So many memories, so many experiences. I’ll remember them always.
Luke and his brother Joe were a big part of growing up, in my homes at Billerica, Massachusetts and then Newport, New Hampshire, and at their home in Brockton, Massachusetts. We got into loads of trouble together, they and I and my brother Jesse. But we explored, and we had adventures, those absolutely pure adventures that only children can have. Our imaginations on full, and feeding off each other, we found places and things that would never exist to anyone but ourselves. And those shared experiences would stick with us forever.
At the beach, we explored the tidal marshes. We trekked through the mud on our makeshift rafts, through unknown, impenetrable water, daring each other to push farther upstream, while fighting the fears from ourselves and the others. We pushed out to sea, and imagined voracious lovecraftian monsters in the deep, waiting to grab us from below.
At their house in Brockton, we stayed up insanely late, playing Nintendo games. Super Mario Brothers was burned in our eyes, till their parents made us go to bed. We played thirty-one at the kitchen table, us kids with matchsticks and the adults with quarters. Cable TV was just in vogue, and we watched the penultimate action movies of our age, Predator and Aliens, over and over again till we could recite them line for line.
Luke and Joe had turned their backyard into a gigantic jungle gymnasium. They were experts at the make-shift obstacle course, and I get tired even now thinking about them swinging through the equipment.
We explored the back alleys by their house, and got caught once scrambling over a random chain-link fence. Luke showed his characteristic street sense and bolted, but I as usual followed the guy’s order to stop and come back to him, despite not knowing who or what he was. Turned out to be the janitor of the school next door, so I got an escort through to the front door of the school, no harm no foul!
At night we became Ninja, and dressed the part as we could. We explored the roof tops in the city, and walked the roof line at our house in New Hampshire. Our house had a barn and a third story attic, and a connecting room in between. Our parents were entertaining people downstairs, and had left us to our own devices. On came the black clothes and swords (my brother had picked up a katana from a trip to Germany), and our band of stealthy assassins set off across the roof line from the house to the barn. Of course, real ninjas wouldn’t have let themselves be lit up against the sky line behind, and a call to the police by the neighbors ended our escapade (after we had made our journey!).
Our imagination fueled, super powered alter egos really took off in the lakes of New Hampshire. We stayed at a house on Lake Sunapee for two weeks one summer, and the lake became ours. Luke’s dad took us out on the Motor boat, and we cruised the lake in style, unstoppable. Luke was ever the ladies man, and hatched a plan to travel back across the lake at night, to find a girl we saw but briefly on boat passed by that day. Somehow we thought better of the idea, but with Luke and Joe around, things like that actually felt possible.
They brought the most amazing fireworks with them to the house, as we were there over the Independence Day weekend. We lit off a string of Chinese firecrackers so long and so loud that we were never invited back again, and we’d never want to go back, because you’d never be able to recreate or top those two weeks again.
We camped at millers pond, and paddled a canoe out to the middle of the small lake, singing our lungs out as loud as we liked, no one around for miles to hear us. We sang silly songs that you’d only sing around good friends, and that only were funny because we were already laughing at each other so hard. We dreamed of how funny it would be one day to all be old and gray, and paddle back out to the middle of that lake, and laugh with each other again about all the good times past.
We’ll never get that chance to all be together again, on this earth. God willing we’ll all meet again in heaven, and maybe there will be a lake somewhere where we’ll all be able to gather as friends once more.
I’ll miss you Luke, I can still see your eyes and your smile, I’ll never forget your laugh, and you and your brother having your classic epic brother fights! I’ll never forget going to see DC Talk with you, and listening to bootlegged rap music cassettes. I’ll never forget that day we went to an amusement park with that youth group one year. We went off by ourselves for almost the entire day, and rode so many rides we both finally threw up, which had never happened to me before, and I've been motion sick at amusement parks ever since! I remember we were so hungry that afternoon, we got food from one of the booths, I remember it was Ribs, and they were the best, best Ribs we’d ever had, and the best I’d ever had since. We conquered that place, the most fun I’d ever had at an amusement park.
I’ll never forget taking turns mowing the lawn at our house in Newport, to work up a sweat, so when we got to Pollard’s Mills swimming hole it wouldn’t feel so cold. We rode our bikes all across town, to Pollard’s Mills, and down the side streets and through the woods at night. The town was our playground, like any place we were all together at. I’ll never forget playing war games with squirt guns through the local cemetery (hey, most of the people buried there were my ancestors!), and then when the cops stopped us with no less than three squad cars.
I’ll never forget you man. Rest in peace Luke Lucier. God be with you Joe, and Ruth, and Sky, and Eddie, my belated and sincerest condolences.
