Went to lunch with a few people I knew as kids yesterday, two of which I hadn’t seen since we were kids. We’ve been in contact online though so it wasn’t like meeting a total stranger. That’s so much easier, you know, chatting up people online before actually seeing and talking to them again. You’ve already found the common ground needed to start and move any conversation forward. It was good to see everyone, as usual, and we all seemed to have a nice lunch along with good conversation.
Of course seeing these folks brings along with it memories of youth and the commonalities we all shared. Same schools, hang outs, etc… What we always find ourselves talking about more than anything else of course, are the people we all knew. They could be teachers we shared or had heard about, all the parents we knew of each other’s friends and most importantly the old friends themselves. Have you heard from so and so or did you hear what happened to so and so. This so and so character is easily the most popular person brought up in these conversations. It’s always good to hear when someone you knew back then is doing well and living the promised life of youth, it’s also pretty tragic to hear of those that haven’t fared so well.
There’s always the kids that you remember as the ones, when you think about them, you always thought would end up in trouble or dead at an early age. It’s really not that shocking to find how spot on your thoughts were when it comes to a number of these folks. It’s also a very pleasant surprise to find those that you saw as little else but future prisoners having, at some point, turned their lives around and are now productive members of society. Of course there’s the complete opposite of that. The ones you remember as the “good” kids that have somehow taken that wrong turn in that road we all come to a few times in our lives. I know I’ve had that opportunity to make that wrong turn myself and though I may not have taken the turn that could have led to great success in whatever one does, has indeed kept me out of the perils that many have faced. Granted, it’s probably my fear of taking any chances at all that has kept me out of both the great success and the trouble that I’m talking about.
Once in a while I’ll go to a web site of whatever states prison system I happen to be thinking of and will punch in the names of those that I thought may have taken up residence in a state facility. It rarely surprises me to see how correct I’ve been in these thoughts I’ve had of these folks. I think about the time spent with these guys and remember thinking, even back then, how these kids were going to end up in trouble. It’s weird; I was never concerned for myself. I knew I wouldn’t get into any situation that would lead to that type of life yet I knew a number of these kids wouldn’t have the wherewithal to make sure the fate that awaited them wasn’t a sure thing.
I often wonder what it would be like to sit down and talk to some of these guys today and share memories. I’d like to see how theirs differed from mine. Was their a time when they simply gave up and said, I’m going to break into this house even though they knew the odds of getting caught were great? I’d love to ask them questions like that among many others. How does the same kid that used to come over in the middle of winter and just hang around all day smoking cigarettes and ordering pizza from Primo’s end up with such a different life than me? We were all kids once; we all did the same things back then. At what point did either of us come to that fork in the road that gave them the opportunity to make such a horrible choice? We all have regrets, some more than others. Theirs, however, have to be so much deeper than any regret those that haven’t faced such a life have to face. I mean, they were just kids too, hanging out at my house or your house. Where did it all cave in on them?
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