Last night, I up and took myself across the pass to my old, old stomping grounds. I went to see this group: Magic Moments,a 50s band, at a Concert in the Park in Pleasanton. 

It was a fabulous time; the band was excellent, the weather was perfect, and the venue was fantastic. People were picnicking in the grass and the front of the bandstand was filled with dancers, from the barely-walking, bobbing up and down stage, to people who’d been teenagers when this music first hit the airwaves and who really knew how to get down. People-watching was great, and the whole mood of the crowd was very upbeat and relaxed.

But what I was really there for was to see an old friend from High School and to meet his lovely wife. I hadn’t seen Bruce in 20 years, but when someone else in my class started up a website to prepare for our 20-year reunion, a fondly-remembered guy who happened to have been Bruce’s family’s exchange student showed up, and I started corresponding with him. I’d lost track of Bruce about ten years prior to that, but Ghigo got us all back together via email. It was pretty nice to catch up that way, but actually seeing him was a real kick in the pants.

Bruce and his wife Alyce had invited me out to see him play, and I was feeling just the tiniest bit nervous. As soon as I saw him though, that all disappeared. As bad as I am with faces, I would have recognized him instantly on the street, even out of context. It was great to see him, and his mom was there too, so I got to catch up with her a little. She was one of the alternate moms of the group; you know the kind, who’s always got a herd of kids who aren’t her own trooping through her house and is perfectly fine with it.

Bruce was an important part of my life when I was young. He was the first in a life-long series of platonic male friends that have left their marks on me. To this day, most of my close friends are men, but he was the first. We did a lot of hanging out and driving around in our old not-quite hot rods. Bruce was the cool guy (for band!) and looking back, I suppose I must have looked like a puppy following him around at times. He’s the one who got me playing the saxophone, although I don’t think he had anything to do wiht it consciously. No, I just thought he was cool and wanted to be more like him. Never mind that I’d only been playing an instrument for a year or two compared to the rest of the band’s five years or more. Never mind that I never quite learned how to read music, had no formal background to fall back to, and am to this day sort of tone deaf and definitely somewhat rhythm-impaired. No, the sax was the cool thing to do, so I stubborned it out and faked it a lot. I was so bad at it!

Bruce, however, was very good, and is even better today. The man seems to be able to play anything; at the concert, he was also playing the keyboard, which Alyce told me he’d just picked up, and singing while he did it! Man, I was always lucky to be able to continue to breathe while I played anything.

I loved Alyce too, and I can see why Bruce does. It was a nice change for someone like me, who’s mostly surrounded by single people or the unhappily married, to see a couple that’s been married longer than any of my relationships lasted but are still so clearly in love and so well suited for each other. It’s things like that that knock me up side my cynical old head sometimes and remind me that love does exist, and can be done right.

So here’s to old friends and new, and thank you both!