RIP Josh Erichsen (1974-2023)

Over the weekend I learned a dear old friend of mine, Josh Erichsen, passed away earlier this year.

Josh and I met back in high school. We both had Commodore computers, we both liked rock and heavy metal music, we both liked Star Wars and Monty Python, and we both were into electronics and car stereos. It’s getting harder to remember exactly how all my friends met, or who met whom first. All I can really remember is that one day all of my friends were friends with Josh, because everybody who ever met Josh immediately became Josh’s friend.

Back in those days, Josh lived at home with his dad, Tom, his step-mom, and his sister, Sara. During and after high school, all of my friends worked in fast food (at one point we all worked for Pizza Hut) and all of us worked evenings. Josh’s parents were nurses who worked overnight and left for work around 11pm. The timing worked out perfectly, and the moment all of us got off work, we piled into our cars and caravanned over to Josh’s house. Some nights two or three people would stop by and some nights there would be ten to fifteen people. We drank beer, we watched movies, we listened to music, we worked on our car stereos, we played guitar, we played games on Josh’s computer… we just hung out, all night, every night. Before everybody went home (sometimes when the sun began to peek through the windows), we would clean up the house and scurry like cockroaches before his parents would come home from work.

Oh, and none of that happened on Sunday nights, because Sunday nights was when Star Trek: A New Generation aired, followed by an episode from the original Star Trek series. Josh watched Star Trek every Sunday night, and if you were at his house, so did you. It didn’t seem to matter that he had already seen these episodes dozens if not hundreds of times. Josh would point out little details, share trivia facts, and recite half the episode’s lines. I think Josh was the first Trekkie I ever met.

A couple of years after high school, Josh and another one of our friends, Scott, got jobs at a local computer store, All Systems Go. The front of the store was full of salesmen and products for sale, and in the back Josh and Scott assembled and repaired computers as fast as the adults up front could sell their services. I knew how to use a computer when I met Josh, but he was the one who helped me build my first one. I bought half the parts from A.S.G. and the other half were scavenged from returned or broken systems that ended up at the store, but before long I had my own PC, a 386 DX/40. Josh was the first person I knew with a LapLink cable, a device used to connect two machines together to transfer files (or, more importantly, play co-op Doom). Josh was the person who taught me the basics of computer networking and how to troubleshoot computers. The stuff Josh taught me got me my job at Best Buy and, eventually, the FAA. During my first interview at the FAA I was asked about network protocols, something Josh had literally taught me so we could network computers together for LAN parties.

Back in high school instead of a cafeteria we had an open campus, so to coordinate lunch destinations my friends and I installed CB radios in our cars (this was a decade before everyone had a cell phone). There were four of us (me, Jeff, Andy, and Scott), which I eventually dubbed the “Nasty Pirates.” Josh was a year younger than us and wasn’t a part of our lunch group, but many years after high school I began hosting Nasty Pirate gatherings where my friends would come over to enjoy food and drinks, watch (typically bad) movies, and occasionally play video or board games. By the time that started, there were five Nasty Pirates — the original four, and Josh.

Me, Josh, Jeff, Andy, and Scott: the original Nasty Pirates.

Josh encountered a few legal problems as an adult, one of which resulted in the loss of his car. When we began the original Nasty Pirate gatherings Josh had neither a car nor a license, and so our nights began with one or more of us driving across town to pick up Josh and ended with whomever was most sober driving him home. Josh was a very thankful and gracious person, and he also liked to give hugs. I don’t remember who dubbed him “Josh the Hugger,” but it was fitting. During those Nasty Pirates nights I could expect a hug from Josh when we picked him up, when we dropped him off, and several times throughout the night.

The last hug I got from Josh was in 2011. In January of that year, Josh’s sister Sara passed away from cancer. By then, three of the five Nasty Pirates were married with young kids, and our monthly gatherings had temporarily fizzled out. It had been about a year since all five of us had been together, and while standing outside Sara’s old house we promised to stay in touch and get the proverbial band back together.

It took a few years but in 2020 my wife and I put the finishing touches on the movie room in our new home, and I decided it was a great time to bring back Nasty Pirate night. Andy, Jeff, and Scott were immediately in, but we soon realized none of us could reach Josh. He had moved, and for some reason his old cell phone number and email address had stopped working. For whatever reason, Josh didn’t participate in an social media. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, Josh had made himself impossible to find. Each of us from time to time would use Google to search for his name. Sometimes I searched lists of inmates and sometimes I searched the legal system. Nothing ever led to any contact information.

This past weekend, my friend Scott found a link to Josh’s online obituary. According to the page, Josh passed away earlier this year in January, and had a small gathering in February. I can’t tell you how bummed all of us are that we didn’t find out about this until just now and that we did not know about his gathering. We’ve all been friends for thirty years, and would have liked to offer our condolences in person. I’m doing it here instead.

I have a million old Josh stories. One time in the middle of the night, the two of us — too drunk to walk not not drunk enough to pass out — laid on Josh’s back porch with salt shakers because he had seen slugs on his porch and we wanted to shake salt on one to see what would happen. One time, a few of us were cruising 12th street in Moore in Josh’s car when he got pulled over for disturbing the peace because his stereo was too loud. The officer told Josh he could hear his stereo from “at least 50 feet away,” and before long Josh was in the officers face explaining that you can hear every car stereo from 50 feet away. And then there was the time all of us… well, I can’t share all the stories.

If there’s one thing I will always remember about Josh it will be his laugh. Josh’s laugh was instant, loud, and contagious. Whenever Josh laughed everybody else would laugh. Sometimes his laughs would be accompanied with random words or imitations which were so funny that even if you weren’t laughing at whatever Josh was laughing at, you couldn’t help but laugh along. I don’t think Josh had a lot of money and I don’t think he owned a lot of things, but man was that guy always happy. Just a guy full of laughs, hugs, and good times.

Today, the Nasty Pirates lower their sails to half mast. Wherever you are, I hope the beer is cold and they have Star Trek reruns on forever. Give your sister a hug for me.

We’ll mish you, Yoshi.

Link: Josh Erichsen’s online obituary