I met Chad when we were both 19, and marching in a color guard in Dayton, OH. Chad was from the Dayton area, and I had moved out from Milpitas with my sister.
here we are (in a tiny, cropped photo) in our guard uniforms in 1990.
The next year, Chad moved to Milpitas to live in my parent's house while he joined another guard in San Jose. I, in the meantime, moved down to Southern California, and later to Madison, WI to march in other guards.
After we both "aged-out" of the color guard activity at the ripe old age of 22, we taught color guard together (with a few other friends) at a high school in Union City for two years.
Teaching color guard together in 1995
Chad eventually moved out of my parent's house, and I moved to San Francisco. We still saw each other on occasion over the next several years, but eventually, we lost touch.
David, Chad and Trina - San Francisco, 1999
Chad contacted me (via Facebook!) a couple of months ago. He had recently moved back to San Francisco, and, as bizarre as this sounds, was living in an apartment building directly behind my house (well, one house over)! Yes, that big, pink building of 6 or 7 apartments that sits right behind my next-door neighbor's backyard - the one that I see everyday when I look out my back windows - that's where Chad now lives!
So, we finally saw each other tonight for the first time in 6 or 7 years, and it was if no time had passed at all. We instantly reconnected, or rather, the connection that we had always had was still there.
San Francisco, 2010!
One of the first things that we talked about was the "promise" that we had made to each other when we were 19: we made a deal that if we were still both single when we turned 50, that we would marry each other. :) Well, it turns out that I married Dick, so the deal is off! ;)
It's so nice to have the opportunity to reconnect with an old friend. Now that he's so close by, I'm sure I'll be seeing a lot more of Chad again. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment