One of our friends died a few days ago. He was one of the gang that we’d go on cruises/vacations with. Here are a couple of stories about him.

The gift of gab

I’ve never been much of a talker. Any one-on-one conversation with me will be filled with many long, awkward silences.

That never happened with Craig. He would cheerfully and easily fill any silences with just about anything. An added bonus was that he would often say some funny and interesting stuff. Even though he was a huge sports fan, he’d talk about other things like music, TV, news, etc.

This is not to say that he monopolized the conversation. I was able to easily add to the talking. (I can be funny and interesting too).

College Football

A bunch of us were milling about at someone’s house, killing time between a wedding ceremony and the reception.

In the living room, there was a college football game on the TV. As the game progressed, Craig would mention various statistics about whoever was on the screen, sometimes adding biographical tidbits about them, or their home town, or their football career in high school.

This prompted one of us to ask “How long have you followed college football?”

“Oh, I don’t follow college football.”

This was Craig not following college football.