Glad Someone Remembers

Memory is a strange friend. You're always grateful when it's there, but if it's not, you don't miss it.

I was talking to Ron Lucia, you know, of the Valley Road Lucias and he was asking about Patricia Snyder and if we had located her. I said, unfortunately not. Ron mentioned that he thought that Joe Jacelone had dated her and might have a clue as to her whereabouts. So, I emailed Joe, who replied that he hadn't dated her so he had no idea either.

He did have a story to tell about me however. In his own words:

Charlene DeShaw and I , Bob Bitter, and someone he was dating and you were in your car driving around Wanaque resevoir on the way to Ringwood manor to "hang out" for the day.  For some reason, you were stopped in the middle of the road on a blind curve. Another car came flying down the road and had to swerve to avoid crashing into us...... they stopped and were quite agitated and yelled to you "Hey, where the hell did you get your drivers license"?  To which you replied......."CHINA"!   I have never forgotten that encounter, and it was quite funny for all of us.

I told Joe that I vaguely remember that incident, I certainly remember the car, a 4-door 1957 Pontiac Chieftain, two tone blue. It sounded like the 16 or 17 year old immortal smart aleck that I was back then. The point is not that I was so funny, but that unless someone else remembers too, you kinda remember but just dismiss it as a phantom memory or you don't remember it at all. Or you think you made it up. We all have stories about each other and chances are that when we are told about it, we either don't remember it or we remember it differently. The important point, the most important point is that most of these things happened and someone remembers. 

I remember things about phys. ed class and the endless often hilarious indignities that Coach Alan Hubschman and Coach Patrick DiLemma subjected us to, collectively and individually. Slicing and dicing us with pointless sarcasm that would've been funnier if it wasn't so embarrassing. I remember the late Kevin Walsh standing up in homeroom with a wad of gum on his nose as punishment for chewing gum at all. Thinking back, you just remember the oddest things. These memories deserve to live. Get together with your friends and help each other remember.