Here's me and my old school chum, Kat, at the top of Lombard St., SF in 2008. She'd come to town for a visit & I took her around to both old haunts & tourist spots.
The other day, I'd mistakenly read that Ozzy Osbourne had died, but he'd actually turned 70. Kat loved Ozzy long after I'd sort of grown out of his oeuvre. Initially, I couldn't believe he'd died (well, I could given his penchant for drugs). Upon realizing my mistake, I couldn't believe he'd made it this long without dying.
Thinking about Ozzy made me think about Kat. Her entire bedroom was covered in pics cut out of Creem and Hit Parader, extremely popular music mags from the 1970s-1980s. The faces of Ozzy, Randy Rhoads (Ozzy's band, Quiet Riot), Bruce Dickenson from Iron Maiden, Ronnie James Dio (Rainbow, Sabbath & Dio), the lads from AC/DC were all around.
One time, we tripped on acid in her bedroom & I could have sworn Ozzy, face full of scary make-up, was coming out of a picture taped to the ceiling. -looked like he was going to fall on us. I also saw spiders in the shag rug that weren't there. Pretty freaky.
Here's a pic of Kat in the 'acid trip' bedroom--
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As only Junior High besties could do, we usually wore matching clothes. She had the tiger stripe shirt and I had the leopard print version. We would occasionally trade them back and forth. It was like having two for the price of one. We wore the hell out of those tops.
I had to dig this pic up just to show you. The below pic is of me in my leopard print shirt. We were kinda like Tweedledee and Tweedledum. :D
Kat would have turned 49 in just a few days. Even if Ozzy hadn't hit the BIG 7-0, I'd still be thinking about her. Big hugs, bud.
xx
When I heard about Ozzie turning 70 My thought was that it was surprising he had made it that far. Sorry about Kat who, obviously didn't make it.
ReplyDeleteIt's crazy, no pun intended, that's he's stuck around this long.
DeleteIt is amazing that Ozzie survived. And I am sorry that you lost your best bud.
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing. I do wonder how his mind is doing.
DeleteKeith Richards once said that the only reason he was still alive is because he could afford top quality drugs.
ReplyDelete-guess that is what keeps Ozzy going.
DeleteBenchmarks and what we tie them to! Or is it the other way around, or both together. All the milestones that never would happen to us. I paid little attention to Ozzie, but Keith was in my orbit. I too read his remark about top quality.
ReplyDeleteWhat I like about the guys from Black Sabbath is that they weren't public school boys, unlike the guys from the Stones sans Bill Wyman. Of course, all of 'em could now afford 'top quality' anything that they want.
DeleteWould have turned 49? Oh wow, I'm sorry. It's rough to lose friends so young.
ReplyDeleteYeah, she was a good egg. It's a bummer.
DeleteI'm sorry for your loss. :( As a new reader, and please don't be offended, I don't know which one is you and which one is Kat in the first photo.
ReplyDeleteTotally cool, LL. I rarely post pictures of myself, but was feeling rather confessional yesterday when thinking of my friend.
DeleteKat is the one with the crazy, natural almost white-blond hair.
Good memories. Me and my friends were big fans of Hit Parader magazine. I wish I would have saved a few. It would be fun and probably quite amusing reading them now. Thanks for sharing Kat with us. Take care.
ReplyDeleteHit Parader was the jam. I wish I still had a couple of them as well.
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