I’ve been putting some effort into reconnecting with old friends lately. These are people that meant a lot to me in my life, especially in junior high and high school and then some after that. I worked all the time after that so I didn’t make many connections that weren’t work related but there are some. Anyway, most of the people I’m reconnecting with are those I wish I’d never lost touch with.
And then things happen out of the blue. As Alex and I are learning saxophone I went into a local music store to pick up a second mouthpiece and some reeds. I talked with the guy running the place and he was very knowledgeable and helpful. After quite a bit of time there we started the check-out process. As is typical he asked for my name and such. I gave it to him and he started in with a few questions. Did I ever live in Tucson? Was I part of a particular church (I was but am not anymore)? Did I start the backyard on fire as a kid? The last one very few people know about and it was obvious by this time that he knew me.
Turns out it was the younger brother of my first girlfriend, my first crush. Julie is her name and she’s the sweet, beautiful, loves-everyone and everyone-loves-her kind of person. Her family moved when we were in junior high so like a good independent and headstrong kid I withdrew all my money from the bank, bought a bus ticket and headed off to see her. I probably should have told someone. Oops.
When I showed up, a day or two and a couple states later, her dad was there waiting for me. I was allowed to stay for a couple days but then had to go home, yada yada yada. Ok. So I ended up staying in her younger brother’s room – they same guy that’s helping me in the music store. He was one of my younger brother’s good friends. Wow, what a small world.
Ok, a couple more snippets about that trip.
1) There were no good “run away” songs on the radio during the trip, which was really annoying because just a few months earlier there were awesome ones 
2) They eat their oatmeal completely different in their family than in ours. Weird.
3) Her older sister complained that Julie’s boyfriend was allowed to visit (yeah, right) but hers wasn’t, so instead of staying a couple days I was on a bus the next morning. Thanks a lot, Eddi.
4) She already had another boyfriend (it’d been months since they moved) and I think she even went out with him the one evening I was there. It was no big deal, I knew it was over and for some odd reason it didn’t really bother me.
5) I don’t think I’ve been to Texas since.
6) Years later Julie was in Tucson for something and stopped by the house. Her parents and mine were friends and had stayed in touch. I found out that she was incredibly popular in high school, in part because “her boyfriend ran away to be with her”. Her mom had even had bogus wedding invitations printed up with me as the groom, as a joke and fun all around. It was pretty cool. She was as beautiful and fun as ever but I didn’t really have an attraction to her. I guess childhood crushes can be that way.
To finish the story – and maybe not – I sent her brother an email after we traded them at the store. I haven’t received a response. Disappointing since I was hoping to reconnect with Julie. But then, I’ve left the church of my youth and it can be very cultish – if you leave everyone thinks you’ve committed major sins or have “fallen away”. More on that later (much later since I live in Utah and used to be mormon – there’s a winning combination), probably much, much later. Anyway I can hope that the mails are just slow. It would be nice to see how’s she’s doing and at least say, “hi”.
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