We're on a road trip. A short one; only a couple of hours from the west coast to the east. We're flashing back to a time in our lives when our hair was a lot bigger, and our waistlines a little smaller. A time when we needed the rock and roll that flushed through our veins as much as we needed air to breathe, and the raw passion of teenage love fueled and energized us. It is all about the 80's today. Pop, rock, and other Decade of Excess has-beens trying to hold onto the last bits of fame living in the memories of middle-aged fans, nostalgic for a visit to their own younger days. We're off to the 80's in the Park Festival in Melbourne. But for us, this time, it's not just about the music. The more interesting story lies in the company with which we will be sharing the concert experience. It's a sort of double date, I suppose, which further adds to the sense of nostalgia. Cue the blurry-edged fade and flashback music...
It was the summer of 1989, after my sophomore year of high school. Several of my friends were leaving for camp, savoring the last year or two of childhood afforded young teenagers whose parents had means. My friend Dalia and I both needed summer work. We had earned our drivers licenses that spring, and gas, movie money, and cheerleading expenses wouldn't come easy. There was really no question about how or where to find a job. Unlike today, seasonal jobs for high school kids were in abundance in the 80's, and in sunny Hollywood, Florida there was only one place you could get a job that allowed for as much time to socialize as it did work. The local water park, Six Flags Atlantis, was the hangout for teenagers working and playing through the stifling hot summer months. Free admission with a guest on your days off, peers who ran the rides, and a semi-star-studded summer concert series at night, meant it was the ideal summer gig. We signed up to be lifeguards, the top dog position in the park (as opposed, to food service or customer service). They trained us, gave us suits and lifeguard tank tops, and we were official. I could probably write a short novel about the escapades of the days at Atlantis, but this is not the time, nor my purpose here.
 |
| One of several slides I operated as an Atlantis lifeguard. |
June and July were filled with teenage fun and drama. We became friends with lots of local kids from neighboring towns and high schools. There was one girl in particular, Michelle, who we started to hang out with regularly. She and one of the guys we worked with, Rob, seemed to be developing a love connection. I found myself doing a lot of go-between. Picture cheesy high school stuff like, "She thinks you're cute," and "Why don't you ask her out?" One thing led to another and they started dating.
Meanwhile, Dalia and I met up with two guys who were visiting from Chicago and staying at their parents' vacation home for a couple of weeks. They had been frequenting the park quite a bit, and we hung out and talked on our breaks. We hung out a couple of nights after work, and then they left town never to be heard from again. I thought I really liked the guy (young and foolish) so I was feeling bummed that my summer crush was gone. Michelle and Rob on the other hand, were in full summer fling mode. It wasn't long before they were trying to find a friend for me. After all, I had been their Chuck Woolery.
One day in late July, or maybe the first couple of days in August, I traded a shift with someone so Michelle, Rob, and I had the same day off. At their urging, we made plans to go to the park for fun. Remember free admission was one of the perks of working there. Rob would be meeting us there with a friend who they really wanted to introduce me to, and in a weak moment I agreed. I remember it as clear as day...
The two of them, Rob and his friend, were sitting at a table under one of the snack huts, chowing down unapologetically on chili cheese fries, an Atlantis favorite. I was so distracted by how gross I thought it was (still do- don't like chili), I didn't have time to feel self-conscious about the fact I was being introduced to a guy while wearing a bathing suit. To be honest, I wasn't blown away. I don't remember initial thoughts about his looks, again the chili cheese fries were in the way. He was a pretty typical looking kid of the time, sporting a summer tan and an 80's mullet. He was tall and skinny, and nice enough I guess, because I agreed to go with them all to the movies that night. We hung out for awhile, went down some of the slides, and I went home to change. My second thoughts about the double date were swayed away by my mom, who in true mom fashion said, "Go, it's a free movie."
