Dude’s Playin’ Hooky

By The Hillbilly Dude | Published October 10, 2025

You never get to see yourself through the eyes of other folks.

When I was younger and dumberer, I once conceived of an experiment to try to gain that outsider’s perspective: I would ask people I’ve known over the years to share what they remembered about me most - stories, conversations, actions. A kaleidoscope of perspectives to try to piece together of collage to help me see myself from the outside.

Even though it was about the fascination of the endeavor itself - and how it could be turned into an amazing story - I realized how incredibly selfish this project might look.

Through the eyes of other folks.

So I dropped it.

But I do have a tiny morsel that one of my favorite friends shared with me, many, many years ago.

I had already known Cactus Jack for a good six years, but we didn't start out being really great friends. We just knew each other. And when I was younger, I had the habit of conductin’ secret social experiments, so high school and the years that followed rendered some really absurd stories.

One day - and this was after me and Cactus had become what I’d consider to be friends - he said, "you remember the first time we talked to each other?"

I did not.

He continued. "I was on the prom committee with you."

Now let me pause here. I didn’t remember being on the prom committee. I don’t dress up, and I certainly didn’t attend no prom. But in high school, I was in pretty much every club, and on pretty much every committee that had the potential of presentin' the opportunity to miss class. So I didn’t doubt him.

"I was on the prom committee with you, and I saw you sittin’ in your Rabbit behind the gym by yourself. You hollered across the parking lot at me, ‘hey man! Hey man!’"

That checked out, too. I would often say, "Hey may-un", just like the wolf (Slick McWolf) in the Droopy cartoon series - the same wolf that was always whistlin’ ‘Kingdom Come,’ which I have embedded below as a reminder to those who may have enjoyed Droopy as well.

He proceeded to tell me that I said to him, "you really need to listen to this." I pulled off my oversized, wired headphones and had him listen to what was washin’ over my brain via my ears at the time: The Doors.

No tellin’ which song it was, but I had their entire discography on cassette - plus Jim's solo recording, which is pretty trippy. If I had to, I'd reckon it was "Riders on the Storm" ‘cause of the jazz organ solo.

Then he said, "But you know what I remember most about you?" Me and Cactus went to the same college, too. And since my approximately 17 days of attendance overlapped with his, we'd run into each other on campus a few times. He said, "I was walkin’ through the hall one day and I had to stop and do a doubletake at one of the classroom doors that was propped open. The professor was goin' on about something, but there you were - at the back of the room - lyin’ flat on the floor, on your belly. With your backpack in tow, you were doin’ an Army crawl towards the door. You looked up at me, smiled, and then put your forefinger on your lips (the universal 'shh' symbol) to make sure I didn’t say nothin’."

"Then you crawled right out the door and disappeared."

My affinity for skippin’ class continued into my unsuccessful, defunct college career.

So although I’ll never know if he thought I was a slacker or a stoner - or both - I did get that tiny glimpse of how somebody perceived me before we truly knew each other.

To him, I was The Dude.