One of the Guys

Chapter 3

Chapter 3.0: Ogie

Ogie is derived from Ogie’s initials: O.G.  It’s pronounced just like that.  We started calling him Ogie the summer he moved next door to me.  We were ten then, and it was Cullen’s idea to spell it out as Ogie.  Cullen was the one who made up the nicknames, me as Ronald and Ogie as, well, Ogie.  Neither Cullen nor I can recall what Ogie’s real name was.  His last name is Gilbert, but his first name…? 

We argued over it one winter while skating around on the frozen canal.  Cullen said his name was Otto, I said his name was Oswald.  If it was something like Otto, I argued, why wouldn’t we just call him Otto?  It had to be something crazier, something fancier, like Oswald.  We always forgot to ask Ogie what his name was, being that by the time summer came and Ogie arrived, we no longer cared what his name was.  Besides, Ogie fit him.

I still figured his name was something like Oswald though.  Ogie’s family was extraordinarily wealthy, and lived over somewhere in South Dakota.  When I was ten and Cullen eleven, his family began to build a house on the opposite side of mine, so that Cullen’s is on one side of my house and Ogie’s on the other, sandwiching my house.  Ogie’s house is massive, especially considering the fairly small lot it was built on.  As with all houses in our neighborhood, there is only about two feet between his house and mine (two and a half feet separate my house from Cullen’s) and although Ogie’s parents are undoubtedly wealthier than my own, his parents are nice and fairly down-to-earth, making him mesh in perfectly with the rest of us.

His mother and he come every summer, from about the beginning of June to mid-August.  His mom is originally from Iowa, hence their decision to come to the Okoboji area.  His father is in charge of some huge company over in the Dakotas.  Ogie is Cullen’s age, meaning that he had also just finished his freshman year of college.  Ogie had gone to some private school somewhere in Minnesota, and for a while, Cullen and I weren’t sure if he would be returning to his summer lake home, but finally he relieved our worries by telling us he wouldn’t miss coming for the world.

And so, Ogie would be arriving soon, and then summer could really begin.

It’s hard to explain Ogie.  He’s far more laid-back than Cullen and I, and he enjoys sleeping in until noon, unlike Cullen and I, being that we are almost always awake by seven to engage in some morning fishing.  Ogie also liked to stay to himself, and some days we wouldn’t see him at all.  He was fond of video games, something Cullen had never exactly gotten into.  Sometimes, pretty rarely, but sometimes, Ogie and Cullen would head out with Bobby and Peter, and Cullen and Ogie had been known to play community baseball together.  For the most part though, it was Ogie, Cullen, and I, swimming, jet-skiing, and we probably ate ice cream at least once a day.

I was very excited for his arrival 

Chapter 3.1: Ogie’s Arrival

The first week with Cullen cruised past.  It seemed that Cullen had grown rather fond of sleep during his days at college; he was rarely awake in time to fish in the morning.  Actually, that was fine with me.  I wasn’t exactly a fan of fishing, and only did so as an excuse to hang out with Cullen.  Instead I sat out on my dock or even just in the basement, outside of my bedroom, my laptop on my lap, typing out my daily activities with Cullen with Macy.

             Macy: So has Cullen changed any?

            Ronnie: No, not really.  Only usually he’d be up by now…

            Macy: I hear you start to sleep more when you’re in college cuz you have nothing better to do.

            Ronnie: Well, that must be it then.  He’s like Ogie now—sleeping in super late.