Old Friends

 

Once Upon at Time

Once upon a time, the world was sweeter than we knew
Everything was ours; how happy we were then
But, somehow, once upon a time never comes again

But once upon a time it  happened, even if it never comes again.

In 1969 the four Merit Scholarship Semi-Finalists were announced for Rhode Island.  Not to make it all about me, but they included:

·        James Joyce, my best friend in grade school and a member of my Cub Scout Den who lived around the corer from me;

·        Barbara  Casey who sat next to me in 7^th grade and on whom I had an unrequited, and never expressed, crush;

·        Lee Giguere, my best friend in high school; and

·        myself. 

At the time I blamed Lee for myself not getting into MIT, which was my second choice for college.  Lee got in to MIT but was miserable there, took every Liberal Arts elective that he could, and graduated with a Bachelor Of Science in Journalism. My first choice for college was the US Naval Academy, but I failed the physical test because of my eyesight.  I had to settle for my “safe” school, Brown University.

The last time I saw Jimmy was in high school. The last time I saw Barbara was in 1971 when she was also taking the Federal Civil Service exam for a summer job. The last time I saw Lee was at his wedding after graduation from MIT.  But once upon a time I was Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon from all of them.