin has never left Two Rivers, and may presently work at Lakeside Foods. I don't think he's ever married.

UPDATE - 10/20/06 - Kevin's is a new daddy. According to the Herald Times Reporter, Kevin (who now lives in Manitowoc) and his wife Tina (apparently he did get married at some point) gave birth to a son on October 17th. The kid's name is Dulton Ray Charles Minkel. Wow.

UPDATE - 4/16/07 - Kevin Dehne found two pictures of Kevin. They date from sometime in the 1990's, probably at some party Kevin (Dehne) had. Kevin believes that the woman in the photo is the woman Kevin (Minkel) is now married to.