Friday, April 10, 2026

Friday, April 10, 2026

Many thanks to Robyn Drew for sharing the following story. Robyn is another of “the roommates” from NIU. In the photo below, Brad and Dave are in the famous golf cart and Andy and Jim are standing on the back.

“How lucky are we?” This is a recurring phrase said over and over by our Northern Illinois University friend group. Over the years, we realized just how lucky we truly were to find each other. We have shared countless memories through the years, memories of weddings, birthdays, vacations, pumpkin carving endeavors, and so many more. We love retelling stories and maybe even embellishing on them over the years. One particular memory, though, will forever be told…without embellishments or exaggerations…because it needs neither. As you can imagine, Andy was deep in the mix of the story I’m about to relate.

One of our favorite gathering places has always been at the Kozak’s Lake Michigan home. At this home, we would have beach time, roaring fires, great food, high flying jumps on the trampoline, deep conversations, and a bit of alcohol to go along with the fun. The Kozaks owned a souped up golf cart to make life easier. We would load up the golf cart, drive it to the beach access area, and then carry everything down the very long stairs to the beach. After our beach day, we’d head back home to make dinner and enjoy time by the fire. This is the way it always went until one particular time the guys disappeared…in the dark…while on the golf cart. It was a little while later that we girls heard off in the distance some raucous laughter and the repetitive verse…

Whoa, Black Betty, bam-ba-lam Whoa, Black Betty, bam-ba-lam

Once the guys got back, and once they were able to control their laughter, we heard the story. In short, the guys decided, in their alcohol-induced wisdom, that is was a good idea to take the golf cart down the very steep steps to the beach. First of all, this was clearly not allowed, second of all, no one knew if the golf cart could actually accomplish this task, and thirdly, it was as dark as dark could be!

The golf cart made it successfully down the stairs, but once they made it to the beach, they realized that this was probably not their best decision. Through laughter, they turned the cart around on the beach and began their assent back up to safety. This is where things went wrong. The ride up got a little (a lot) rough, the guys were bounced around a bit, but they made it to the top…all three of them. Unfortunately, they started this trek with four guys. Where was Andy? Dave, Brad, and Jim bounded back down the stairs to find Andy. They needn’t have worried. There in the bushes, barely visible in the dark, was Andy…laughing hysterically. At some point, Andy had been catapulted off the vehicle! This caused ALL of them to laugh uncontrollably. Back on the golf cart they went. Why did they begin singing Black Betty? No one knows, but Dave’s golf cart and later Andy’s wheelchair would be known as Ol’ Black Betty.

Gosh we all miss Andy.