Old Dirty Underwear

My old friend Don flew into town today with his lovely wife Pauline. Don is here to give a talk to a group of people that want the insight of a professional editor on their chances of having their books published. Don has been working as an editor for most of his life, so he should be able to enlighten this group. Don’s flight arrived at around 9:00 and we arranged to meet around 11:30 to catch up.

I drove down to his hotel and when I arrived, Don and Mike met me in the lobby. Mike is another friend from high school so it was an afternoon that I had been looking forward to. Pauline and Mikes wife Esther had already left on a shopping spree of some sort, I was just happy that Louise was working and making money instead of spending it. We got the initial handshake/hugs out of the way and then had to decide what to do. It was decided that a walk would be nice, and I thought that along the river would be the perfect place.

It is funny how with this group of friends, even though many things may have changed over the years, when we get together it’s as if the years just fall away and we had just been away from each other for a day or so. We pick up pretty much where we had left off, once we have caught up on health and family changes that have happened over the years between meetings. We just walked along the river chatting and laughing much as we did when we were in high school. We didn’t talk as much about girls or drugs, but pretty much everything else fell into line.

I don’t know what makes these people so special, perhaps it’s because we have no expectations that we need live up to. We find the conversations comfortable yet stimulating, sort of like putting on an old pair of underwear. Sure there are other pairs of underwear that may in many ways be superior to the old pair, but it’s the old pair that will always make you feel good. Well, unless we are talking about real underwear and for some reason need to go to the hospital.

 

I have never really understood why our moms would want us to have clean and new underwear if we are in an accident. For one thing, if I have been in a life threatening car crash, the last thing I will care about is if the nurse that is cutting my clothes off notices a hole in my skivvies. What kind of anal person would notice that kind of thing when a life is at stake? Personally, if I were to worry about anything, is if in her rush in cutting the clothing off she gets a little over exuberant with the scissors and snips the tip of “Willie” off. I guess a worse situation would be if “Willie” decided to turtle and they thought I was a really ugly woman.

Anyways, we had a good walk along the river, a great lunch at Spolumbos and on the way back we stopped in at Recordland. It was touch and go for a while there about whether we could get Don out once he had gone in. We managed to get out and Don didn’t have to take out a second mortgage. We drove back to the hotel Don and Pauline are staying at and I think Don was headed for a power nap. He looked at his watch and said “It’s four o’clock Ontario time.” Like he normally has an afternoon nap.

I shook hands with the boys and found it was a little difficult to put an end to the afternoon. I’ll see them again in a few days, a few months or a few years, and it will be as if no time at all had passed. Yep, my friends are like old dirty underwear and I wouldn’t have it any other way.