Everyone Else Has Retired

Banner day yesterday.

Got together with 4 guys I went to high school with. We graduated 49 years ago. Three of them I saw a couple of years ago. Ed I haven't seen in over 20 years.

We met at Jim's new house which, thankfully, is only 1/2 hour from my own. Jim is building the house with his son and others. Spectacular. Wood everywhere. Beautiful deck, beuatiful location in the woods. 6.5 acres. Peaceful. Scenic. Quiet.

We sat on the deck and talked, laughed and reminisced. Spectacular.

All four of them are retired. Dave was to be the fifth attendee, but he lives in Virginia and could not make it up. He is also retired.

The talk of work came up, I told them I work part time and Barry said "You're still working?" Not maliciously or condescendingly or judgmentally. He is my friend; he would never do that to me.

He was genuinely surprised. As am I.

These were the guys I hung with in high school. I had a different set of guys I hung with in college but all of them - both groups - lived in Winthrop.

I was much closer to my high school friends. These friendships endure.

Talk of health was disturbing. Every single one of us is dealing with or has dealt with major health issues. Wives included.  Cancer most prominent, of course. Ed wears hearing aids, Bobby wears hearing aids. Bobby was wearing a cast on his left wrist after a recent operation; as soon as that heals the right wrist goes under the knife.

Ed's got the worst of it, I think. He is dealing with cancer that has affected his lungs and left spots on his brain. He looked and sounded pretty good yesterday.

Ed came with his dog Lucas. Jim has a dog named Oscar. It was soothing to have them around.

Talk of health problems was prominent in the conversation which depressed me, but that is where we are in life. Sucks. But we did talk about life in general, the stupidity that is America today and, of course, we resurrected many high school memories. 

We were a rowdy bunch. Loved to party. We didn't just love insanity, we were insanity. So there was a lot to laugh about. Many stories. Many names bandied about that have not crossed my tongue in decades.

We were so well behaved. This was a drinking crowd back in the day. We started yesterday drinking water. Eventually everybody had 1 beer, I had a small amount of whiskey. The effects of age and benefits of wisdom abounded.

We talked about getting together again in September.

I sincerely hope it happens.