When I was young I went to summer camp with a boy named BJ. He was a nice kid, about a year younger than me. So, BJ had a rat tail. He had it for several years. It was about a 1 ½ feet long and it reached halfway down his back. It was the summer of ’92 or ’93 and, as any of you who grew up in the 80’s know, most rat tails were gone by the late 80’s. BJ must not have started reading GQ yet because he still had his rat tail four years past due.
So one day, my friend Nikki and I were making fun of BJ’s rat tail behind his back. We couldn’t have been saying anything particularly clever because we were only 11 but I’m sure it was cruel. Anyway, BJ must have heard us because the next day he showed up at camp with out his rat tail! He was clearly miserable. He looked like he had lost a limb. The other kids asked him why he had cut it off and of course he didn’t have a good answer. But I knew why and I felt awful. I still feel awful! While some of you fashionistas may think we did BJ a service by helping him dispose of his fashion faux pas, it was a horrible thing to do. What did I care if he had a rat tail!? It was hurting anyone and he liked it. BJ was a nice kid and he was my friend.
So I found out a little why ago that BJ died. I’m kidding! I lost touch with him after that summer. But my point is that you don’t always get the chance to apologize for something you’ve done, possibly because you were too young and stupid at the time to realize you were being a total jerk. There is almost never a good reason to say mean things about someone else, so we should try just not to do it at all. I do hope that BJ somehow reads this, accepts my apology, has a 4 foot rat tail and loves every inch of it!
I had a request today for Johnny B Good, so here you go. What an excellent way to start off the weekend.
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