On Saturday morning June 16, I took a drive out to Springfield to see George Willeman one last time before he and his wife and cats and belongings permanently relocate to Culpeper, Virginia, where his job as vault leader with the Library of Congress Motion Picture Conservation Center will be taking him. I bought him lunch at the Gold Star Grill in a weak effort to show my appreciation for more than twenty years of friendship. It was nice to have a chance to chat - and highly enjoyable to watch George attempt to operate his first riding lawnmower, one that he will be bringing along with him.
As usual, I didn’t leave George’s house empty-handed, as he was always giving me or loaning me some interesting little item - this time it was huge stack of plastic collector’s cups. As I gave George a hug before leaving his house, I could almost feel the tears welling up in my eyes so I quickly shuffled out the door. Although I purport to not have a real best friend - since I have had so many good friends through the years - George certainly came as close as anyone ever has.
I first met George in the latter part of 1986 at meetings of the Towed in a Hole Tent of the Sons of the Desert in Springfield. Although George was nine years my senior, our love of movies initially instigated many lively conversations at the meetings - so much that often we would stand out in the kitchen of our Grand Sheik Carl Ahlm and just chat about movies, rather than actually watching the films that were being shown. At one point, George invited me to go and see Vincent Price speak at a lecture at Wright State University where he was attending as a Film major. This further solidified our forming friendship when I left the cap of my hair brush (you could put water or hairspray in the handle!) in his car and he drove over to my house in Beavercreek to return it. My family and I invited him to stay for tacos.
In 1987, George and I were together through thick and thin. Here we were thin.
For the next year or so, George and I became inseparable. He would bring over Super 8 films and screen them at my place, I would stay at his house and we would watch movies until late and then shop the local antique stores the next day, he would drive me around on my paper route (and even fill in for me when I went on vacation), we both joined Moore’s Nautilus and we would go and work out together followed by the sauna and a nice swim, we would go see movies (he acted as my ‘guardian’ for the ones that were Rated R), we went to Wright State and played ping-pong, he gave me tours of the film vaults where he worked, and he even helped teach me how to drive a stick shift. George was even exceptionally tolerant of my typical teenage obsession with heavy metal music and he even took me to my first big concert: Stryper and Loudness. Of course, we share many stories that I will talk about in greater detail in the future. This was truly a wonderful period of my life and I am grateful for all the time we spent together.
George stops by on prom night 1991.
Of course, as I started to turn into a wreckless teenager and became more interested in girls and partying with friends my own age, George and I saw less of each other for a period of time during my high school years. Once in a while during my college years we would have the occasional drinking binge, which was a relatively new experience for him, but was right up my alley during this time period. In 1992, we got together and formed the Dayton A-Haunting We Will Go Tent with me as the Grand Sheik and he as the Vice-Sheik (sheik in charge of vice). He took an active role for the first couple of years, before he then met his future wife Felicia and suddenly had different fish to fry as well. Although we did not hang out together as we had before, we always kept in touch with each other. In all the years that George and I have been friends, as far as I can recall we never had a significant argument of any kind.
George and I get ready at my first wedding in 1999.
George assumed the role of Best Man in not one, but two of my weddings - in 1999 and 2003. Around this time period, George again began to take a very active role in our tent and we built it to the largest and most active status that it had ever been. As we were both film collectors (along with our mutual friend Larry Smith), we transformed the tent into one that consistently showed real film. We even attempted to do screenings (without much success) at a couple of local nursing homes. Recently, we had begun visiting each other even more often and one of the last things George did for me was to help me convert my collection of Super 8 home movies to DVD. It was great fun (at least for me) to work on this project and just spend time with George.
George and me at a Sons meeting in 2002 with our hard boiled eggs and nuts. George is holding his eggs, while I’ve got ahold of my nuts.
For the past few years, the fact that George was going to be moving away loomed in the future. It was postponed so often that I was hoping that it would never happen, but alas, now it has. Last month George began work in Culpeper at the Library of Congress film vaults. In fact, when we met last weekend he was only at home to supervise the movers who would be taking the last of their belongings to Virginia this week. As I sat there and listened to him tell a story involving his new home’s septic lines, it occurred to me what I think I always loved about George: he could simply talk about any subject and keep you in rapt attention. Movies were our number one commonality, but he could talk about cars, cameras, religion, home repair, politics, nostaligia, books, music, family - whatever - and I always enjoyed every minute of it.
George consoles me on his lap before my second wedding in 2003.
I will be traveling in Virginia in August so I hope to meet up with George during my trip - and after that I only pray that we can continue to keep in touch and that he makes enough trips back to Ohio that we can continue to have our traditional lunches and he can tell me about his new finds and new adventures. And I can still sit there like a gangly teenager thinking what a cool guy this is.
Last Saturday, 2007.
I feel so very richly blessed to have great friends like Brad. The only thing I really miss from Ohio are the people I left behind, and BF is near the top of that list. Thanks for your most kind words and thoughts and for sharing these scary pictures. God bless you and your’n.
Geo.
July 18th, 2007