Esquire, TFLAO, L.D. and Tom have been the closest of friends since the end of high school and the beginning of real life.

“Esquire” acquired his title due to his penchant for talking like a lawyer — asking questions that he already knows the answers to, and asking them in such a way so that you know that he knows and you know that he knows you don’t know. “TFLAO” stood for The First, Last, And Only. “L.D.” was simply his first two initials. “Tom” was Tom.

Soon after graduation, Esquire joined the Army. He didn’t actually “join” so much as he received a well-worded letter from the president of the United States requesting his participation. This was 1972 and Vietnam was still the “go-to” tropical travel destination for tens of thousands of high school graduates.

On the eve of Esquire’s departure for all things military, the quartet met at a local Italian restaurant to quaff adult beverages (Michigan was in the process of testing the lowered drinking age of 18. It failed, but that is another story.), eat an excellent meal, and kick Esquire out into the surreal world of selective service.

The date was March 15, the Ides of March. This was the date made famous by Shakespeare in the play “Julius Caesar,” when a soothsayer warns,  “Beware the Ides of March,” the day that Caesar was assassinated by, among others, his best friend Marcus Brutus.

It was appropriate that the Ides of March would mark this momentous occasion when three close friends would cast a fourth member out into the waiting arms of war.

During the course of the evening liquor flowed, laughter swelled and the realities of what the next morning was going to bring started to sink in. Fighting the inevitable rising of the sun and the hangover that was sure to follow, the four made a pact. Should Esquire find his way back home from war, they would meet at the same Italian restaurant on the Ides of March, and toast his safe return and good fortune.

Esquire has a way of stumbling uphill and ending better off than before. He did not go to Vietnam. Thanks to taking a typing class in high school, he was assigned to be a company clerk with a NATO battalion in Germany. He drove a Mercedes, acquired a taste for German beer and the only action he ever saw was the return slide on his typewriter.

Following Esquire’s return home from the military, the four did meet up and have continued to meet each year thereafter.

Annually, Esquire’s favorite Ides activity is to recount how incredible each of the previous gatherings have been. Although TFLAO, L.D. and Tom have been with Esquire through each episode, they’ve noticed that the accuracy of his storytelling tends to elongate and his memory of reality is viewed through a fogged lens.

Each year rolls of film are processed (Esquire struggles with all things digital) and the photos are added to the now volumes of photo albums that document each of the past escapades. Oddly, as glimpses of individual moments in time, the pictures appear to back up Esquire’s fanciful memory.

Unfortunately, this past year, TFLAO dropped Esquire’s camera, causing it to open and expose all the film. Esquire’s pained response was to lament, “Now, I have no way to prove my lies!”

The four have found a way, regardless of geography, personal or professional conflict, or even physical or psychological infirmity to return to the Center of the Universe (this term is also a story unto itself) and continue meeting each Ides of March. March 15, 2014.

This year marked the 42nd anniversary of the pact and 40 years of celebrating Esquire’s safe return.

And there are pictures to prove it.

 

Larry Wilson is a mostly lifelong resident of Niles. His optimistic “glass full to overflowing” view of life shapes his writing. His essays stem from experiences, compilations and recollections from friends and family. Wilson touts himself as “a dubiously licensed teller of tall tales, sworn to uphold the precept of ‘It’s my story; that’s the way I’m telling it.’” He can be reached at wflw@hotmail.com.