What'd You Do In The War, Grandpa?

I notice no one ever wants to know about anyone else's childhood. I always grew up hearing about all the stuff you'd be able to tell your grandchildren. And all that.

But I personally never meet anyone who goes, "What'd you used to do" at such and such a time? Like when you were a kid. Or a teenager. No one is especially interested.

I struck up a conversation with a guy about my age -- he's two years older -- meaning he was an older teen in the '60s. He was looking fairly more worse off than I, having had a stroke and needing to use a cane. I'm blessed in that I haven't had a stroke ... yet ... and if my doctor knows what he's talking about, there's not one in the near future.

Anyway, there he was, sitting there. And I got into a conversation with him. And asked him about what he was up to in the '60s. He still has his hair down, almost like a Beatles haircut, which doesn't necessarily look that great on an older guy, but it indicates something about what he was probably into 40-45 years ago.

When I asked him about this, he looked very happy. Got a smile on his face. I said something about "kids like us," etc., and he was happy to say a few things about what he was doing as a kid, how he met a particular girl, etc. Very happy.

Why would he be so happy? Because no one is interested. I don't know him but I'd bet there's not one other person in the last 10 years who's come up to him and asked about his past, what he was doing way back when.

So if you want to make someone happy ... try it ... get them aside and be interested in what they were doing when they were young ... people really want to tell you ... and you'll probably have a friend for life.

I'm Glad I Don't Know Annie Leibovitz

I saw a headline that says, "Photographer Annie Leibovitz Must Repay $24 Million Loan By Tuesday."

She's not a friend of mine in real life or on the internet. And we're going to keep it that way.

Looking For An Old Friend

I had a friend 30 years ago. She has a fairly rare name, going by the Google incidences of it.

I found one in the same town we lived in. I called and got a voice mail. The voice didn't sound like hers. So that might be a dead end. Unless it's a secretary, someone else in charge of doing the voice mails. Or maybe her voice is different. I figured I'd recognize it even after 30 years.

I'm a little nervous contacting someone like that out of the blue. But my intentions are good, to reconnect. After all, we live in a Facebook world where I'm seeing friends from 30 years ago all the time. (And their boring lives ... like mine.)

Another guy I knew years ago died, which I just heard about today. The rest of the class (a tiny minority) want to do some kind of memorial. This guy I literally haven't seen for 35 years but I do remember him even though we weren't close.

Reconnecting

I reconnected with an old friend on Facebook. Finally, with all the "friends" I have, I have an actual old friend who was a friend indeed way back when. That's rare.

But I don't know where it will lead. Maybe nowhere. Because it doesn't really have to. There's still distance ... and all the years. It's not that I absolutely haven't seen him in around 35 years. I saw him once in the mid '80s, it seems like, then definitely in 1986. And a couple times around 1974-75. Other than that, nada.

There's "old times," then there's now. Whether there's any now for us ... I don't know. I don't know what it'd look like if there were. We're old timers essentially.