You Can Go Home Again
Saturday was a surprise 80th birthday party for a family friend. My parents, another couple from Port Washington, WI that we know and I went down to Casa Grande for the celebration. It was great!
A little history...we lived across the street from this family and their son Kurt is a year younger than I am and one of Steven's Godfathers (I was a progressive Catholic - two Godfathers and one of them is gay - not Kurt). They moved to Arizona a month after we did (more than 30 years ago) and I think we originally met when I was five and he was four. It might have been six and five - sue me, I didn't have a PDA back then to keep track of events.
Anywho, we spent a lot of our formative years together. When we were tykes in Wisconsin, our parents used to bundle us up in our jammies and throw us in a bunk bed as they played cards into the wee hours. His older brothers (there were four) and sister floated in and out and I often felt like just another kid in the family.
When we moved to Arizona, my family went to Scottsdale and his went to Arizona City which is halfway between Phoenix and Tucson. We used to visit back and forth for weekends. The parents would play Bridge while we progressed through Matchbox cars, my Barbies and his GI Joes going on spy missions and on to the bored teenage years. I was often pressed into service to play a hand of Bridge while his Dad mixed another round of Manhattans. Yes, our parents were drinkers and we point the finger right back at them when they suggest we drink too much now.
I considered Kurt as my little brother and his brother Paul stood in as my "don't mess with my little sister" bodyguard when needed. We were tight.
As we got older we spent less time together. His Dad passed away 16 years ago and it was his Mom who was celebrating her 80th. Two of her sons and daughter live in Arizona and one of her sons came in from Colorado with his wife and the other came from home from the Mid-West with his wife and daughter. Unfortunately, we lost one of the brothers over a year ago.
Words fail me in describing how great it was to reconnect. It felt like we hadn't been separated for years. I spent a lot of time with Kurt and his wife and a couple of the brothers and the husband of one of the nieces...it was old home week, for sure.
I didn't want to leave but the old people were done so we headed home but I left my heart there. It's just so great to be with people that you have so much history with and it was nice that we're all on the same playing level of being adults since a lot of that history was from when we were wet behind the years kids.
I hope it's not another decade or more before we get together. But, if it is, I know it's not going to feel like it all. The time will just seem like a blip and I'll feel just as connected as I did on Saturday and as I did years ago.
That's cool.
A little history...we lived across the street from this family and their son Kurt is a year younger than I am and one of Steven's Godfathers (I was a progressive Catholic - two Godfathers and one of them is gay - not Kurt). They moved to Arizona a month after we did (more than 30 years ago) and I think we originally met when I was five and he was four. It might have been six and five - sue me, I didn't have a PDA back then to keep track of events.
Anywho, we spent a lot of our formative years together. When we were tykes in Wisconsin, our parents used to bundle us up in our jammies and throw us in a bunk bed as they played cards into the wee hours. His older brothers (there were four) and sister floated in and out and I often felt like just another kid in the family.
When we moved to Arizona, my family went to Scottsdale and his went to Arizona City which is halfway between Phoenix and Tucson. We used to visit back and forth for weekends. The parents would play Bridge while we progressed through Matchbox cars, my Barbies and his GI Joes going on spy missions and on to the bored teenage years. I was often pressed into service to play a hand of Bridge while his Dad mixed another round of Manhattans. Yes, our parents were drinkers and we point the finger right back at them when they suggest we drink too much now.
I considered Kurt as my little brother and his brother Paul stood in as my "don't mess with my little sister" bodyguard when needed. We were tight.
As we got older we spent less time together. His Dad passed away 16 years ago and it was his Mom who was celebrating her 80th. Two of her sons and daughter live in Arizona and one of her sons came in from Colorado with his wife and the other came from home from the Mid-West with his wife and daughter. Unfortunately, we lost one of the brothers over a year ago.
Words fail me in describing how great it was to reconnect. It felt like we hadn't been separated for years. I spent a lot of time with Kurt and his wife and a couple of the brothers and the husband of one of the nieces...it was old home week, for sure.
I didn't want to leave but the old people were done so we headed home but I left my heart there. It's just so great to be with people that you have so much history with and it was nice that we're all on the same playing level of being adults since a lot of that history was from when we were wet behind the years kids.
I hope it's not another decade or more before we get together. But, if it is, I know it's not going to feel like it all. The time will just seem like a blip and I'll feel just as connected as I did on Saturday and as I did years ago.
That's cool.
