Yesterday, you may have noticed there was no post. It is rare that I don\u2019t post my daily blog. Since I started the blog, I only missed one other\u2014Valentine\u2019s Day. I would say, \u201cFor obvious reasons,\u201d but it would not be an honest statement. On Valentine\u2019s Day, I hit the wrong switch in the software and well, just missed a day.<\/p>\n
I missed yesterday for truly legitimate reasons. My best friend\u2019s father passed and I was with them.<\/p>\n
Yesterday we were at their house, a place that is also an anchor in my life. Last night, we were up late talking about all kinds of things from our lifetimes, which intermeshed with one another and went back over five decades.<\/p>\n
What a strange feeling it was to be in my friend\u2019s juvenile bedroom. It was a place of sibling shenanigans\u2014shenanigans which were always getting us into trouble and stretching parental nerves. We were children then, and we dreamed dreams, we learned things others did not, could not, or were not interested in (yes, I guess we were nerds).<\/p>\n
As we stood in my friend\u2019s bedroom talking about grownup things, now with his 25-year-old son, I looked around. As with other things in my life, at the time the room seemed large. Now, it was small.<\/p>\n
I thought of those times from long ago; the discussions that went far beyond the topics of what typical teenagers discussed. When most teenagers were talking about sports, girls, and the mundane details of life, we discussed dinosaurs, space travel to include Mars, Saturn, and other places beyond our solar system. \u00a0We talked of aerodynamics and flying and it was my friend who introduced me to World War I aircraft, creating my penchant for that period in aviation history. He also introduced me to Alberto Santos-Dumont and his creation of the Demoiselle.\u00a0<\/p>\n
My friends were all much better read than I and consequently, they were very naturally gifted writers. Much better writers than I could ever\u00a0hope to become. I realized this one day when I read my friend\u2019s composition about red sneakers stuck in a closet talking to one another…thought I had forgotten about that, didn\u2019t you. No, I have not. Never will.<\/p>\n
I remember when we turned 18, I introduced the boys to flying real airplanes. I can still remember the look of horror on the faces of their parents. I took their precious boys out to a place where they could learn how to fly in rickety 25-year-old steel tube and fabric airplanes. And on top of that, the flight instructor was a 71-year-old man.<\/p>\n
Yeah, I think I was on their list for quite a while after that.<\/p>\n
But I was always welcomed into their home.<\/p>\n
Until we meet again, Papa…<\/p>\n
-30-<\/p>\n
\u00a9 2011 J. Clark<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Yesterday, you may have noticed there was no post. It is rare that I don\u2019t post my daily blog. Since I started the blog, I only missed one other\u2014Valentine\u2019s Day. I would say, \u201cFor obvious reasons,\u201d but it would not … Continue reading