Back in 1997, I had a skater cut. It was this weird faux mohawk thing (pre faux hawk, shotgun hair stylee). I had a couple of friends who had shaved heads. Real cool kids. Ben Davison and Fatty. What’s funny is that Fatty was perhaps the skinniest kid I knew. Somehow, that nickname just stuck.

I hung with Ben’s older sister Shannon a lot. She was a great person. Real down to earth, a very caring person. Sadly, she passed away over 10 years ago in a car accident.

But in 1997, we were all hanging out on an awesome spring day in our little town of New Gloucester, Maine. Much like Saturday, actually. Sun was shining, it was nice and warm. Fatty was jumping on the trampoline and Shannon was helping Ben cut his hair. He had his own clippers and was just going to town.

At that moment, I decided I was done with weirdo hair. I mean, it was a punk cut, but I wasn’t really a punker. I asked Ben to do it up, and he did. It was a pretty surreal moment. Then Shannon hit me with the iciest hose ever to get rid of the hair.

That day, Ben was wearing this Earth Crisis tee. No idea if he was ever straight edge (I wouldn’t become straight edge until 7 months and 300 miles later). And I’m pretty sure he wasn’t vegan. But he was a dude.

Ben Davison, this posts for you.