Charlie Henry

Charlie helped me get through Vietnam and the coming home stage more than he knows. Charlie's the guy from Detroit with the '57 T-Bird that I wrote about in the story Back In the World. He still has the T-bird. We corresponded through my whole tour. He was my connection with the real world. We went to each other's weddings. I was his pit crew when he raced in the Sports Car Club of America. We got together with a bunch of college friends whenever we could for weekend camp outs for years.

In College, we saw Sam The Sham and The Pharaohs (Woolly Bully, Little Red Riding Hood) and the Shamettes perform at a dance hall in Wisconsin, and we saw the Aurora Borealis light up the northern sky in all its winter glory together through the sun roof of my VW beetle (both are long stories). He has always been a car nut, even to the point of silk screening FORD on the back of his underwear in printing class (he works for Chrysler now).

Everybody should have a friend like Charlie.

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Copyright © 1999 By Thomas J. Hain, All Rights Reserved

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