Monday, July 14, 2008

Remembering KC

I read Phoebe’s entry this morning and it really made me realize how special KC made everyone feel. Her experience with KC was so much like my own, but he always made me feel like I was his best friend.

I met KC in the fall of 1997, shortly after we both started at KU. We had a mutual friend in Wichita that gave KC my number. I remember waiting for KC to come over for the first time. While my roommate and I were watching out my dorm window for him, a guy rode up on his bike, took off his sweat-soaked shirt, reapplied his deodorant and got a fresh shirt out of his bag to put on. A few minutes later, KC knocked on my door. We went out for Chinese food and then to Liberty Hall to see a movie. When we got to Liberty, KC announced that he was out of money and I would have to pay for both of us. When I got home, I immediately called my friend in Wichita. I sat out in the hall gushing about how amazing KC was, “just like Neal Cassady” I thought.

We became good friends after that and a couple months later KC showed up at my door with a broken collar bone and announced that he couldn’t ride his bike anymore and since he worked on campus, he was moving into my dorm room with me. That was just the beginning of years of KC showing up at my door, sometimes alone, sometimes with his girlfriend and Rufus, looking for a place to stay for the night. The last time I remember KC showing up like that was a few months before he moved to New Mexico. He drove up on his motorcycle and said he was moving to Lawrence. “Great! Where are you going live?” I asked. “Here!” he said and tried to convince me to let him move onto my back porch. I told him no though, because it was winter. Instead, he stayed inside on the couch for awhile. KC spent Thanksgiving with me and my family that year.

Over the years I’ve lost touch with KC a few times, which was easy to do before he had a cell phone. But for the last couple years we’ve talked on the phone every few months, I was even lucky enough to receive an email from him a couple times. The last time I saw KC was when Handsome Molly played at the Replay in Lawrence a couple years ago. I spent the past winter in Italy and was very unhappy and lonely, but I would listen to Handsome Molly on my walk to class in the morning and hearing KC’s voice always made me feel better. The last time I communicated with KC was in March when he sent me an email saying he was going down to New Orleans to record a new album. I was looking online a few days ago to see if his new album had come out yet when I found out that he had died. It was so unbelievable that I called his cell phone hoping he would pick up. Instead, I got his voicemail.

The last few days have been very difficult. I’ve missed going to Winfield and spending time with KC for the last few years (all the years KC has been performing there) because I’ve been in Wyoming in graduate school. I’m moving back to Lawrence in August and for months I’ve been looking forward to going to Winfield so I could see KC perform and meet Sarah. When I talked to KC on the phone in December before I left for Italy, he told me I should camp in the River Rat camp with him instead of Walnut Grove “where all the old people camp”. I was also looking forward to KC and Sarah showing up unannounced, looking for a place to stay when they were in Lawrence.

If there’s anything I feel I should have learned from KC, it’s that school and work should never take precedence over enjoying life and spending time with friends, especially going to the Bluegrass Festival. I put off calling KC when I got back to the US last month and can’t say how much I regret that. I’m so glad that the last time I talked to KC, he told me he loved me.

Sarah and Gail, I can’t tell you how sorry I am for your loss. The last time I talked to KC he told me that he had found the girl he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.

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