Justin was a childhood friend of mine. He had a squarish head, a brownish fade and a father who hit him every once and a while. Between the ages of nine and sixteen we occupied our free time with video games, bikes, and what we affectionately referred to as hell-raising. Any Summer afternoon we could be discovered behind a hedge, armed with eggs that we had specially modified for vandalism. If you carefully puncture both ends of an egg, you can blow out the yolk and fill the shell with something else. Our weapon of choice was toothpaste. Justin and I would bomb houses with these toothpaste-filled eggshells and cheer to ourselves as the sky-blue cream burst across brick facade. Brick was our target of choice. The toothpaste would harden in the sun and if on brick or stone it would never, ever come off.
After Justin attained his learners permit, our hell-raising also hit the road. Of course, we threw things from the car, but now we could target pedestrians since we had a quick get-away. Neither of us ever threw anything at anyone, since we did not wish to injure anyone. However, we did scream. At first it was an unintelligible: "AAAAEEHHH!" but later, naturally evolved into a word. We yelled "GAWWWWWLLL!" at anyone lucky enough to be using the sidewalk as we sped by. We found such joy in screaming at people from the car, that we decided to scream at people from our lockers and breezeways at school. Over time, the screamed word "gawl" changed into a title Justin and I would use for each other and for others within our circle who knew what hell-raising was.
Without much thought, I began to use this title with my cousin. "Hey, Gaw." I would say when Vaughn answered the phone. As Vaughn and I referred to each other as "Gaw," the title gained more meaning. Every other weekend, Travis, Adam, Roger, Vaughn and I would go to the movies or the mall or to Travis' house and we would call ourselves Gaws. The title evolved into a term of endearment for us. We denoted each other as members of a particular group who only shared in activities that encompassed interests of every member.
Time has added weight to the title of Gaw. Some may have close friends, but I have Gaws. Whenever there is a need, whether it be a need for someone to talk to, someone to party with, or someone to help me re-model my house in a single weekend, I can call my Gaws. Being a Gaw to me, means being a friend who will do anything to help, even if only to help pass time. We take pride in sacrificing a Saturday to help each other relocate. We fortify our weakened in a promise of forgiveness. We salute one-another with respect to our humanity. We will, always.
