One
of the most enduring lessons I’ve learned in my rapidly accumulating collection
of years is the importance of friends. It’s not a huge revelation because I’ve
been enjoying their company for the better part of seven decades. That being
said, I have to acknowledge that I’m not all that great at maintaining contact.
I could use the excuse that my assembly of friends is about as far flung around
the globe as one could hope, although I should say curse. I blame the Army. I’ve
done a pretty good job of staying in contact with my childhood friends since my
return to New England. Said effort has been prominently displayed here on Frail
Deeds, especially around the annual birthday pub crawl, but I digress. The Army
linked me up with some of the best people in the world and we shared a bond
that is hard to describe to civilians.
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BR3 Last Night Trying to Coax her Dad into Picking her Up
How Could you resist?! |
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| FBR Playing Pictionary With Us Last Night |
That
being said, these associations are usually limited to, at most, a couple years,
because the Army also has a tendency to move Soldiers around. A lot. The funny
thing is that despite the intervening years these friendships can usually be picked
up as though it had only been a couple weeks. I’ve written before about the
Root Huggers, my classmates from Command and General Staff College. We graduated
from there in 1993 but we still zoom call monthly and have had several memorable
reunions. I’m
wandering around this subject because my post from yesterday yielded the hoped-for
results. The best man from my wedding has been reading the blog for years and
when he saw the note in yesterday’s blog he sent a long email catching me up on
his life in the northern highlands of Thailand. I did say far flung, didn’t I. Again,
it was like no time had passed at all despite what photos of both of us prove.
I look forward to staying in touch with him over however many years I have left
to do so.
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| My Thai Best Man |
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| With his Beautiful Wife |
He
and I were lieutenants together down in Panama in the early 1980s assigned to
our first line infantry company together. We clicked right away under the leadership
of a company commander who would go on to be a renowned special forces two star
general. We were both decidedly single at the time and certainly made the most
of that status. I’ve written before about the weekly routine when we weren’t
running around the jungle with well-armed friends. Friday night was spent at
the Albrook Officers Club hoping to meet ladies we would then invite back to a
Saturday night party at the BOQ (Bachelor Officer Quarters). We then topped off
the weekend with a long Sunday afternoon with our cars parked on the causeway (hopefully
with some of the ladies we had met over the weekend) next to the Panama Canal, drinking
beer and jumping into the ocean when we needed to cool off.
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| Sunday at The Causeway Back in the Day |
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| Favorite Panamanian Getting into our First Car on the Causeway |
My
Favorite Panamanian entered the equation after a year or so and that put some
serious brakes on some aspects of that idyllic social life but she was quickly assimilated
into my group of friends. She and my Thai Best Man became close friends and we’ve
often wondered over the years how he was doing. Now we know and it’s led me to
promise myself I’ll stay in better touch because friends like him are too rare
a commodity not to treasure.
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| My Thai Best Man at the Causeway |
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RECURRING CHARACTERS
BR3 – granddaughter #3, BRS - Blog Reader the Sequel - second granddaughter; FBR - First Blog Reader - first
granddaughter, ABFA – Amazing Best
Family Athlete = my daughter in law; Wingman
– my son in law; Keene Friends 1 & 2
– friends since high school from my home town of Keene, NH; Soxfather - my brother in law; Great Aunt - my elder sister; Cantankerous Friend
– friend since grade school who likes to argue about everything, poses as
radical leftist to attract women; Kindergarten
Friend – friend since kindergarten whom I reunited with after many years; Pittsburgh College Roommate – high
school friend, also a “Minor Celebrity” in Pittsburgh; Deckzilla – our backyard deck which grew to monstrous dimensions
once my wife got involved in planning; Maine
and Virginia Musqueteras – two close friends of my wife – her US sisters,
my wife is the 3rd musquetera (musketeer); Riggins - also known as the Grandpuppy, son's dog; PanaGals – female relatives /friends of
my wife from Panama; Panamanian/Latin
Mafia – inevitable group of Latino friends my wife accumulates wherever we
have lived & their spouses; Neighborhood
Mafioso - wife's close friend and Panamanian mafia member, Favorite Panamanian - the wife (of
course); First Friday – celebrations
to mark the First Friday of the Week; Curbside
Girls – close friends of my daughter acquired during her single days in
Brooklyn
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