Monday, August 25, 2008
Thursday, August 14, 2008
The Funky Cold One
My guess is that we all know at least one of those people who you don’t meet as much as you "experience." People who are natural story tellers who can leave you in tears laughing or crying, who you feel an almost instant bond with, and who you seem have known much longer than you really have.
I met one of those people in the fall of 1994. David Christopher Massena. He preferred Chris, but given Tone Loc’s big hit song “Funky Cold Medina,” we all knew him as Funky Cold Massena, or Funk for short.
Funk and I started Basic Training at Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri a couple weeks apart in September of 1994. We were in the same training battalion, but different companies, so we didn’t get to know each other much until we both finished Basic and got to Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, Texas to start our Advanced Individual Training.
Our Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) was 98C – Signals Intelligence Analyst. Funk and I were in the same class until he tanked a test and got rolled back into the class behind us. The four and a half months we spent at Goodfellow were a blast. Funk, Kirk Gillespie (who would end up working with me in San Antonio in 2003), Marshall Dossinger, Kevin Hutchinson (Hutch), Zach Raymond, and I ended up hanging out. They were great friends who helped me get through some of the tough times of adjusting not only to leaving home and starting my adult life, but doing it in the military to boot (if you’ll pardon the pun…). There wasn’t a whole lot to do in the bustling metropolis of San Angelo, but our favorite spot was a place called Mejor Que Nada – (“Better Than Nothing”). We went there many, many times. I wouldn’t go so far as to recommend it, but if you’re in the area: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g56609-d518786-Reviews-Mejor_que_Nada-San_Angelo_Texas.html
Funk’s ability to work himself into situations you think could only happen in a movie is second only to his ability to tell you the story. He can’t talk without his hands, so a bit is lost in the translation to text, but he’s started posting some of his stories on a blog. I highly recommend you check it out when you need a laugh: http://funkycoldmassena.com/
When I left Ft. Hood in 1996, I lost track of Funk for quite a while. When we linked back up not long ago, I found out he’s settled near Seattle, is married, and has two sons. They have been given the blessing and the challenge of having a boy who is deaf, which I’m sure Funk handles with his typical roll-with-it attitude, but I don’t doubt for a second that the kid knows he is special and loved and treasured just the way he is.
So that’s Funk. Wish I had more friends like him, but I know they’re few and far between…guess we can just be glad we crossed paths with them at all.
I met one of those people in the fall of 1994. David Christopher Massena. He preferred Chris, but given Tone Loc’s big hit song “Funky Cold Medina,” we all knew him as Funky Cold Massena, or Funk for short.
Funk and I started Basic Training at Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri a couple weeks apart in September of 1994. We were in the same training battalion, but different companies, so we didn’t get to know each other much until we both finished Basic and got to Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, Texas to start our Advanced Individual Training.
Our Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) was 98C – Signals Intelligence Analyst. Funk and I were in the same class until he tanked a test and got rolled back into the class behind us. The four and a half months we spent at Goodfellow were a blast. Funk, Kirk Gillespie (who would end up working with me in San Antonio in 2003), Marshall Dossinger, Kevin Hutchinson (Hutch), Zach Raymond, and I ended up hanging out. They were great friends who helped me get through some of the tough times of adjusting not only to leaving home and starting my adult life, but doing it in the military to boot (if you’ll pardon the pun…). There wasn’t a whole lot to do in the bustling metropolis of San Angelo, but our favorite spot was a place called Mejor Que Nada – (“Better Than Nothing”). We went there many, many times. I wouldn’t go so far as to recommend it, but if you’re in the area: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g56609-d518786-Reviews-Mejor_que_Nada-San_Angelo_Texas.html
Funk’s ability to work himself into situations you think could only happen in a movie is second only to his ability to tell you the story. He can’t talk without his hands, so a bit is lost in the translation to text, but he’s started posting some of his stories on a blog. I highly recommend you check it out when you need a laugh: http://funkycoldmassena.com/
When I left Ft. Hood in 1996, I lost track of Funk for quite a while. When we linked back up not long ago, I found out he’s settled near Seattle, is married, and has two sons. They have been given the blessing and the challenge of having a boy who is deaf, which I’m sure Funk handles with his typical roll-with-it attitude, but I don’t doubt for a second that the kid knows he is special and loved and treasured just the way he is.
So that’s Funk. Wish I had more friends like him, but I know they’re few and far between…guess we can just be glad we crossed paths with them at all.
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