The holidays are often a time for catching up. Catching up with yourself, with loved ones and with friends you haven’t seen in a while. I guess that’s one of the things that makes all the running around worthwhile.
I had the chance to catch up with an old high school friend of mine yesterday. Don and I hadn’t seen each other in about a year. As a matter of fact, it was year almost exactly. The last time we bumped into each other was when I was heading to Michigan the day or so after Christmas. He had decided to meet friends at a local truckstop. I had decided to stop there and put air in my tires before the long drive since it was on the way. Fate, luck, happenstance, or whatever you want to call it, just happened to put us at the same place at the same instance in time. We talked for a few minutes, but both had other things on our schedules so we exchanged contact information and headed our seperate ways.
This year, he called to let me know he was coming in to his mother’s for the holiday. He wanted to know if we could set aside some time to meet for lunch. I had taken vacation all week so lunch sounded like a grand idea. I told him to call me when he got in town and knew a little more about what his plans were. He called as expected. We set up lunch at Golden Corral for yesterday around Noonish.
Don and I got along during high school. He has many talents. He has his own unique drawing style with serveral self created cartoon characters. He has played in several local bands and can play a variety of instruments. One of the things he brought with him for me to hear was a cd of tunes he had come up with over the years. These were things he had recorded while on the road with bands, stuck in hotel rooms and the like. I have participated in some of Don’s silliness over the years and looked forward to what he had put together.
We ate lunch and spent a lot of time discussion similarities in our career paths. What had he done? What had I done? General conversations about life and how things are going. We left the table and went outside around 2 pm. The sky was overcast but the temperature was about 60 degrees. We continued our conversation while standing in the parking lot. Time passed quickly and soon we found it was 4:30 ish. We were still carrying on about old times and new. We decided we should head our seperate ways if we planned on making anything of the remaining evening.
I ran a few errands and headed towards home. I popped the cd he had given me into the player to see what treasure it held. Don’s antics on recordings can be anything from very humorous radio show type things to very serious muscial tracks. I wasn’t disappointed. The cd contained all music that he had done almost totally himself. There were fun songs made by recording various different sounds such has bike spokes clicking, bongos and fingerpopping. There was a comical birthday tune of Don’s own composer with a British flare.
Track 7 on the cd caught my ear. It was a somewhat touching song written about his father. Many of the memories he mentioned, I can recall from some of the time I spent around his family. I really hadn’t pictured Don as the emotional type of song writer, but here, in this song lay the unseen emotions about how much he missed his father’s company. I’d love to post the song, but I won’t without Don’s permission. Its the type of song that if heard by the right persons, could probably be recorded and distributed on a much more professional level.
It was fun to catch up with Don and kick the old memories around. It was even more impressive to hear some of the things he has ‘thrown’ together. I think there are recording artists out there today who wish they could get these kinds of recordings out of the studio time they are paying big bucks for.
I have had many fond experiences so far this holiday week. I don’t really see this season as being about the material gifts we exchange. It’s not about how bright and fancy your tree or your house is decorated or how many packages you have under your tree. It IS about the ones you share yourself with. Time is a most precious thing. Spending our time with those we love and cherrish and those who’s friendships we hold dear, is what makes the memories that last a life time. It is what makes this time of year special.
Thanks to all those whom I have spent time with. To those who I haven’t caught up with this season, there will be time in the future, for now, thanks for being who you are.