Jed Peele

A Facebook message exchange from August 28, 2009, after I attempted to friend someone I was pretty sure was an old high school buddy, but couldn't tell for sure from his photo:

Jed Peele: Fwhahh?who the hell is nicole kirby?

Nicole Kirby:  If you don't know, don't worry about it. Thought you were a friend from high school. Apparently not.

Jed Peele:  i probably was, i just need you to refresh my memory. it's been fifteen years after all.

Nicole Kirby:  Does this picture help? [link to FB photo that didn't work]

Jed Peele:  no, because i can't view it, and your profile has you in a pair of wayfarers (of which, i have several) but i still have no idea. Gang, To the Mystery machine!!!

Jed Peele:  were you in charge of the scene shop for a while there?

Nicole Kirby: OK, here it is:

Nicole Kirby:  I was the other stage manager for Scapino, if that's what you mean.

Jed Peele:  OOOOOHHHHHH! and you had that redhead friend, Tina or Twyla? Well, Welcome aboard. your training manual will arrive within 4 to 6 weeks! [Note: I have no idea who Tina or Twyla is. I did have a redheaded friend - Sarah Meyer (now de Gaudemar). She gets the photo credit for the above photo booth strip, in which she is the one at top right and Jed is the one making us laugh and poking his head into the last pic.]

Nicole Kirby:  Man, and I thought I had blocked out a lot of details about high school!

Jed Peele:  Light-years away, man. Light-years.

Jed Peele:  Holy SHIT!! I was thinking of that Stephanie girl who was a year ahead of us, but she was the Assistant Director. Now But looking at your pics, it has all come back to me! I love you! I mean I LOVE you! how have you been? What have you been doing? How did i forget?

I have Ignored a lot of friend requests from SME so don't feel slighted. I even ignored [redacted], because if she talks that fast, imagine how scary she is on FB!!

TTYL
Jed

Nicole Kirby:  OK, then. THAT was the reaction I was looking for! You were one of my favorite people at East, so I was excited to find you on here. I've often wondered what became of you.

How I've been since I saw you last covers a lot of ground, but the short version is this: my twenties were OK, but I'm so glad to get into my thirties. Things are really getting good. Still in KC, and I've set up a great little life for myself here.

Where are you? What are you up to? Are you happy?

N

Jed Peele:  Brooklyn, 6'4", pig-in-shit!


This Saturday, I received a text from my redheaded friend Sarah, alerting me to the fact that Jed died last week. Even though I never saw him again after high school, it was still a punch in the gut. I really regret that I didn't try to connect with him when I was in New York this summer.

Jed's obit