Nostalgia

Do you ever have those days where you wonder what happened to all those people you used to know, or even used to be friends with? For some reason, today I've wondered what happened to all those people that used to be my best pas. My friend Craig from Australia, used to be my best buddy in second grade. I remember playing soccer with him, and he was simply amazing. Then there was Jill, a good friend from kindergarten all the way through fifth grade. We used to play soccer, football, or any other rough game we could think of. And Kyle. He lived next door to me for ten years, and we were best pals for a while. What about Nick, the kid from Tuscon, who I met when I was in fourth grade? I still remember how we used to sit under his bed with nothing but a bag of colored pencils and a huge piece of posterboard, and we would draw for hours and hours. We went biking a lot. He loved to bike. Those friends are long gone- Craig moved back to Australia in third grade. Jill moved to Buffalo, NY so her dad could coach football. Kyle and me just lost touch. I went my way, and he went his. We went to the same school all the way from kindergarten through high school. Nick moved back to Tuscon because his dad had a kidney transplant and couldn't stand the cold weather.
And what about those people I've lost track of just in the last few years? I couldn't tell you how many people at my high school I liked, but, well, lost touch with. That crazy bunch of SOB's up in Jackson County- I ran with them for almost two years. Garrett Stone, Jessi whatshisbucket that drove that POS 4Runner, Casey and Jeff-one-turd that were always fighting. Jeff got his name from an offroading incident, where the horses had been cooped up all winter and nobody had bothered to clean up the turds. His window was open, and somehow managed to get one single horse apple in his mouth. Nothing else in his truck, just one in his mouth. And Allison. What about her? She was the single biggest cause of change in my life, for the best and worst all at the same time. I lost touch with her that one day in July nearly three years ago. I tell myself that I'm glad she's gone, but I'm not sure I believe it yet.
All those people that I played with, fought with, drank with, and drove to the hospital so many times just upped and left. I haven't seen a single one of that crowd since . . . well, since I lost touch with Allison.
Oh, and I can't forget those few crazy mothers I worked with last summer. Robbie, the bullrider who decided that after fourteen concussions, he might should wear a helmet when he rides. ET, Emily's boyfriend who was twenty six with no more idea what he wanted to do with his life than I did when I was in junior high. Last I heard he was a kindergarten teacher by day and a brewery worker by night. Nikki, the mormon from Utah who never seemed too mormon-y to me, except that she never cussed and had a hard time even flipping anybody off. Then there was Aaron, the guy who dressed up like a midget mexican stripper at least once a week and rode a horse around bareback in the dark, while drunk. Townie sprayed him with shaving cream in the shower, and Arod chased him a good fifty feet out of the shower house- buck-*** naked, in front of all the girls. And last but not least, that crazy SOB from South Carolina, Ben, the guy who went to VMI and got a biology degree so he could work maintenance at a ranch. All he really wanted to do was kill things. We got in huge trouble at the end of the summer, shooting off his AK-47 when we weren't supposed to. We also got in trouble for jumping bikes into the pond. We spent countless hours over on the Larson's property hunting beavers, hoping a bear might wander in front of us so we could put those 3 inch magnum double ot shells to use. I haven't heard a peep from him since I left the ranch, even though we promised to keep in touch.

I don't know what spurred this shpiel. But there it is. I miss most of these people. Not all, but most. I guess we wouldn't appreciate true friends unless we lost a few.