Bummer...

I just found out that a guy I knew in college had died...

Five and a half years ago!

I had no idea and went looking for him on the web.

I guess that happens when you don't keep up with people. There are so many people I used to know that I've neither seen nor talked to in many years.

Some of them might now be dead... like Dennis Shockley. He was a German instructor at MTSU in the late eighties. I took several of his classes. He was one of my all-time favorite teachers in any subject - ever. He was a good teacher but he neither acted like or looked like a college professor - despite his nickname being "Doc". I think that had to do with his involvement in the punk rock scene. He insisted on being called "Dennis" or "Doc" in class - never "Mr." or "Professor". If you had seen him walking across campus, you'd probably think he was a graduate student instead of a faculty member. He had been involved in the underground music scene in Knoxville before getting the teaching gig and he just exuded coolness. Chicks dug him and guys wanted to be like him. He even hung out with students. He would have class meetings at some of the local bars believe it or not and several times went out with me and my friends. Once, we were cruising through the MTSU campus, looking at girls, with Dennis and a couple of other guys in the back seat of my old T-Bird. Suddenly he yells, "STOP! Roll down the window!" A quite shapely and scantily clad young woman was walking down the street. Dennis hollered out, "Como Estas? Chicky Baby!" Needless to say, she didn't look twice at us, but we had a good laugh. This was my foreign language instructor, remember. Another time, we spent a good portion of an elementary German course session talking about European popular culture and the different groups in the youth culture that one might encounter if traveling though Germanic Europe. Dennis was very expertly describing Punks and Rastas, Teddy Boys, Mods and Rockers. Someone asked what a "Rocker" was. Dennis quickly scanned the room and locked eyes with me.

"Hey, 'Artur', please stand up."

I was wearing my usual uniform - tight jeans with a chain for a belt, leather boots, a ripped up t-shirt with an ancient denim jacket and I sported a bleach-blond spiky mullet with a blue streak dyed into it and probably a couple of earrings.

Yes, me.

I stood.

Dennis said, "This is what a "Rocker" looks like."

My five minutes of fame.

Dennis was killed on Halloween night, 2000, by a drunk driver. There's an account of what happened here.

Wally Bangs confirmed for me that this is the same Dennis Shockley and we shared a few "Doc" stories from our mis-spent youth.

I'm bummed...