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Yo Oedipus!

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by HeinekenMan, Jul 20, 2007.

  1. HeinekenMan

    HeinekenMan Active Member

    Tis the stuff of sad rock songs. The ones that hit me the hardest are Bon Jovi's Never Say Goodbye, which has the lines "remember days of skippin' school, racin' cars and bein' cool, with a six-pack and the radio, didn't need no place to go."

    I can't say that my crowd did many of those things, but the sentiment is the same. It's funny what happens in life. Ten years ago, I was a miserable drunken fool with a psychotic girlfriend and no career plans. My best friend since third grade was about to become a police officer. I was envious.

    In a snap, though, I was married to a great girl. I covered my first NASCAR race this year, wrote my first MLB feature, etc. It's small potatoes to some, but it's huge to my old friends. They don't say much, but I think they are both proud and envious. Meanwhile, that police officer friend is recently divorced and, from what I hear, fairly hermit-like outside of his patrol hours.

    But it really doesn't matter much. I mean, I take no satisfaction. In my mind, we're all still 12, and we're all still going to be the next Jack Lambert.

    I could call some of my friends right now and we'd talk for 20 minutes. But not much of it would be anything meaningful. It's sitting on a fishing dock and spittin' Red Man, which always made me want to hurl, and talking about absolutely nothing of value that I enjoy with those people; not talking on the phone, where we both pretend that things are swell and we just love our jobs and so on. I can always read right through that bullshit. My best friend's company was bought and sold by Home Depot within the past year. It's now owned by an equity firm that will probably cut it to the bone and sell it again within the year. He's probably sweating bullets most days, but he doesn't want me to know that, as if we're in some sort of competition. The truth is that I hope he wins the lotto and flies down to visit for a month.

    Funny thing, while I was finishing this post, that very friend called me from a campground. He and another close buddy were talking about me and decided to give me a ring. It was a pleasant surprise. I've been disappointed that I couldn't make it back there this summer, and I think they were sort of miffed, too.

    Anyway, here's to best buds.
     
  2. HeinekenMan

    HeinekenMan Active Member

    I have a cousin who is two weeks older than me. He always played with toys long after I had given it up. I was just more of a sports guy. I lived right by a park, so I was the guy you picked up on the way to the diamond or the football field. I also grew up a little faster than a lot of kids my age. Not a day goes by without me wishing for at least a moment that I was 12 again. But let me say this: the toys I wish I could buy for my 4-year-old son are the little battery-operated trucks I once owned. They had the foam rubber tires about the circumference of a dime. I can't recall what they were called. They were like tiny monster trucks.
     
  3. Herky_Jerky

    Herky_Jerky Member

    Although I just turned 25, I can definitely relate to what you're saying. I just wrapped up a three-week vacation in which I saw nearly everyone I would consider important in my life, and it's interesting to see how the dynamics have evolved in the different groups.

    My childhood friends have all pretty much stayed in the area where we grew up and they all hang out together still. Meanwhile, I have went to school, got a job and since moved several states away. I hung out with them for a few days while I was back in town and things have clearly changed between me and the rest of the group since high school. Like you were saying, we sorta go through the motions of telling each other how our lives are going, but there's a definite detachment. This was the first time I'd hung out with a lot of them since one of the members of our group died about 1.5 years ago. I think that I'll always be able to call them my friends, but I'm afraid it eventually will lose most of its meaning over time.

    On the other hand, I also was able to hang out with two sets of friends from my first job out of school. The first couple guys were at the paper when I was originally hired, and we developed strong bonds, but nothing like the guys who eventually replaced them at the paper. I got together with the latter group for about a week as one of them was getting married. I definitely feel tighter with these guys than anyone else in my life, and I haven't worked with any of them for more than a year.

    I know that I will never have the same kind of bond with co-workers that I have with those guys, and it kinda makes me wonder what things will be like when I hopefully move on to another paper.

    Anyways, that's enough sharing for one night. I just thought I'd help Heineken Man out and not let him be the only one spilling his guts here.
     
  4. HeinekenMan

    HeinekenMan Active Member

    Much appreciated. I tend to go on these soliloquys from time to time. It's partly just my way of writing something that isn't related to the Podunk High soccer team.
     
  5. dargan

    dargan Active Member

    I'm a little younger than y'all, but I think I know the same feeling. The funny thing is, our group is regarded in our hometown as being one that everyone thinks will stick together. But also, we're not willing to go back to that hometown. There's just not enough opportunity.

    Fortunately, our group of about eight still stays in close contact, and I'm kinda considered the networker that lets everybody know how everyone else is doing. It's funny, we're only five years out of high school, but there's an accountant, bank asst. VP, pharmacy phD student, and regional marketing coordinator for a major company within our group, yet I'm sitting here still at the office at 11:15 and cover high school and JUCO athletics year-round. Needless to say, they make more money, but I know what y'all mean about them seeming a little envious of my job.

    The good times probably won't stick around, but I'm just trying to enjoy them for now, especially since I'm still single. (I'm still hoping somebody comes up with a Tomcat purse for me). We weren't ever too crazy ourselves, but, HeinekenMan, I know what you mean about hearing songs and stuff like that. It takes you back to those high school days, days you know you'll never see again.
     
  6. writing irish

    writing irish Active Member

    "Bob Dylan's Dream"

    While riding on a train goin' west,
    I fell asleep for to take my rest.
    I dreamed a dream that made me sad,
    Concerning myself and the first few friends I had.

    With half-damp eyes I stared to the room
    Where my friends and I spent many an afternoon,
    Where we together weathered many a storm,
    Laughin' and singin' till the early hours of the morn.

    By the old wooden stove where our hats was hung,
    Our words were told, our songs were sung,
    Where we longed for nothin' and were quite satisfied
    Talkin' and a-jokin' about the world outside.

    With haunted hearts through the heat and cold,
    We never thought we could ever get old.
    We thought we could sit forever in fun
    But our chances really was a million to one.

    As easy it was to tell black from white,
    It was all that easy to tell wrong from right.
    And our choices were few and the thought never hit
    That the one road we traveled would ever shatter and split.

    How many a year has passed and gone,
    And many a gamble has been lost and won,
    And many a road taken by many a first friend,
    And each one I've never seen again.

    I wish, I wish, I wish in vain,
    That we could sit simply in that room again.
    Ten thousand dollars at the drop of a hat,
    I'd give it all gladly if our lives could be like that.
     
  7. Football_Bat

    Football_Bat Well-Known Member

    The killer awoke before dawn ... He put his stoob on ....
     
  8. writing irish

    writing irish Active Member

    He wished his deddy a happy 21st of July and he wolked own daywn the hawll....
     
  9. Football_Bat

    Football_Bat Well-Known Member

    And he came to a door ... and he looked inside ....
     
  10. HeinekenMan

    HeinekenMan Active Member

    I don't quite understand whether Football Bat suggests that I kill my family or is simply stating that the thread has ended.
     
  11. Football_Bat

    Football_Bat Well-Known Member

    Neither. Just riffing on your thread title because I'm not sure how your wife's family relates to O-Rex. :)
     
  12. writing irish

    writing irish Active Member

    Mother...I want to....












    get fat and die in France.
     
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