Every once in a while, a person gets the opportunity to look back on his life and review the events of his past. I will get that chance this weekend when an old boyhood pal comes to town from the East Coast. Mark and I were inseparable as kids growing up in Albany, N.Y. Our fathers worked for the U.S. Public Health Service in the New York state Capitol and I believe we first met at one of their family outings. From age 8 to 13, we learned the ways of the world as we grew into young lads. We learned every sport together, we camped out, we learned about life, we learned about values, we learned about girls and we learned about ourselves. I believe we thought we would always be together.
Then, in the spring of my 13th year, my father announced to the family that we were going to Monterrey, Mexico, for a while. The year was 1954, around the time of the McCarthy hearings in Washington, D.C. Later, I found out what that era was all about. But I didn't get to see Mark for about three years when we visited for a weekend in Washington, D.C. That was the last time we saw each other.
Two months ago, he called. He had tracked me down through Google and Facebook. We laughed for an hour on the phone and then he told me he could come and visit toward the end of October. He arrives today.
For the next four days and nights, we're going to catch up. We decided we wouldn't trade stories until we saw each other in person. There's over 50 years of our lives to discuss and I guess you'd have to say a lot has happened since the middle 1950s. I know my life has been wild. I can only imagine what he went through. Wouldn't this make a great play? I'll get Steve D'Smith and Scott Creighton to portray us in the performance.
I feel blessed for this opportunity. Nice talking to you.
