I think they were 11 of us at St. Dominic Savio that tried to get into St. Louis U. High. In the end, 3 of us made it: Steve Schad, Tony Sciuto, and me. Steve and Tony were kind of running mates and I was the third wheel. Steve tried out for C team football made the squad and started hanging out with the freshmen football team. I got Tony and have had him ever since. The funny part Steve was a good soccer player and I never ever remember seeing him play football. Tony's dad worked at Nooter Boilermaker which was close to SLUH, so each morning Tony, Steve, Matt Grzesiowski and I would pile into Mr. Sciuto's Cougar and we were on our way. There was a shy girl that waited for the bus at Jamieson and Pernod and was there every day, we never talked to her but I think one time either Matt or Steve through a rock with a note on it towards her. The note was written from my perspective and asked if she wanted to be my girlfriend. Who knows whatever happened to that shy girl, maybe in today's world with Facebook and social media we would have found out.
Tony was my running mate in high school and eventually we joined up with other famous pairs like Martin and Stephens, Abels and Agne, Hellwig and Krumrey, etc. Looking back I remember some of the jokes, but it is amazing since we spent so much time together I do not have striking memories, now if I say something like, "Sometimes you hear the bullet" he will know exactly what I am talking about. He also loves to answer my either -- or questions with either a yes or a no. I still sometimes set him up for this-- I have not learned. When I got to Marquette and met some of my floor mates, I was bitter that SLUH did not do a better job of giving Tony more options for college. We could have been there together. My mother and I drove together to Marquette just the two of us. Tony followed us the whole way until we got on I-44 at Arsenal. He waved good-bye and my mother cried, she thought it was the most amazing thing. Tony's "fighter escort" farewell really touched my mom's heart and she has had a special place in her heart for Tony ever since. Tony was wearing the same type of hat that Billy Jack wore in the movie Billy Jack. It had been my prized possession and I gave it to him when we said our good-byes.
Tony was there when young girls broke my heart and I was there for him. Somehow, we never found the right one. I wrote long sappy letters to him after these break-ups and he kept them for years. I tried, unsuccessfully, to get them back for years after a decade I did not care as much. He told me whenever he was feeling blue, he would read my letters and laugh and realize he was in better shape than me.
There is so much I can write about Tony, but I think I will stick with a couple of stories. We lived together at 2222 Marconi ( I could be wrong on the address), there was a bar to our right, Sammy D's and I think a sweatshop to our left. You could barely see in the place, but you could kind of make out several women working on sewing machines. Tony put a chess set on our living room coffee table and he would sit in a chair and I would lay on the couch when we would watch TV. The rooks on the chess set were both elephants and I would hook their trunks together and swing them back and forth. After a few weeks, I noticed he had switched pieces, there were very simple chess pieces, so I would pick up a black pawn and a white pawn and match up their seams from the molds, I would then just look at them and spin them around. After a couple of weeks, there were no chess pieces on the board, so I unscrewed the leg from the coffee table and had it in my hand. Tony started screaming !!! Apparently all my habits were driving him crazy and he kept changing things around on the chess board to stop my fidgeting. When I took apart the table he went crazy. So Tony is kind of a weird guy, maybe it is all my fault.
Same apartment, I bought a box of Raisin Bran, opened it up and poured myself a bow. I was enjoying my breakfast with him. I commented a couple of times that I could not believe how many raisins were in my cereal. It was great and I was very happy. Over the course of the next couple of weeks, I had more Raisin Bran and I could not believe it--there were like NO raisins. As I finished my last bowl of the box, I commented to Tony that I guess they did not get mixed and all the raisins were on the top, because I got no more raisins. Tony got up and showed me a baggy full of raisins. Apparently, after my first bowl he had spent an hour or two deraisining my cereal. I still laugh when I think about it. Tony once told me that he is a quipster, he is not funny but can be when people set him up. I think I am also a quipster.
So I am 4 breakfasts behind and I have still not packed for my 6 am departure tomorrow. I really am going to have to work on my Tony speech or I am going to have to die first, because I will not have his eulogy ready. My brother Tom has been there since almost the beginning, but Tony has been there since 8th grade, he is my oldest and dearest friend. I have made some great friends in my life, but Tony will always be my numero uno. He is a weirdo and I still have not been able to convince him to join me for a baseball game or do something he does not want to do, but I also know besides Jane Magee he worries about me and my life more than anyone. They are both all-star worriers and I am so glad that I have been blessed with the both of them.