Your friend, Benjamin Claggett
Luke and his brother Joe were a big part of growing up, in my homes at Billerica, Massachusetts and then Newport, New Hampshire, and at their home in Brockton, Massachusetts. We got into loads of trouble together, they and I and my brother Jesse. But we explored, and we had adventures, those absolutely pure adventures that only children can have. Our imaginations on full, and feeding off each other, we found places and things that would never exist to anyone but ourselves. And those shared experiences would stick with us forever.
At the beach, we explored the tidal marshes. We trekked through the mud on our makeshift rafts, through unknown, impenetrable water, daring each other to push farther upstream, while fighting the fears from ourselves and the others. We pushed out to sea, and imagined voracious lovecraftian monsters in the deep, waiting to grab us from below.
At their house in Brockton, we stayed up insanely late, playing Nintendo games. Super Mario Brothers was burned in our eyes, till their parents made us go to bed. We played thirty-one at the kitchen table, us kids with matchsticks and the adults with quarters. Cable TV was just in vogue, and we watched the penultimate action movies of our age, Predator and Aliens, over and over again till we could recite them line for line.
Luke and Joe had turned their backyard into a gigantic jungle gymnasium. They were experts at the make-shift obstacle course, and I get tired even now thinking about them swinging through the equipment.
We explored the back alleys by their house, and got caught once scrambling over a random chain-link fence. Luke showed his characteristic street sense and bolted, but I as usual followed the guy’s order to stop and come back to him, despite not knowing who or what he was. Turned out to be the janitor of the school next door, so I got an escort through to the front door of the school, no harm no foul!
At night we became Ninja, and dressed the part as we could. We explored the roof tops in the city, and walked the roof line at our house in New Hampshire. Our house had a barn and a third story attic, and a connecting room in between. Our parents were entertaining people downstairs, and had left us to our own devices. On came the black clothes and swords (my brother had picked up a katana from a trip to Germany), and our band of stealthy assassins set off across the roof line from the house to the barn. Of course, real ninjas wouldn’t have let themselves be lit up against the sky line behind, and a call to the police by the neighbors ended our escapade (after we had made our journey!).
Our imagination fueled, super powered alter egos really took off in the lakes of New Hampshire. We stayed at a house on Lake Sunapee for two weeks one summer, and the lake became ours. Luke’s dad took us out on the Motor boat, and we cruised the lake in style, unstoppable. Luke was ever the ladies man, and hatched a plan to travel back across the lake at night, to find a girl we saw but briefly on boat passed by that day. Somehow we thought better of the idea, but with Luke and Joe around, things like that actually felt possible.
They brought the most amazing fireworks with them to the house, as we were there over the Independence Day weekend. We lit off a string of Chinese firecrackers so long and so loud that we were never invited back again, and we’d never want to go back, because you’d never be able to recreate or top those two weeks again.
We camped at millers pond, and paddled a canoe out to the middle of the small lake, singing our lungs out as loud as we liked, no one around for miles to hear us. We sang silly songs that you’d only sing around good friends, and that only were funny because we were already laughing at each other so hard. We dreamed of how funny it would be one day to all be old and gray, and paddle back out to the middle of that lake, and laugh with each other again about all the good times past.
We’ll never get that chance to all be together again, on this earth. God willing we’ll all meet again in heaven, and maybe there will be a lake somewhere where we’ll all be able to gather as friends once more.
I’ll miss you Luke, I can still see your eyes and your smile, I’ll never forget your laugh, and you and your brother having your classic epic brother fights! I’ll never forget going to see DC Talk with you, and listening to bootlegged rap music cassettes. I’ll never forget that day we went to an amusement park with that youth group one year. We went off by ourselves for almost the entire day, and rode so many rides we both finally threw up, which had never happened to me before, and I've been motion sick at amusement parks ever since! I remember we were so hungry that afternoon, we got food from one of the booths, I remember it was Ribs, and they were the best, best Ribs we’d ever had, and the best I’d ever had since. We conquered that place, the most fun I’d ever had at an amusement park.
I’ll never forget taking turns mowing the lawn at our house in Newport, to work up a sweat, so when we got to Pollard’s Mills swimming hole it wouldn’t feel so cold. We rode our bikes all across town, to Pollard’s Mills, and down the side streets and through the woods at night. The town was our playground, like any place we were all together at. I’ll never forget playing war games with squirt guns through the local cemetery (hey, most of the people buried there were my ancestors!), and then when the cops stopped us with no less than three squad cars.
I’ll never forget you man. Rest in peace Luke Lucier. God be with you Joe, and Ruth, and Sky, and Eddie, my belated and sincerest condolences.
Your friend, Benjamin Claggett
