I never go back to my old posts to find a repeat of an old topic. I rather like the idea that my posts, although by the same author each day, give a life to my blog to which a constant growth can not only be discerned but expected by the readership of this blog. So, if a loyal reader happens upon the same topic and I have a tune that is slightly different it most likely is because it is the same song just a different verse.
I never go back to dates in time. I tend to remember a moment rather than a year. So if I have different dates than what it really is I confess that now. Accuracy is not as important as the feeling that it imparts. And I have a feeling for a moment in my life almost 40 years ago that will bring new meaning to me soon since I am going to meet a schoolboy chum, teammate, and great adventurer for the first time since his wedding day. Over the years we have spoken by phone upon occasion. I think we have exchanged cards plus recently we have been doing the email and Facebook thing. Rex has a twin brother Randy. I have been in correspondence with him by email. Rex and Randy had a rather large family and becoming entrenched in the family fun for the few moments that we did have…. was and is a treasure for me.
I never go back to Larchwood, Iowa without thinking of the grade school i attended in that town. It was a brave new world for me. It would be a far cry from the country school education with the same 27 kids that I went to Kindergarten with. It was a congregation of kids from four towns. New people and names to boot. It was here that I first met Rex. On the play ground with he and his brother, Randy. I could see the family resemblance but they did not look like the Klien twins, who were practically identical. They lived on a farm with a large family and a Grandpa that would later come to class and talk to us about how things were after the civil war. Grandpa Rockhill was in his nineties when he spoke to our class. He was an interesting old man. My remaining Grandfather had died in 1962. My mother’s father died before I was born in the 40′s. So Rex was someone that I wanted to be around. He had a grandpa, a large family, lived on a dairy farm what was not to like?
I never go back to track team memories but my upcoming re-union with Rex has brought them to the fore. In watching my young son Kellen run it brings to mind my own athletic prowess on the tartan turf. It was in Lester, Iowa that this memory starts. Every boy in the class is wanting to make the team. Because of that fact it was necessary for the coaches to seperate the wheat from the chaff. They set up a mile run that had to be completed in 8 minutes or less. Anyone over the 8 minute mark would be cut from the team. My son often asks me why he is the slowest runner in his class. My answer is always hopeful but usually lacks any real enthusiasm for I know that the need for speed will not be an inherited trait passed on to my son from my gene pool. Needless to say, I did not make the cut that day. But Rex did. I remember that he and his brother Randy were pretty fleet of feet back in those days. Some where along the track season Rex was going to compete in the 220 yard dash and he spoke to our Coach and said, “Next year I am going to run a 27 second 220 yard dash.” He was running in the 29′s then and I remember at the time thinking, “Boy I wish I could run that fast.” I never did run that fast but never lost the hope to try. That is what I want for my son. A friend who helps him never lose hope to try.
I never go back to memories to change a defining moment. Rex is a part of my defining moment on the road of life. He and I had similar dreams as to what one can do upon graduation of high school. We both partook in a little meeting held by an FBI agent in one of the school job fairs that we attended. We filled out the forms and awaited a response from the FBI. Rex and I were both offered jobs with the FBI. Rex decided to take the job in Washington and I chickened out. I instead went on to college. Only later to drop out of school when my need for speed left me a second string football player who was never going to become a professional. I wonder how it would have been had Rex and I gone together to start a new adventure. It was a short time after arriving that Rex met and married his wife from Kansas in Kansas City. I traveled with mutual friends, Stan Leuthold, Ruth Johnson (who later married), and Pamela Bunte (who I later married)to attend his wedding. None of the travelers is still married to their respective fiance’ almost 40 years later but Rex still is. He never looked back and his adventure continued. He sought out and obtained a job as a policeman. He held that position for enough years to retire. Little did we know what we as couples were headed into as we flowed down the river of life. The currents of the river of life pulled us to different shores of the same river. Our lives have had a separation of physical self but my excitement for meeting up with a long lost friend cannot be measured. I look forward to our meeting. I hope that this will be another moment to be remembered as one that can never go back.
No comments yet.