When I was in 6th grade or so, a new kid moved to Philo. That, in and of itself, was such a rare occurrence that it was bound to stick in my mind. Add to that, he was a big, dark complected, athletic kid with a cool sounding name: Tony Vavroch. I didn’t know what “swarthy” was back then, but looking back, he was about as swarthy as a 12 year old could be. I never asked, but I figured he must have come from some faraway place like Boston, or Brooklyn, or maybe Madrid.
I didn’t have a lot of interaction with Tony. We were on the same baseball team for one summer, but that’s about it. We were two of the only 12 year olds, in a league full of 9-12 year olds.
I thought I was good back then, but I wasn’t. Tony pretty much carried our team. I always thought it’d be cool to be his friend, but it didn’t work out. When the summer was over, I went back to the Catholic school and he went to the public school. I already had one public school friend (Wes), and I guess that was my limit.
Speaking of Wes, it was his connection with Tony that kinda sparked my memory today. The two of them, along with a girl named Carolyn playing piano, teamed up to sing “Come Sail Away” at their school talent show.
Wes sang that song all the time. He was determined that he and swarthy Tony were gonna blow the crowd away with their rendition. As it turns out, it didn’t go very well. According to Wes, Tony got stage fright and didn’t sing a single word, not even during the easy slow part of the song. It was a disaster. I missed the whole thing though. My mom didn’t let me go. I’m guessing because it was a bunch of public school kids.
I know it sounds creepy, but I decided to do a little internet detective work today to see what I could find out about this Tony Vavroch guy. Keep in mind that, outside of the fact that he lived in Philo for a year or two, I know nothing about him. That, and the fact that he was probably born in 1966. Interestingly enough, there was a varsity football player at Purdue with that name.
The years work out, and Tony was athletic, so I suspect that it was probably him. That same guy now is a manager for an elite modeling company in New York City.
Creepy, I know, but I found him on facebook. We don’t have any common friends. Most of his friends have cool names too. And I bet one or two of them are from Boston, or Brooklyn, or maybe even Madrid.
