Creating Beacons

A while back I put my site out as a beacon, trying to light the way for a bunch of old 9th grade friends to find their way back together after 25 years. Like any real magic, it worked, but not in the way I necessarily thought it would. I have always believed that in life, you need to first ask the question—to visualize or conceptualize, in order for there to be an answer. Jeff got a hold of me first—found my address from Eileen, who got it from Andy. Turns out he lives up in Bellingham. On his way out of town one evening, we met at the airport for a beer and got reacquainted.

Ever since then things have been a moving forward, picking up speed. So far, there are 14 or 15 of us planning on going to Vegas in August for a reunion. So far a lot of them have come by the Trailer Park to take a peek, looking in the past archives to try to get to know this person they haven’t talked to in a quarter century.

So to all my old friends, welcome. Nice to see you again. Take off your shoes and stay a while. The carpeting is worn but comfortable, as are the chairs, the couch and the loveseat. The fridge is well stocked with old stories and good cheap beer.

At first you think you won’t know what to say. Surely after 25 years these people have changed so much, I’ve changed so much, that the things you once had in common you now wont, and there you’ll be, standing oddly by the stereo, looking at my CD collection, or out the window, or into your drink, wondering what the hell you’ve gotten yourself into.

But of course that doesn’t last long. Reed will say something and it will sound just like Reed, and you’ll say to yourself…”Of course, well what the hell did you think he was gonna sound like, dummy?” And Andrew will come up with clever reply and there you’ll be hanging out with old friends, old friends whom you haven’t seen in forever—friends that hold a place in your life, oddly, like family.

Andrew wrote me a few days back and said something like, “we knew each other before we began, and now we’re meeting again after we already were.” Somehow this needs to be the reunions T-shirt, because at 40, there is a little bit of life already had and over, and so reflecting back to a time before anything really began, could be a pretty good adventure. I mean, you wouldn’t want to live there necessarily, but it could make for a nice visit in Las Vegas for a three day weekend in August.

On a side note, Found Magazine published the postcard I found a while back.

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