When we were kids our gang was the big kids like big bro, Pammy and Tim…the middlin’ ones like me and Pat, and the little uns like Pat’s younger brother, Graham.
Apparently Graham passed away a couple days ago. I haven’t seen him in at least 45 years, but when I heard about it… it hit me curiously hard. He’d a been in his late 50s. Cancer, I’m told. That whole family’s rotten with it for some reason. Pammy got cervical cancer and I understand she’s in remission.
Pat and I were fast friends because we were much alike. He got turfed out of his family too for having the wrong opinions and views. My kid turned into a militant lesbian/feminist LBGTQ flunkie. Pat’s son turned into an incorrigible crack head. I didn’t understand it at the time, why he withdrew from the family and friends and all the drama. Ten years later, I understood him all too well. You get to the point where all you want is solitude and peace and room to breathe and think, rather than getting mired in other people’s self induced bullshit and getting blamed for it. You want to leave that world behind, not think about it, forgive and forget or at least cultivate a healthy indifference to that old circle that used to mean everything… but now means nothing.
Sometimes that old world reaches across light years of time and space - and slaps you across the head! And you find that it still matters… or at least some of it. Old times, good and bad, old faces… GAH. Those chapters of my life were good to me as was Graham for the most part. Farewell, Graham.
God… I feel old.
Me too sometimes but sometimes I am old. Other times not so much. We have things to look forward to so don't get stuck in the mud. Get your ass up, out and do it! Whatever the hell it is! A drink to friends no longer with us is appropriate but maudlin BS is unbecoming. I expect fart jokes and other juvenile shit.
ReplyDeletemaxx
Ughhh. Agreed!
DeleteYa can’t stop, ya gotta put on foot in front of the other, and live it like ya still got it all in front of ya…
I raise a glass to absent friends
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ReplyDeleteLosing childhood friends is hard. I guess it reminds us Time is ticking and our own demise gets closer every hour.
I know this doesn’t belong here, but this is the most recent post, so I reply here.
ReplyDeletehttps://dailytimewaster.blogspot.com/2025/03/whoa-canadian-province-of-alberta-no-so.html
this refers to an article at Virtual Mirage. Both are daily reads, I just haven’t made it to VM yet.
It concerns AB vs cuckanada.
It does me proud to read of it and I shall wish as you have commented, that you guys join fusa and become North Texas or similar.
As a Texan, and recently Honored The Alamo freedom fighters and that war, I see AB as fit kin and hope for the uniting.
Juan
As Bill “Ol’ Shakey” Shakespeare succinctly put it, Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, time slips by in its petty pace on the way to dusty death. I, too, am getting old and I feel it more often these days. Our family is down to 3 out of a dozen of my parent’s generation and we’ve lost 2 of mine. Scores of colleagues & friends are gone; aviation and the military are inherently hazardous that way. Only thing to do is remember fondly (or not) and press on with purpose. We may be at that time in our lives when we attend more funerals than weddings but we sure don’t hafta act like it.
ReplyDeleteAmen, P2! 😞
DeleteI understand IDC's point. But, I still get the blues every time one of my old mates leaves this earthly plane. You go through the process, look back on your life, adjust, put everything in the new order, get on with it. I sometimes have something like survivors guilt. Why am I in such good health, in a happy marriage, on my own piece of dirt, when others are eating shit? Turns out, I don't know, luck, karma, it's above my pay grade. I'm thankful to the Almighty for not smiting my unworthy ass. My guess, is that I need to stay here longer to figure it out. Pay attention, there will be a test.!
ReplyDeleteYep. For it was just an unexpected punch in the gut. Walk it off, deal with it, and just keep moving…
Delete'Been there several times, Glen. About half of "the old neighborhood," along with a brother, are gone for me. So are several folks I knew in the Coast Guard ...Those organic ticks of the clock that tell us "there's no goin' back..." And yet somehow, here we still are... I guess it's up to us to tell all who care to listen, how things were compared to how they are... Walkin' history books, we are...
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