Joe Throwback: My Friend Nick Charles

Date: June 25, 2011.

We stood in his driveway in the fading New Mexico light, exchanging goodbyes, when Nick Charles said something I will never forget. He said: “I wish I knew you before.” His eyes glassed over then, rain on a window pane, and that was the moment when I came closest to crying. There were numerous other moments of crying and near-crying …