In the summer I went to White Earth Lutheran Camp, where it seems the dress code was rather strict: Casual Dork. The kid in the middle is probably Doug T, and it's possible the kid on the upper-right bunk was John Larsen, who beat me up once while he was on crutches.

The black-and-white photo shows the dining hall in the background, my cousin Keith on the right, and super-nerd Braniac Peter, my best friend. He had the same interests - space, science, comic books - and he was quite the artist as well. His family went to our church; his dad was in a POW camp. His mom seemed so much older than mine; my mom was slim and put-together, and his mom had grey hair in a bun. You just accept these things when you're a kid.

He was also something of a childhood theologian, so it's not surprising he is now a Lutheran pastor. I have no idea when he floated out of my social circle. There was a year when we were the closest friends you could possibly imagine, and then came the year when we weren't.

I last saw Keith at his brother's funeral.