My Birth Story

So this is a story about me and one of my best, and undoubtedly oldest friends Scott. See, I say oldest not because of age but because, well, when you're the only person in the nursery and they bring in a new baby a few hours later, you become bros.

I was born one late evening on January 13th, 19xx. It was a windy, chilly Alabama day and things were nice and quiet in the old Cobb Hospital. Problem is, there was another lady in labor at the same time, but didn't deliver until well past midnight on the 14th. So I had that place all to myself for a few hours until he came in. Now I got to share the joint with the new kid. Scott was his name. I preferred to go by Stormageddon, but I got stuck with Von instead. Little did we know that our lives would be intertwined from here on out (in a non-gay way).

His last name is Butler, mine is Blocker. Now if you're wondering if this caused any confusion in the maternity ward all I can say is...yes. My mom tells of being handed the wrong baby several times. Scott jokes to this day that my mom had the nicest breasts. Okay I know what you're thinking and we've thought it too. Maybe they took the wrong babies home? Nope! I don't look like anyone in his family (thank God), and he doesn't look like anyone in mine so there's no doubt at all about that.

Now this is where our stories parallel, yet diverge. This was the Vietnam era. Both of our dads were in the military. His dad was in the Marines and was stationed in California. My dad was in the Navy and got stationed in...San Diego. Not long after our births, both of us relocated to Cali. I moved back to Alabama a year or so later, but his family stayed out west until his teen years.

There was a new kid in high school that year and he ended up in my circle of friends. It was only then that we were able to piece together our backgrounds. Our families have been close ever since. They treat me as one of their own. Our moms always send out 2 birthday cards every January.

After high school we both went off to different colleges. He joined the Disney College Program. The next summer he dragged me down with him and that's when I started on Main Street way back in 1988. You can thank him for me being in Florida. After graduation I had no job lined up so I moved to Florida to starve to death (inside joke). We shared several apartments with a vast array of other roommates. When we both got married, we shared a house together. That lasted until I moved back to Bama and he bought a house out in Polk County. We haven't spoken since...

No, not really. We're still bros. I moved back down here about seven years ago. I was there at the birth of his daughter, but still haven't devised a way to pay him back for putting my first born in a box. Yet.

If you ever hear me refer to my friend Scott, now you know who I'm talking about.

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