Going back

An old roommate, bandmate and friend came to town today. I’m still not sure what prompted him flying up here from Phoenix, Arizona, but he wanted to spend some time together before meeting up with some other former bandmates and friends at a local pub/open restaurant market.

We went out for breakfast and caught up after 20 or so years of not talking much at all. When someone ups and moves without telling you his plans, it can be hard to keep a friendship up. There was also a matter of religion, or so I think, as he had found his way and I was not interested in walking his way.

Regardless, we had a lot of catching that was done and we had a blast sharing things about each of our lives. He had invited me to the pub thing, of which I was skeptical, as I was never super close with his high school friends and other bandmates. And they were always skeptical about his inclusion of me after he left the band we were in band together. I considered not going, but I am glad I did.

Because it turned out that one of the friends of his I was curious about, M.R. was in attendance. And she had brought out this little photo from her collection to share with M. S.

Hair up tied up in back lace, leather jacket, wearing what I suspect was a C⸺ Death “The Wind Kissed Pictures” shirt (Did I have one of those? I think I probably did…).

Ah goth in the 80s. Those of you who have been around know I had managed to avoid taking any good pictures during my gothic fashion period. It wasn’t intentional. My mother refused, and photos seemed to go bad during development. Or just plain got lost. I was also photo-averse most of that period of my life. There might be some people I knew back then who have other photos (like this one), but they haven’t shared them with me, so they might as well be lost.

I’m not sure that has changed, although I did pose for a modern day version of the same pose to make everyone happy. The smile on M.R.’s face after we were done was worth it. I’m not sharing it, out of respect for the other two’s privacy. Something that happened forty years ago? That’s fair game.

Anyway, I might have also been accidentally reunited with my old Tascam 4-track cassette recorder. The bass player from their band said… Wait. I think I still have that little workhorse. M.S. sold it to me and if you sold it to him… Full circle on multiple things, as we all shared contact information and promised to listen to each other’s musical recordings in the future.

It was a weird day, let me tell you, the least of which was that I had been thinking about what M.R. had been up to before M.S. emailed me a few weeks back to see if I wanted to get together.

Then, for her to show up with one of the best pictures to date of me from that time period…

Cue Twilight Zone theme music.