This is going to probably be a tough one to write.
On a lot of levels, there are not too many "Men" who will freely admit that they are pretty much friends of long standing. Maybe it's a macho thing or I don't know what. There are friends, some of whom are men. Some of whom are women. Some of them are relatives. Some not so relative. You get to pick your friends, but not your relatives so much. Sometimes, you just plain luck out!
But, as the case may be a certain amount of respect, admiration, jocularity, kidding around and so forth happens. Even if it is two men and that has nothing to do with preferences. I never did tell him he was my friend, but he was. He knew. We would kid and there was a degree of one upmanship going on, but it was never hurtful.
He was an historian. Now, I don't mean like I am ----- and did the family tree online. No, this guy was a true historian and never missed a chance to prove it to you. We vacationed together one year and he spent most of the ride listening to a radio station which played 1930's and 1940's music. I wasn't aware that such a thing even existed. Bored me to tears, but he knew all the artists and bands by heart. And why didn't I know who sung that? We would pass a town and, this was a New England trip, he would say "Did you know so and so founded this place"? Where did that come from? He spent two days in a local back town library while the rest us did the tourist trick.
A very devoted man who enjoyed the past lives of others.
Now, he gets to look back upon us all. And I will bet he is putting our lives, achievements, and failures into his file of index cards.
You see he has met all those folks he studied, so hard, for so long.
He is in a better place.
No comments:
Post a Comment