The Rolla Boys™- Chapter 2

In January of 2003, I started building the infrastructure that would eventually support a dream I'd had since I was in my 20's-a log cabin deep in the woods, ideally in the middle of nowhere particular. I'd purchased land with my brother Larry in 1997, but he eventually lost interest and sold his half of the 160 acres to a good friend of mine, Greg "Magnus" Samson.
While Magnus and I sat talking about log cabins one evening over an icy cold beverage, it hit me that if I was ever going to fulfill my nearly life long dream, I had to at some point pull the trigger and take the first step. As a result of that realization, I shortly after hired local dirt man Raymond Stringly to clear the building site, some good Ol' Missouri Boys out of Cassville to dig a well (960 feet deep), and I started clearing and digging a 2400' long utility easement (over the hills and through the woods of course) with my trusty Husqvarna Model 51 chain saw and a big butted 38hp Vermeer Trencher I'd rented from a local equipment dealer. I was a brush clearing and ditch digging son-of-a-gun I was!
Toward the end of that Summer as we neared completion of the cabin, I decided to try to get some of these old hometown boys to come down and hang out for a weekend at my new place in the woods. Since I'd re-established contact with a handful of these Goomers the past few years, I thought it might be fun to get those guys out for a couple days and nights to sit around a camp fire, eat some chili, blast a few caps and perhaps rehash stories of some of the mostly ridiculous stuff we did while growing up in Rolla, Mo in the 1960's and 70's.
I settled on October 10-12 as a good time for our get-together. The leaves would be changing, the moon would be close to full and we'd have a good chance of decent weather.
One evening around the middle of August, I sat at home and made phone calls to 6 or 7 of my old friends, inviting them down for the get together the following month. I received the somewhat anticipated response of "I can't make it Rob because....", from one of my best friends of all-time, a guy named Randy Warrenton, who I've called Ran-dell ever since I can remember and whom I've known since grade school at Fort Wyman Elementary; one response of, "Man I'd like to Russell but I'm really busy here with my business" from my great old friend Jack Craig who I've known since 7th grade; and 4 responses that went something like, "I'll be there buddy-I wouldn't miss it for the world!".
Those 4 guys along with myself comprised the inaugural group and first official post high school gathering of "The Rolla Boys™". They included, Steven Ray "The Beaver" Moses, Kevin "Cool" Carmile, Vic "Victor" Day-Vault (as our one and only and larger than life 8th grade football coach, Coach Kinder called him) and Craig "Howard" France.
After a 25 year hiatus, The Rolla Boys™ would soon be together again, telling old lies and making up plenty of new ones!