How can I think ill of the left when I know people like Kathy?

The early 1980s was my time at John Sedgwick Junior High. Those years weren’t my favorite.

During the tail end of elementary school in Alaska, my body had kicked it into high gear and I was quite tall for my age. Now here I was, back down at my mother’s house in Washington and in my first year at junior high — tall, gangly and extremely insecure. It always seemed to me that the other kids had it together more than I did. They were listening to ZZ Top, Deep Purple, Ratt, Cyndi Lauper and such. I was still stuck on George Jones, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash (by the time I left for high school I was listening to everything). They wore Levi’s 501 jeans and high-tops; I was in Wranglers and boots.

Needless to say, I was more than just a little nervous at my first dance. Back then we still had them after school with the lights dimmed (and several teachers roaming around to keep an eye on us). I mainly jumped around to songs like “Jump,” “99 Red Balloons” and several other tunes that were impossible to really dance to. But at least I could just hop around like all the other kids and sort of blend in. When the occasional slow song started, I headed directly off the dance floor. Wayyyy to shy to ask a girl to dance, and I certainly wasn’t one of the “cool kids” with a girlfriend. But even after all these years, I can still remember the moment when a short brunette whom I had never met approached me and asked me to dance.

Yes, one of my life-changing events was meeting Kathy Eads.

After the dance, and with much goading from my friends, I “asked her out” and to my surprise she said, “yes.” So, now I had a girlfriend. OK. Um … now what do I do? I had no idea. So my solution was to do nothing. I think I set a record for shortest kiddie-relationship, since obviously, Kathy found that less-than-appealing.

But I stayed friends with Kathy and a few times we ran in the same circles. I tried my hand in drama and choir, liked it but got bored with it by high school. I was more into cars, writing and just getting through school. Kathy, on the other hand, was always involved in the arts and in my opinion was extremely talented at it.

It’s safe to say that before we were done with high school we definitely had different outlooks on life, different tastes and were two very different people. But you know what? I still looked at Kathy as one of the coolest people I knew, and she was just so dang cool, funny and just fun to be around. I always enjoyed being around her in this or that class.

Looking back on it, I can’t recall a single class I ever shared with Kathy where she wasn’t cracking me up on a regular basis. One memory that stands out was we had an older teacher who had definitely been doing her job too long and was far overdue to retire. She seemed to have such distaste for her job, kids and just life in general. Mean as spit. One day she went on another one of her over-the-top tirades against one of the boys struggling in her class. She was always on this kid’s case and it was hard to watch. Made the rest of us uncomfortable.

Well, when the boy finally snapped and spouted off she sent him to the principal’s sffice. She turned to the rest of us then and asked, “Does anybody else want to go?”

Kathy stood up and volunteered. I didn’t care how angry that old bat was, I laughed so hard I almost got sent down myself. (Side note: that teacher retired at the end of the year.) If there was one thing you could count on, it was Kathy always standing up for the underdog, the bullied or anybody she felt was being treated unfairly.

I was far too young to really start thinking seriously about politics. Sure, I idolized Reagan (still do), but I don’t think I could safely say I had devoted any serious thought to left/right, blue/red, etc. But looking back on it, I guess I can’t be surprised that I turned out to be a conservative kinda guy and Kathy leans left.

Thanks to Facebook, I’m still in touch with Kathy. She now lives in L.A., has a beautiful family and by all appearances, seems to be living the perfect life working in a venue that gives her access to various rock bands. I frequently see her posting about meeting movie stars, popular musicians and such, and I smile. I’m not surprised at all.

But when I think politics or the country’s political atmosphere becomes super-charged with emotion, when I see divisiveness run deep, anger and even hatred rearing its ugly head, for some reason I think of Kathy, my childhood friend who was (and is) always so funny, compassionate, intelligent and a great conversationalist.

I read the news about all the negative feelings, shouting and that nonsense, and make a point of thinking about my liberal friend Kathy. Then I smile, shake my head and move to the funny pages. How can I think ill thoughts about the opposite side of the spectrum when I know such great people like Kathy?

Congratulations, Kathy. I’m disappointed my candidate didn’t win. I’m glad for you that yours did. Onward for another four years. See ya next time I make the mistake of going to California.

Ben Compton is a Palmer resident and publishes his column as “Compton’s Corner,” the same title used by his grandmother, Phyllis Compton, a longtime Frontiersman columnist.