I Remember You. Do You Remember Me?

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Had an interesting conversation about finding “lost acquaintances” and thought I’d delve into that subject.

Since the Internet arrived, we have been able to search for people by easily typing in a name. Sometime we find the person we were looking for and sometimes they remain allusive.

Upon contact, to reestablish whatever brought us together we send emails back and forth trying to find that exclusive feeling that drew us together then, but maybe not now.

After a period of time and life experiences, we are strangers. The feelings and emotions and shared thoughts may be forgotten or can be renewed.

And after so many years apart, do we remember the times together the same way?

Remember the night we parked in a vacant plot of land only to get a security guy to shin a flashlight in the car to make us move on?

Remember the day-glo basement where we first heard Eric Clapton and that secret room behind the hanging blanket with a line of white?

Remember the walking across miles of crusty grass carrying those heavy bags and listening to those terrible stories about each other’s wives while they drank out of their flask?

Remember the trip to the beach to watch the sun go away and bring it back by scaring the tourist and destroying the castle?

Remember the apartment full of fleas and bloody sheets?

Remember being stopped by a cop on a back road in South Carolina and thinking you were going to die?

Remember the little girl who stole your heart but you didn’t know it was missing?

Remember the graduation night in your robes and not knowing the words to your school theme song?

Remember being in a bad place and not knowing how to survive, but you did?

Remember when the day went by too quickly without any cares or worries?

Remember when you trashed your aspirations and settled for the inevitable?

Remember when she brought her suitcase to your apartment prepared to travel to Carolina to start a family?

Of course you don’t, because you were not there. Then again you were in similar situations.

That would be an interesting conversation, but we don’t go there. Instead we discuss what entertainment we cherish or what the offspring are doing or if we really want to get into it, what political propaganda we follow and how strongly we feel about religion or environment or some other cause. We relegate our lives by the material goods we have been able to purchase and the stacks of worthless awards we have acquired over the years.

Yet still, I remember you, do you remember me?