Boyleing Points: Foundation Friends
FOUNDATION FRIENDS
There’s nothing like old friends.
Someone sent out an email eight years ago saying hey, let’s get together. Let’s get together at something besides weddings and funerals. And every year since, these friends for life have met at a bar in The City. Some guys fly in from across the country just to be there. It’s become an annual can’t-miss because we’re old enough now to appreciate what’s important.
Even in a tightly knit place like Rockaway people in their late twenties and early 30’s drift away from each other. Some get married and move to Jersey or The Island. It doesn’t seem that far away but you visit them once. Others get jobs in other states and others just disappear for no apparent reason. A guy, as close as a brother, just more or less vanishes and no one knows why. How could a guy so close to so many, a guy part of the fabric of the gang, just disappear? And no one knows why.
Some go on a career path that just pulls them away. Some have troubles no friends can help. Some guys are content where they are; some want to spread their wings and see the world. Things change.
But then you have a reunion. And the laughs and the tears flow. Yes, the tears. Tears because no words can convey how much these friends mean to you. How central they are to who you were. And who you’ve become. You can’t turn back the clock but you love them because you wouldn’t have had a youth without them. All of these friends, from long ago, shaped you in the most profound ways.
And on the night of this reunion you’re young again for a few hours. One guys shows wearing a sweat suit and a friend says, “You look like a Russian hit man.”
Another friend shows up late and doesn’t say hello to his buddy he hasn’t seen in a few years. No, he doesn’t say hello to the guy who’s put on a few pounds. He says, “Where’s your neck?”
The bald, fat, and hair dye jokes come first but most of the time is spent smiling and laughing on memory lane. It might be thirty or forty years later but we wonder how sexy Spanish teacher Miss Jiminez looks these days. We know we’ve aged but she couldn’t have.
The stories and memories made us laugh and cringe. Some guys stole, well, borrowed, the Driver’s Ed car one night. Some bolted on the bill at Beefsteak Charlie’s only about a million times. Yeah, you didn’t want to be the last one at the table while the rest of your friends went to the “bathroom.” And then there were the house parties when somebody’s parents were away. Epic, crazy times you wouldn’t change. Well, maybe a couple of things.
More than one says, we’re lucky to be alive. Everyone agrees. Damn right.
The night ends and the old crew, spread far and wide, will head back to the present, to their families and new friends they love, wherever that may be. Things change, yep. But one thing remains forever: the love you have for our old friends.
Can’t wait ‘til next year.
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