One of Bat's special interests was The Who.

I'm not a big Who fan, but because they were special to Bat they were special to me. The first time I spent the night at their house, when we were in Jr high, we got ready to go to bed. We were still shy and new friends that we didn't change in front of each yet. He emerged in this incredible night shirt that you could tell they were incredibly insecure about, in the way that only tweens can be. Because the Bat I first met would be unrecognizable to most of you, and I don't mean in the way they looked, but their demeanor, persona and everything, but I digress.

I start to look at this night shirt and it's fantastic! It is covered in hand painted pictures and song lyrics from The Who (I believe it was song lyrics, this was like 93/94 it's been a minute since I've seen this shirt.) And I can tell they're getting worried that their new "cool" friend is going to think they're a dork. They're incredibly uncomfortable.

Until I exclaim, "Who made this for you? It's so cool!" Their eyes lit up and they smiled wide and told me it was their Mom. Who was somewhere in the house and Bat called her over. Because if you never got to see/know Beverly, Bat's Mom, she was an incredible artist.

Anyhow that's a core memory for me. A 12 year old Bat in their handmade, hand painted, by their Mom, nightshirt.