My oldest memory of Jos is when I was in kindergarten, and Jos must have been about two. It was the only day in my life so far that it ever snowed right in Stanford. I hurried Jos outside and made him a snowball. He looked at and began to cry, despite my efforts to get him to play with it.

Very young, Jos had a pet goldfish named Target. I never knew why he chose that name.

For some reason, I can remember a tiny poem that Jos composed when he was very young. "Butterflies, flutter byes, the greatest thing since man learned to sythesize". I remember at the time thinking that he probably didn't even know what sythesize meant. I probably barely did. But when did a detail like that ever slow him down?

It was Mark Byer who so mispronouced Jeremy, by saying Germy, that I think planted the seed for the name change.

I seem to recall that we played together a lot as kids, before I got into my troublemaking teenage years. We loved lego's, matchbox cars, wooden blocks, star wars toys, and GI joe. He had a big collection of GI Joe stuff and we watched the cartoon together.

We used to have some nicknames for Jos. Around age 12 we called him Pear, as that was the body shape he had then. When we lived in Hawaii he was conscripted onto the swim team for many long hours , and that was the end of the pear. But before that, we had already taken to calling him Pi. That was actually a name that Douglas Byer had started calling me on a boy scout trip to Pinnacles, but I quickly passed it on to Jos.

Jos played on a super winning soccer team as a kid. I can't remember the name, they might have worn blue. I remember attending one game where the score was some 22 to 0. None of us have even been big on team sports, but that had to be the winningest team in all Claerbout history.

Jos was always one to appreciate things in poor taste, and one of his favorite places in Hawaii was the "International Marketplace", a pseudo mall with many many stores, kiosks, and carts of touristy junk. One of his favorite items were the barrel people. This was a wooden carving of a man wearing a removable barrel. When the barrel was lifted, an oversized spring loaded penis popped out. He often admired, though never purchased, this fabuous piece of Hawaiiana. Available in many sizes.

Jos and me in front of Policlinico Kennedy. Is it in Macara?

Jos loved superlatives. He once told me that when you run out of english superlatives, you can switch to foreign languages to add some real emphasis.

At Martin's wedding on Oahu, we stayed at a fancy condo at the Turtle Bay Hilton. There was a large golf course there, and Mr Ishii wanted to play golf, but had no one to play with. Jos, with his usual complete confidence and enthusiasm, was ready to tee off for 18 championship holes with Mr Ishii, despite the fact he couldn't even remember the last time that he had played miniature golf. At the wedding he also gave a complicated and touching toast saying nice things about Martin, which I am sure we have on tape somewhere.

We see Jos in his favorite multicolored shirt at my wedding. It is the shirt he wore the day he died. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Finally we see Jos and me towering over parents, each with our feet in our characteristic attire. The picture doesn't show that he is taller than I am. That's because he is snuggling into Mom.