I grew up in Columbiana,Alabama, which was a little south of nowhere, and graduated high school in 1992, which was good for exposing me to a lot of different kinds of music, but but not for teaching me much else about the world. That at least partially explains why I had never met anyone like John Wallace.
I've always thought of him that way, as "John Wallace", with both first and last names. I don't know why. Maybe it's just been a way of finding a middle ground. "Mr. Wallace" would have been too formal, and "John" would've been far too familiar. He was neither.
Of course, to his face I always said "Mr. Wallace" or "Sir". After all, he was a generation older than I was and even though I was a teenager, I'd been raised up right.
I met John Wallace when I was probably 15, and the last time I saw him I was 19. I had some difficult adolescent years, but knowing him helped me a great deal. He was the first person I ever met who was extremely intelligent and was neither apologetic or obnoxious about it. He also loved to read, and thought that was a good thing, and thought it was a good thing that I loved to read too.
Unfortunately I was a typical lazy, selfish, immature adolescent in the summer of 1993, the last time I saw him. The last I heard, he had cancer and had moved to Atlanta. I don't know if he's still there, or even still alive.
On the very, very small chance that he sees this, I want to tell him that I'm very sorry I acted like I did, and that he had a huge impact on my life. If you like me now, John Wallace is one of the people you should thank.
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