tbone and greg

in college i dated a guy who was in law school. i will call him greg, for purposes of my blog. greg was one of those guys who dressed just so (i know it's a cliche, but he took GQ to a whole new level from his suspender-clad shoulders all the way down to his burberry socks), had political aspirations, and generally thought a lot of himself (remember alec (played by judd nelson) in st. elmo's fire? he comes to mind). greg prided himself on having attended a prestigious undergrad and having worked in d.c. and took himself and his law school/career very seriously. at some point, greg decided to get a roommate and he found terry, a fellow law student. terry was just about the opposite of greg - he was country, very personable, and easy-going - all in all, a great roommate - perhaps for anyone except greg. i think what bothered greg the most about terry was that terry took law school very lightly and yet seemed to do really well, while greg took it very seriously, worked hard and did almost as well as terry. well, i say that's what bothered him the most. it also could have been that whenever the phone rang at greg and terry's - terry would always answer (which was good since he was obviously the more popular of the two and it was almost always for him) and the dialogue - or terry's end of it - was always exactly the same. it went like this. and as with quotes from my dad, please imagine a thick southern accent.
(phone rings)
terry: yello
(pause)
terry: this t-bone. (i have to admit, there was another version where instead of this, terry would say "youuu got 'eem")
(pause)
terry: drinkin' a beer, how bout yaself.
but i do think greg must have had at least a little bit of a sense of humor about terry because i remember once greg called me over to listen to a message that had been left on the answering machine for terry. it went like this and imagine the countriest of country accents spoken in an old-lady voice:
"tayr-ree, just called to see what you was up to. call me when you get back. mawma." i loved that she signed off "mawma" as if she were writing a letter. it was the 80s, i guess answering machines were still new to mawma.
but that was all forever ago. i heard recently that greg is still very GQ and i imagine still taking himself and his career very seriously and probably as a result, is successful. and i like to think that t-bone has done pretty well for himself too.