Sid Bacon

My heart is breaking for you all at the news of Sid's death and yet I am reassured that Sid is safe and happy. Sid was a very special person and he touched so many lives throughout the years. I am so happy that he found the love of his life, married and raised two wonderful children. I feel so lucky to have known him in high school, but it was through his fight with cancer that I grew to know just how caring, giving and courageous he truly was. His spirit lives on in his family, his students, colleagues and his friends. May God strengthen your faith, heal your sorrow, and help you to live each day "in the moment" like Sid so often wrote about in his blog. No more pain will greet Sid and he will rest in the loving arms of his Savior. Goodbye, friend.

 – Lori Hinde Hall

It's an oldie but a goodie: I was walking to Altadena Middle School from my house, in the spring semester of sixth grade, when I'm accosted by two men, one older, one younger, INSISTING that I get into the red Honda stick shift so that I don't waste any energy walking to school. That energy needed to be devoted to the track meet to be held at the rival middle school that afternoon, they pressed.  Giving Sid and Dan Bacon a "no thank you, really it's fine" was not going to cut it. I was getting in that car! Well, thanks to Sid and Dan's insistence that I "save my legs," I managed to break 6 minutes in the 1600 meters that afternoon. Thank you Sid, for your support of my early running career and for so many other pleasant memories. Coming over to you and Cathy's house was and is such a treat. 

You are my favorite family.

– Haley Paul

THE FRENCH KISS DEMONSTRATION

Sid, Cathy and I are sitting in the living room in Claremont.  Sid asks me if I've ever seen a French kiss.  I had not.  So he leans towards Cathy - their lips touch and Sid whispers with a very fake French accent "Bonjour! Oui! Quelle huere est-il?"

Toast to Sid for showing me my first French kiss!

– Karen Kittelson

CAPSIZING

My childhood dream was to be a navigator and sail around the world.  Knowing this and also being interested in sailing - Sid signed us up to take sailing lesions in Minneapolis.  It was close to my dream come true as a kid.  We did well - mostly because of Sid's natural athleticism.  But we had great difficulty capsizing - the purpose of the assignment was to teach the safety skill of being able to right the boat in case it tipped over.  Well we could not tip the boat over... we just did not have the weight. We would lean as far off the edge as we could then we would start laughing and fall in the water - boat still upright.  We made several attempts each one more hilarious. I don't think either of us minded that we failed to complete that assignment because we had way more fun laughing.

Toast to Sid for this and many other happy times - for humor - for laughter - for loving your family - for being my sister's best friend - and for jointly creating two of my favorite people on the planet!

 – Karen Kittelson

SID V ROMAN

It was dark in their basement apartment.  A few small windows near the ceiling let in a grey light above the grass blades.  Tiny drops of water were tapping on the widow pane.  Cathy was at work and I was alone with Sid.  Normally I would not have found this scary - but I knew Sid wanted to scare me and just the thought of it made me scared. The lights were off and shadows flickered in every corner from the shifting image of ROSEMARY'S BABY!

Rosemary's apartment was creepy... the neighbor's were even creepier.  She was being drugged and made to have a demonic baby.  She gets a butcher's knife and begins to hack through the closet wall.

"Sid! Where are you going!?”

"I have to go to the bathroom."

The off-pitch lullaby sound track gets louder and as rosemary begins to break through the wall in the back of the closet you can hear a baby screaming.

"Sid?"

"Si-id?"

"Si-id where aaare you?"

"SID!"

I forget about rosemary's apartment and start looking around this one.  Where is he going to jump out from? Is he behind that chair?  Could he have gotten a knife from the kitchen and snuck into the closet?

"SID COME OUT!"

The light flickers I look up at the window and........

HE'S THERE!

Outside - with his face and hands pressed up against the wet glass - making the scariest face ever!

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Toast to Sid who could out-psych Roman Polanski any day!

– Karen Kittelson