"Kenny"

I met Ken Prince in the summer of 1958

I was a high school junior and life was finding its rhythm. That was the year I met my best friend, Kenny Prince. Kenny had the one thing every sixteen-year-old dreamed of: a driver's license and a 'clunker' that felt like a chariot. Since his route took him right past my street, my two-mile walk regardless of the Chicago weather became a morning commute. 

The Prince family treated me like one of their own; Mr. and Mrs. Prince became a second home to me. His sister Cathy even played matchmaker, though the romantic sparks with her girlfriend never quite caught fire. Some things just aren't meant to be, but the bond with the Prince family was a cornerstone of my high school years in Wood Dale.