Old Friends

Old Friends

Last week Keith Sims died of colon cancer. He was a good friend of mine in Jr. High and High School but I hadn’t seen him since our 20th reunion. He was married for 35 years to Jane Endres, another Lake Worth classmate. There were only about 100 of us in the class of 1970 and now another is gone.
Seeing his name and picture in the obituaries was a jolt that I am still coming to grips with. I don’t know why Keith’s death has bothered me so much. Maybe because I am reminded about our mortality. Perhaps because I truly regret having lost touch with people who provided so many great memories.
Throughout our lives we are shaped and influenced by those who populate the various paths we traverse. As a kid there were the neighborhood urchins with whom I constantly played with. My teenage years were made richer by those special souls like Keith who filled the classrooms, football fields, dances, and other memorable events of a time dominated by innocence, awakenings, acne, and hormones.
My fifteen years with the Southland Corporation brought not only gainful employment but also a new group of companions - folks in their 20s and 30s with whom we shared new homes, new babies, and the other accessories of young yuppiehood.
Next came the Cougar football years. For ten years life revolved around me as a coach, Steven as a player, Stacey and Laura as cheerleaders, Shanda on the drill team, and Debbie as the perfect football wife/mom/booster. Our friends were the parents of our kids’ friends and the world was maroon, grey, and white.
At each crossroads I have surrounded myself with people who, for the most part, are like me. Now, on the backside of 50, my circle of friends are the Homies - a group whose genesis was bible study but who have evolved into much more. We share common life experiences and a common desire to find meaning in a time marked by religion, reflection, grandchildren, margaritas, and the vagaries of age.
The transience and impermanence of our relationships is part of the cycle of life. These people, considered friends at the time, are actually temporary players in the dramas and comedies that make up the saga of our time on Earth. No one is more important to us at that particular time but, with the passing of the years, each is relegated to the dusty pages of photo albums and then stowed away in the attics of our life.
There have been many people like Keith who have enhanced my life, from growing up with Freddy Zwald to growing old with Harry Berney. In between, there was Mark Long, Billy Brown, Wayne Howard, Richard Moore, Mark Braun, and so many others who helped define who I am today.

"Preserve your memories...they’re all that’s left you"

(Also attached is a poem I wrote in 1982, in commemoration of my years with the Southland Corp. and dedicated to the men I worked with from 1972-1982. However, it applies to each group of "guys" I have known.)