Let me back up for a moment. When you leave high school, you often lose the one big thing you had in common with your classmates. The same can be said about job switching, but that is another blog entry for another time. Let's stick to high school for the moment.
Back in the day, my best friend and I palled around for about five years, usually in the same classes, and even after school. We both liked bowling and photography. He was really good at the picture thing, owning professional gear and even some darkroom equipment. I wasn't very good at photography, and regular blog readers know that hasn't changed. At least, I tried. Remember that photography was an expensive hobby years ago-- the gear, the film, and especially the processing.
After receiving our high school diplomas, my best friend and I went our separate ways. Different colleges. Different majors. Different goals. We bumped in to each other a couple of times shortly after graduation, and that was about it. That was 40 years ago, maybe longer.
I tried to find him a few times over the years, to no avail.
I renewed the search a couple of weeks ago. I looked up an old newspaper obituary and discovered his sister's married name. She is actually in the phone book. I called the number and was greeted by an answering machine. It was one of those electronic voice greetings, so I wasn't sure if I reached the right person. I explained who I was and why I was calling. I also left my phone number.
Ten minutes later, my phone rang. It was my old high school friend. The number I called was correct. His sister passed along all my information. We chatted for about a half hour, updated each other on our lives, and had some laughs. I stayed close to home while he's moved around quite a bit, having lived in a few different states. We exchanged phone numbers and email addresses.
The great news is that he's coming up this way for a family visit in a couple of months. Maybe I can say "hello" and catch up in person.
