My Friend William

I have always thanked God that I had enlightened parents. They taught my sister and me about diversity and tolerance, before it became politically correct.

Living in a small town in Wyoming during the 50’s era holds fond memories for me. My playground was a seemingly endless prairie. I was constantly finding remnants of prehistoric animals long since turned to stone as well as having had a collection of various lizards.

My fondest memory however is of a member of the Crow Indian Nation. His name was William and he was considered to be a little slow or weird. My schoolmates would tease him and parents always viewed him with suspicion.

“You never know what he might do,” was heard as a constant topic of conversation. I admit at first I was a little afraid of ‘what he might do’ and referred to him as stupid in front of my parents. I only did this once.

Dad took me aside that day after hearing my comment.
“Do you know anything about him,” my father asked.
“No,” I replied. “But he talks funny.”
“Well if you don’t know him, how do you know what he’s like?” He said. “Don’t you know that he has feelings just like you do?” “How would you like it if people called you names?”

For once in my young life, I was stumped. I also experienced a sense of guilt, but I didn’t know what I had done wrong.

As I went through the next week of school, I thought about what dad said. I remember that I came to be more aware of the taunts of the other kids and started to view those slings and arrows with a different attitude. I also noticed that no one would eat lunch with him in the school cafeteria.

One day, I saw William sitting in the cafeteria by himself and decided to take dad’s advice and sought to get to know him better, so I took my lunch over to where he was sitting and sat next to him.
“What did you bring for lunch?” I asked, trying to sound casual.
He looked into his lunch bag and started to speak. His eyes blinked as he tried to utter the words.
“B-b-b-ba-loney a-a-nd ch-ch-eeese,” he said. He looked at me. I saw the hope, mixed with a little fear in his eyes. Perhaps he thought I would tease him or criticize him.
He saw that I looked confused as I tried to decipher what he was trying to say. He took the sandwich out of his bag, opened it. “s-s-eel,” he said.
“Oh, you mean baloney and cheese!” I said. He smiled.
I took out my sandwich and opened it.
“I have one too, see.” We both laughed.

After that experience, I did get to know William. We went through elementary school together. During that time, he taught me about the stories that he had grown up with listening to his parents and grandparents talk of the old ways. He would sing songs in the old tongue. It was the only time he didn’t stutter.
He taught me the ancient art of finger weaving, which I still do from time to time.
I learned that William wasn’t slow at all. His stuttering left people with the idea that he was.

We would go exploring together in the prairie. He knew of places to go that I hadn’t even begun to explore and showed me where a pollywog (tadpole) pond was.

Once, we gathered a few pollywogs in a bucket then transferred them to a large fish bowl. We watched as they lost their tails then turned into frogs.

He knew of caves in the area, which I had seen, but was too afraid to explore. One such cave he knew by heart. It took awhile, but he finally convinced me to go with him.
“Don’t worry,” he told me, “there’s nothing in here, except maybe a couple of bats.”

Bats!

My friends in school were somewhat bewildered. So was I as I too started to get teased and began to understand what my father had said.

“Why are you hanging around him? Don’t you know everyone is talking behind your back? What’s the matter with you,” my best friend said.
It felt terrible being called names, as I heard people talking when William and I ate lunch together. No one else joined us. We were shunned.

I was confused because my friends knew me and although they didn’t get to know William, we went through school together and why would they start talking about me just because I had befriended William? I struggled with the idea of loosing my friends whom I had grown up with and loosing William as a friend.

William was more interesting. He knew things that my friends didn’t. I started to learn things that my friends wouldn’t. I chose William.

I often think about William and the kids who used to tease him. I feel sorry for those who did not take the time to get to know him as I did.
I also thank my father for instilling in me a sense of responsibility towards those whose dignity many want to destroy, simply because they are different.