Perhaps even an opinion here and there…..
It all started as Facebook chats and excitement:
Sounds great and I remember our history as a bond of friendship, I just didn’t remember why. As I told Linda about who you were and why it was that there was a bond I couldn’t shake, except he was a writer-to-be. I didn’t have the guts to tell her you were a lawyer. I do remember you took a job in Syracuse managing a theater and I drove my 1959 Thunderbird up to share a dinner with you (I loved the little potatoes you boiled up in salty water….still cook? Got my last speeding ticket on the way home, they pulled my license, and I went right home and joined the USAF. Must have been around August 1964. On the twentieth of this month, I will have been out of the USAF for (pardon me while I do the math), took too long so I’ll guess “nearly 60 freakin years”. Here’s a book that you should get that I got on Audiobooks and am glad I did because the reader was so into his character. The author is Bill Bryson (have several of his) and this one is A Short History of nearly Everything. I can’t order any more of his until I read the dozen of others I’ve ordered and not read. I’m a horrible reader but as in golf, I love the activity of stumbling through a story. Yes, I’d love to keep chatting and don’t really care about email or chats; so you pick it. Better yet we can blog on my website. There will only be two of us and only if we are logged in but it will continue and we can make a lifelong goal of human endurance, humor, and intelligence through experience or “what if we had”s. Hold on a minute while I set us up…….time passes…….Ok, you can log in with Marko and the password is NodlokraM9862?? …….you should get an email once I hit enter and I’ll send you an update on blogging. There is also a place where we share pictures we find interesting. It’s all going to in the background of my site unless we get creative and start our book there.
From: Mark Olson <molson6982@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 11, 2021 8:08 PM
To: Ken Kunzman <kenkunzman@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Kind of got lost in the excitement of new “old friend”.
Hey, there – Talk about a summer romance…sounds like we broke up before our first date:)
Thanks for the smarts compliment. I’m lucky to have a good memory. Beyond that, I’m a plodder….a diligent and dogged plodder, that’s all. I’d trade some of my smarts for some of your quickness and wit, and I’d be ahead of the game.
I’m recalling our history a little differently. You’re right about my having a crush on Josie except that I would have called it a major crush. You and I met through Josie but I thought we’d become friends independent of her. Maybe I read too much into it. Anyway, to your point, I think you’re right about reminiscing. It wouldn’t take us more than two beers to cover all we have to reminisce about. Maybe not even that. FWIW, though, I started going to high school reunions when we had our 50th, in 2012. After fifty, all the classes are put together for an annual geezer picnic. I go to the picnic and finish catching up with the people I want to talk to in no time. But I’ve been getting together with a couple of friends for socializing before and after the picnic. We don’t reminisce much, except to swap notes about who’s died since the last year’s event. But the reason I like it and continue to do it is that we talk mostly about our lives…how we got to where we are, things that have made us happy, life’s disappointments, and sometimes an “if only I’d done this or hadn’t done that.” One friend tipped me off that another is a Hilary-hater who’s fallen under the spell of Trump so we steer clear of politics. Another friend’s husband is a Bible thumper so if he’s around we tread lightly in the area of religion to avoid setting him off on the road to saving our souls.
So I think it’d be fun and interesting to continue chatting. Our lives have been different and I’d be happy to hear more about yours. We started out in different bubbles, busted through them and lived to tell about it. I hate to break it to you but we’re old men and, more likely than not, we won’t live forever. It’s up to you, old buddy, old pal. If you feel like chatting, fire off an email and I’ll reply. Even if you don’t feel like chatting, maybe you could check in once in a while and let me know that you’re still on the right side of the grass.
On Aug 9, 2021, at 12:46 PM, Ken Kunzman <kenkunzman@gmail.com> wrote:
Got to thinking about our memories: We were still living in the old house that they tore down to put in the circle. We hadn’t moved (that I remember) so it was 1961 1962, or early 63 and I went in the USAF 1964. Suspected you were around back then because you had a crush on Josie and I was just an added benefit as she went through boyfriends. Not sure what we talked about but I will say that you were one of the smartest people I knew (and still maybe). Since that time I’ve always tended to drift toward people that know much more than I do and it’s added much to my life and successes. My 4 years in the USAF didn’t add much to my growth but did let me settle down a small bit. My career at IBM did much to change the bubble we are born into. As I thought about us spending time together and got overly excited I soon realized that we didn’t have much to reminisce about. Our friends, interests, and experiences were different. Interesting but different. Not wanting to change our memories with new ones, I have found it difficult to arrange for the new friendship to be so distant. As a military brat moving from place to place until I was 15, I value memories but have done little to continue to keep in touch with past friends. Not because I thought them “not worthy” but because it hurt too much to move on and I’ve never gotten over it. Social media back then would have been a great assist. Even today I have other important friends/acquaintances that I love to see but don’t unless it just happens. Making friends is easy for me but keeping in touch, … not so much. Now, I’m not saying I didn’t love our chats and look forward to more if you think them fun and interesting. I’d like to hear more about how you got where you are and even what you believe or don’t believe? Politics, Religion, Ideas, Dreams are what have always been topics of discussion when valued as information and one realizes (Ayn Ryan actually used this) that when intelligent individuals continue to argue/disagree neither is listening closely.
I couldn’t let our chats go unanswered.
I plan on living forever …….
So far ….. So good!