Mark Soens

When we were younger - probably when I was in 3rd grade or so - my brother and I used to go and play with some kids named Matt and Tony Leonetti, who lived in the cul-de-sac at the top of our neighborhood. They were pretty cool kids - I remember always liking Tony a whole lot because he seemed like such a nice guy, but I realize that part of it may have just been the age gap - and I generally liked hanging out with them, except for when we played football, because they could both kill me. Tony, it turns out, is in the military. I guess he was built for it?

In either case, two instances of hanging out with them stick out in my mind. The first is when they showed me Red Alert: Command and Conquer, but the other was the time I talked to Mark Soens.

They called us and invited us up to their house (how we would get together), so we went up, and when we arrived there were a couple other kids there, including one whom we had never met, named Mark Soens. I can't remember a whole lot about him, except that he was tall, thin, white, had short hair, and I remember him being very pleasant and nice at all times.

Most specifically, I remember as he was leaving the Leonetti's house to go to his house next door, he said "Thank you so much for having me!" to the kids and the parents before he left. We all commented on that line after he left. I think that was the last I ever heard from Mark Soens.

I learned later, though, that apparently he was homeschooled, and furthermore, that it was a fundamentalist Christian homeschooling environment. He had told the Leonettis before that on Halloween, the souls of demons came to the world and roam freely, and also that holding together the nucleus of an atom was not the strong force or protons and neutrons, but the hand of God.

I don't know why this experience came to mind recently. I guess I just thought it was interesting that the first memory I have of a fundamentalist Christian was a very good one.

Peace out!