Rob, Michelle, and Paul, picked me up that night and somehow I agreed (or maybe I didn't) to see whichever installment of the Friday the 13th series was out that summer. I remember being on one end and Michelle on the other, with the guys sitting in the middle. I was so annoyed that we couldn't talk to each other and I knew the guys planned it that way. The movie was unmemorable, except for a scene that showed boobs and made me feel extremely uncomfortable next to a guy I barely knew. The details of the rest of the night could go on and on, but this much history is enough to set the stage. In short, at the end of the evening, Paul and I sat in Michelle's driveway talking while Rob and Michelle were making out. We got impatient and had curfew, so I drove Paul home and we sat in his driveway, and talked well into the night. He kissed me. I went home. Paul worked for his dad who owned a sprinkler business, but visited me at Atlantis whenever he could. We started dating, and for the most part never stopped. In 1996, we got married.
Why the trip down memory lane?
Soon after that summer ended, so did Michelle and Rob's fling. Paul and Rob, friends since they were kids, started going separate ways. Rob was a year ahead in school, so he was off to college in Melbourne. There were visits during breaks, and Rob accompanied one of my friends without a boyfriend to homecoming. But within about a year, Paul went off to school in North Carolina, Rob started dating a girl from his old high school, and the friendship started to fade. There was no blowout, no fight, just an organic fork in the road to which they each went in different directions.
Rob married Paula, his high school friend turned girlfriend in 1994 or 1995. We didn't attend; don't recall receiving an invitation. But we knew they were somewhere in Melbourne. So in 1995, when we got engaged, we tried to track them down and invite them to our wedding. No one really remembers, but I think I recall finding an address we were unsure of and sending an invitation. We got married in 1996, and they did not attend our wedding either. So with no particularly hard feelings, like many childhood relationships, this one faded into the memory book.
In August of this year, Paul saw on Facebook that a good friend from high school was killed in a motorcycle accident. Paul was really struck by the news of his friend Auburn's death. They hadn't seen each other in quite some time, but they shared a bachelor pad in the mid 90's, and he and Paul connected on Facebook a couple of years ago and maintained casual contact, as many do on FB. He always remembered Auburn a caring and kind-hearted person, and news of his death was heartbreaking, sort of surreal. Rob had introduced Paul to Auburn back in high school, and Paul knew that Auburn and Rob had been close buddies, best men in each other's weddings. He got to wondering if Rob knew about the accident, but wasn't sure how to contact him. After several attempts over the years to find him on Facebook, he had been unsuccessful. But Rob's sister had connected with Paul on FB awhile back, and he sent her a message. She confirmed they knew about Auburn, and sent Paul Rob's number, urging him to call.
Paul reached out to Rob, and the two talked for awhile, some quick catch up, and even quicker plans. Within a couple of hours, after not having seen each other for over 20 years, they decided to road trip up to Pennsylvania, where Auburn and his wife had been living, so they could attend the funeral together. Two long-lost friends, one van, and 24 hours each way to catch up on 20+ years. The guys picked up right where they left off at 18-years-old. Oh to be a fly on the wall in that van...
They shared grief over the loss of their friend, and their remorse over the loss of contact with one another. They shared the memories of an entire childhood. Both still married to their high school girlfriends, both loving husbands and devoted fathers, they discovered that while so much had changed, so much had not. Rob was a soccer player, and now his kids play soccer and he coaches. Paul was a swimmer, and now his son was a swimmer. They were both Boy Scouts, and now leaders in their sons' troops. They stilled enjoyed talking about a shared love of music and their high school shenanigans. They discovered they still had as much in common as they always did, maybe even more now. It was as if the friendship picked up right where it left off, but with more maturity and appreciation for it. Both men really enjoyed the road trip, felt good about being there together, to remember and to celebrate the life of their friend. It's as though the rekindling of their friendship was honoring the memory and the spirit of the friend they had just lost.
Paul and Rob agreed to keep in touch, and now, a month later, the two will unite their families and introduce their kids, who are near the ages they were when they shared a childhood friendship. Life has a strange way of bringing people together. Now Auburn's legacy of kindness and friendship lives on in the two friends who were brought together to remember him.
 |
| The boy in the black shirt and a mustache, right in the middle is Auburn, the one to the left with the hat is Paul, and the one leaning in over to the left of Paul is Rob. |
 |
| A more recent photo of Auburn and his wife Janet in Pennsylvania. |
No comments:
Post a Comment