and before you know it, there you are

the other night after i left class, i was barrelling down the freeway with the beatles blasting on the stereo, and as i'm immersing myself to the strains of "it's only love", i began having memory flashes of sitting in my high school best friend's room listening to the same song. perhaps it's because i just reconnected with said friend on facebook, it made me realize the impact those two or three short years of our close friendship had on my life.

our friendship began one afternoon when he stopped to say hi, and i asked if he knew the names of the four beatles. that chance meeting evolved into afternoons spent doing little else but listening to music, namely the beatles, the stones, the who, the doors, the ramones, and the kinks to name a few. we played guitar together, he drew cartoons, i mooched supper off his parents, and he also told me about the british working-class social phenomenon of the 1960's; the mods. we spent the next several years cutting our hair in the unorthodox style for the times (i.e. short and above the ears), wearing decades-old fashions, and listening to music as old as our clothes. over time, the fad wore off, and we drifted apart.


some fifteen years later, i had moved to san francisco, and i began to take an interest in the fad again. if not to actually relive my youth, but to perhaps fan some fond memories. i soon found a whole underground scene of various clubs and dance nights, and counted among my new found friends some of the most fantastic, warm people i have ever known. and indirectly, met the woman who would one day be my wife and mother of my child.


it made me realize, as i sped down the highway, the vast amount i gained from my friend, how much my life benefitted from him merely stopping to answer "john, paul, george, and ringo."


if you'll excuse me, i have an e-mail to write...