Jamie Dupont

Last year around Christmas of 2002, I was sitting at my desk at Syracuse counting the days and even minutes until I could go home for winter break. It was a weekend, and in the early hours before bedtime, I was chatting to various people on line telling them about my night. I was surprised when my phone lit up and began to ring, as it was very late and I wasn’t expecting a call. I looked at the caller ID and a huge smile came across my face. It read “Dwyer” and his phone number underneath. I answered, Helloooo?” as I greeted him with an “I know who is kind of hello”. He said, “Jamie, this is Andrew.” That was the standard Dwyer greeting whenever he called. We chatted for a bit and then he revealed that he had a surprise for me.

Before I tell you I have to mention that, the Austin Powers movie Goldmember came out the summer of 2002 about mid July. That summer I can remember the countless nights Andrew, Jake, Kyley and I would recite every and any line we could remember from that movie; and then laugh about it for a good 20 minutes. For example… “Not you Frow, not you Number Two, not you anonymous henchman holding a wrench, not you arbitrarily turning knobs to make it seem like you are doing something …” That was a favorite. There are many others but I will never forget the night that Andrew called me. I must tell you that Goldmember was not out on video or DVD, so we were anxiously awaiting the release of that.

Well, Andrew indeed had downloaded Goldmember onto his computer and called me at my favorite part of the movie. He said, “Get ready, you have to listen closely.” I was confused but at last I heard the quirky voice of Goldmember and Dr. Evil impersonating a truck driver. Goldmember was telling Dr. Evil where he was and what the situation was and Dr. Evil, appropriately wearing a truckers hat, pleasantly replies,” Copy that you big pile of monkey nuts!” It’s just one of those things that gets me every time. And Dwyer remembered, even though we never saw the movie together, and even though we hadn’t talked to each other for awhile, he still remembered my favorite part of the dumbest movie ever made!

It was not a great start to college for me that first semester, so to hear from friends from Fishers always made me the happiest, especially from Dwyer because there wasn’t anything he said that didn’t make me laugh. It’s a silly conversation that we had, but it made me feel so happy and thankful that I have friends like him. Andrew is missed more and more each day and will always be in my heart. I miss you Dwyer… you big pile of monkey nuts!