an old friend of ours, chuck thomas, died 6/25 up at IU med center and we went over to the funeral home last night to pay our respects… the video reminded us of how young and good-looking we all were…  ever since his wife, kristi, had called to tell me of chuck’s death, i’ve been reminiscing about those days…you know the ones…when we all just hung out together…harmonizing with the grateful dead…seriously debating things we forgot completely the next day…every bierstube, every fest, every week-end if not every day.  we played cards, rode motorcycles, watched luke and laura get married, fought over the atari and talked all night long.  it was college for us folks that didn’t go to college.  these friendships just gradually loosened, finally replaced by friends we made through our kids’ activities and our jobs.  in the last few years we’ve lost several of the players from the old monroe st. apartments:  beaver, wayne, randy, buzzard, carey— and those are just the ones i know of…    looking back, i’m grinning, though the reality was rather grim.  those friends, from that time,  make me smile…knowing that i wouldn’t change a thing.

time, time, time…see what’s become of me…