Reminiscing

Christmas is for reminiscing, and believe me, I do my share.

In the spring of 1972, just prior to getting married, the USAF sent me to a mandatory 2 day seminar. They also strongly suggested that your fiance be there too if it was possible but it wasn't possible for mine so I sat and listened to all the rights, privileges and responsibilities that awaited young married folks in the military and dutifully kept the many brochures and pamphlets to share with her later. Several of the topics were supposedly to gauge how compatible the two of us were, you know, like when one falls backward and trust your partner to catch you, and things like that. Anyway, everyone had their fiance with them except for one lady, and God only knows why, but they paired us up to go through the "compatibility tests". So, she would catch me and I would catch her. We joked at the end of the seminar that maybe we were more compatible with each other than with whoever we were going to marry and maybe we should hook up. We didn't of course and we both went our separate ways. But there have been times that I've thought of her, and the way she filled one of the odd little spaces in my life. Honestly, I don't even remember her name, and I know I will never see her again, but I'd like to. I hope that she and her husband have had a long happy life together. Marriages should be that way.

Now, flash forward to 1978 and a friend named Fred. He was without a doubt one of the most intelligent people I have ever met and was generous to a fault. It didn't matter who needed what, if Fred had it, it was theirs. He was also fragile in a way and eventually had to leave the military behind and move back to the North Carolina mountains. I'll probably never see him again either, but for almost 2 years he was the best friend I had.

One last stop. Monterey, California in 1981, and a friend named Robin who was there when things went a little sour for me and put up with my almost constant babbling about this or that. He listened without complaint or comment and let me convince myself to keep on keeping on. I will never see him again either, although I've been scouring the internet for any sign I can find of him or Fred. Nothing yet but I'll keep looking.

The point to all this is I hate misplacing friends or acquaintances and I want to leave that to the absolute minimum. That includes high school friends too. There are too many already gone, who I will never see again, and I don't want to add anyone else to that list. Please be there next summer for the 40th. All of you.