My friend George (to the tune of The Things They Carried)

I make a lot of trips to South Florida. The definition of a lot is every four to five weeks. It's a six hour drive any way you look at it as I hop in my '06 Toyota (110,000+) to visit my significant other. (I really would like to fly, but his mom keeps finding "throw-aways" from their ritzy neighbors. The value and overall class of these marvelous finds makes me want to "hide-away" all my furniture...I'm serious!) But I digress!

After every return trip on 95North, I try and stop in Palm Bay which is the midway point! The best part about this blip on the map is that my friend George lives there! (The orange and blue text color is homage to his diehard Gator fan status as evidenced by his shirt!) I first remember George around year 5 or 6 of our 13 years of Catholic school education. (No, we didn't fail, but we did begin at kindergarden!) In Jacksonville, all the public schools are named after Civil War folks, like Stonewall Jackson Elementary, and JEB Stuart and Jeff Davis Middle. Then there are the high schools, Forest (George's middle name) and Lee (my middle name because my mother graduated from Robert E. Lee.) George and I felt like we were members of a very exclusive "namesakes" club! In middle school, he played basketball and I was a cheerleader. In high school, he was my Geometry tutor although he didn't help very much. (I can't blame him! Well....) After graduation, I had to choose "career" (which translated to a J-O-B until I finally started teaching) although George was wonderful enough to invite me to many University of Florida events so I could pretend to be an "on-time" college student....for just a little while.

Then marriages and/or domestic partnerships came along, divorces, kids in other states, and our other best friend Edward's ordination to the Catholic priesthood! There were ridiculous tears to "It's a Wonderful Life," hospital visits, all night bowlathons, and memories of my '66 Rambler, a.k.a, the "Museum on Wheels." During today's visit, he talked about his father's health and his heart's desire to start taking on a more parental role with his, well, parents! As I write this I get a little misty, because how cool is it to know a truly non-judgemental someone for 3/4 of your life! Sure, there were months, even a year or two, when we lost touch, when life was just too busy, when here-right-now relationships took precedence, when we were too embarrassed to admit that we had been crawling for a while,...but always when we reconnected, it was like we had just spoken yesterday! Our friendship reminds me of this excerpt from Chapter One of the Vietnam memoir mentioned in the Blog's Title...

"They shared the weight of memory. They took up what others could no longer bear. Often, they carried each other, the wounded or weak." I sincerely hope that each of my Blog-followers has a George!