Kennedy Park. Marge Williams. Two out of three ain’t bad. 1977 release. I remember being at Kennedy Park with Marge Williams, our neighbor. We must have been there for some reason related to Scott. I was 15.

A few years earlier at Kennedy Park, I was beaten up by Brian Palladino who would eventually marry Barbara Williams, Marge’s daughter. I have no idea why Brian stood above me while I sat crying as he beat me. I probably said something snotty and snarky while being forced to participate in Lodi’s Summer Recreation program since I could not be left alone without setting the house on fire.

It was the cusp between Freshman and Sophomore years in high school. Marge Williams heard the lines ‘I want you, I need you but there ain’t no way I’m ever gonna love you, so don’t be sad, ‘cause two out of three ain’t bad’ and wanted to know more about it. In hindsight and through gossip it may have been around this time that Marge Williams’ marriage was falling apart and that song struck a chord within.

I spent a lot of time at 7 Riverview Avenue. I knew that house inside and out. They seemed to have everything, and I thought they were a more modern family, perhaps a younger family than mine. Later on, I was to find out that was not the case.

Marge Williams wanted a fish pond, and her husband Edward L. set about creating one. It was a haphazard affair, and there were no fish to speak of. Scott Williams, David Plauchino, and I would generally play in the backyard and cool off in the fish pond with no fish.

One summer afternoon, the three of us were cooling off when Jimmy Williams, the oldest son, showed up. Marge was inside and yelling at Jimmy, accusing him of being high. Whether or not he was, I couldn’t say. Marge insisted that his eyes were red and glassy and the more Jimmy denied being high, the more it seemed that he was actually high.

It wasn’t a good look for either of them, and Scott, David, & myself did our best to ignore the yelling and screaming going on. Perhaps this was when I started to see the cracks in the not-so-perfect facade of 7 Riverview Avenue. Once high school kicked into gear, I started to fade away from hanging out with Scott.

He was 6 years younger than me, and I was having enough trouble staying alive, negotiating the corridors of Paramus Catholic, and a year after that, joining the workforce. When I joined the workforce, I wound up reconnecting with Barbara Williams, who worked for the same book company, albeit in a different department.

Barbara would give me a ride home when we finished working at the same time, listening to the 8-track of Steve Martin, A Wild and Crazy Guy, or Toto’s album featuring ‘’Hold the Line’. So long ago and yet it seems like yesterday. Songs I remember I reckon.