It An't Easy

Some time ago I noticed our support black metal support poles that held our den about eight feet up in the air were getting some rust on them.

That reminded me of another black metal pole that held my sons’ basketball goal up years ago. One day it just fell over. It severed itself at ground level. You could push a lawnmower over what was left of it. The pole at ground level had rusted and rotted in-two.

We were afraid our den might fall any time, just like the basketball goal did. After considering our options for months we finally called my friend Paul that I grew up with, who is now a contractor to replace the poles.

Paul and his Mexican helper came over with wide pressurized wood square poles and replaced each one. It was a long process. They had to jack up the room an inch or two at each old pole, knock it away and put in the new pole, then lower the jack and start the process at the next pole.

While they worked we talked about old times. I think he probably knows more about out old friends more than anybody else living (Larry Holcomb is dead). I think the reason he knows more is that he does a lot of remodeling for his old friends and at each site the “whatever happen to…..?” session kicks off. He learns some and teaches some.

And it was the same here. I found out that four or five high school friends and acquaintances are never more.

One I ride by her parent’s house fairly often and I have often wondered if her parents still live there – there is a little cement UGA bulldog at the driveway, with a red shirt on… if I remember correctly, she was a big UGA fan, and went there – she has been dead 12 years.

Another friend, Smitty, lost his foot in the Atherton Drugstore explosion. The last I heard he worked at a service station in Smyrna. Paul told me he lost all his money on a race car investment and he died ten years ago.

And other people I knew Paul said had died. It is sad, old friends dying makes one feel lonelier and lonelier.

Although if I was really close friends with them I am sure I would have know within a day after they died. Anyway, it is still lonely… fewer and fewer people I grew up with are still existing.