I have been trying to write this memory ever since my friend found a better place, Rhetorically speaking. He rode into Reno in a Toranado the size of a Motel 6. It was 1968, Fall Semester at UNR. There was a small contingency of friends that welcomed him, and had no idea who he was, pretty much the standard of the day. No One had an identity. Michael saw it much differently. He was from New York and knew what he wanted to do. Show all us cowboys and outcasts that he was going to move in and get started with a new identity. He could not have found a more acceptable crowd. He had this incredible ability to quote The Bard. Considering the times it was a Shakespearian state of mind. In the middle of a long weekend at, fill in the blanks,----, out would come a string of quotes that would capture the moment. Also the ladies of the house would flutter. (Excuse moi Patricia, it was a long time ago, he needed you and bless you for all of your care and support through the years, it wasn't easy.) That was Mike. Always looking for the next go around. The Bastard would out class all of us youngsters, Had a mind that never slept. Now, in those days, it was treacherous to express yourself. Something about a war and long hair. Mick embraced the style of the times and engaged all of the dissidents. After he blew up the Toronado, who needs to check the oil after a cross country trip, he realized it was time to become a westerner. Bonanza, Paladin, Subaru, The Lone Ranger from Fredonia. Syracuse he liked to say. So we kind of bonded. Me from Detroit, him from New York. Since I was at UNR for all of two semesters I volunteered to show him the fabulous campus, all Quad of it. That's a UNR joke, it was a University the size of a small mall with a Hudsons Department store. He loved it. "This is why I came out West." He would exclaim. "Freedom and Space, Where are the trees?" So somehow I had the opportunity to show him around the campus. Probably because there where no hippie chicks around. So I take him to the Manzanita Lake, a shallow cesspool since the 1800's,, right across from the student lounge. Mike is all excited and talking about the beginning of the semester, ready to get the ole Doctorate of Literature, and wanting to see the culture of the campus. I'm thinking "OK my new found friend, you need to see what this Reno is all about." Mike is in his prime, walking down 9th street and looking around. He looks about and asks me "What the Heck is going on by Lake Manzanita?" He is looking at the Notorious "Sundowners". A Fraternity from the early 50's, but no Be-Bop. "Mike, you don't want to mix with the Boozers. They don't even like people from Elko let alone NYC Detroit sends them into a Zimmerman frenzy. Let's be cool." Miggy was cool alright. Right in their face cool. Now Mike is no fighter, fist-a-cuffs are not his venue. He can kill with words, the Master is on his game. "Ef this stuff, what the heck are they doing?" "Mike, it's old school, leave it." "Come on Jim let's see what is going on. It's just a Frat party on campus." As a footnote, all the old NV politicians did the Sundowner thing. Mike knew it was a relic from the past. The bloody Governor of NV loved the Downers. So...we walk into the fray. Mike is cool and composed. A person from a foreign land. He's talking to a representative of the SunD's. "Hey you guys, Groovy. I just want to see what's for BBQ." So Mike moves in, happy, wanting to talk and make friends. The Fratters are doing the Sundowner thing. Now, this is not for young people. For the Sundowner initiation, they had to take a chicken and... Mike says "What the heck they doin? They are biting the head of the chicken off. I gota stop this." This is true, Mike wants to save the chickens from a beheading by incisors. This is an old NV tradition. "We should go Mike." "No, I'm staying." We stay for the complete ritual and I figure I'll never graduate and Mike will be my mentor and we will both drown in Manzanita Lake. He had the Sundowners listening to his Royal Verbage just like Stratford, Shakespere on the Round. An amazing spectacle.. We spent the night on the shores of Manzanita, safe and secure. He had tamed the carnivores with his wit. I was from then on his friend. We left at dawn and rolled into the Twins abode, hungry and degraded. He simply said: "I think I'm going to like this place. What else you got?"