Thumper
11-16-2013, 11:09 AM
I grew up with a kid who was my bestest buddy in the world until we moved away from Orlando (where I was born/raised). We were practically joined at the hip growing up. In fact, his mom was our Cub Scout leader. We stayed with scouts from 7 yrs. old (Cub Scouts), to Weblos (10 yrs old I think), then Boy Scouts and moved on to Explorer Scouts when we were between 13 & 14 yrs. old. If I wasn't at his house, he was at mine ... and I'm talking almost 24/7 during the summer and probably every weekend during the school year.
Anyway, we moved out of state in 1967 when my dad was offered a job he couldn't refuse. This was in the days before internet/e-mail ... long distance calls were cost prohibitive ... and face it, at 15 yrs. old, we weren't big letter writers. What I didn't know is, shortly after we moved, his parents divorced and his family was on the move also. Once he struck out on his own, he bounced all over the country (much like I did) developing a career.
When I returned to Florida to start my own business (1989), I bought a computer (DOS) to do my invoicing, advertising flyers, customer letters, etc. I later graduated to a PC and good ol' dial-up internet. That's when I first tried locating my old buddy. There was no listing in Orlando for he or his parents, so obviously he'd relocated. He was the only boy of 4 kids, so I assumed his sisters had all married and changed last names (tried their maiden names to no avail). To make matters worse, he has a VERY common name ... pretty danged close to "Bob Smith", so I eventually threw in the towel and figured he was "lost" forever. Oh, every year or so, I'd dig around a little, but the common name was frustrating and I'd give up. I contacted a couple of old neighborhood friends I located, but all they could tell me was, "After the divorce, they moved away."
Well, recently, I decided to search again. "His" name came up on a chat site dedicated to growing bonsai trees. Naaaa, no way that could be him ... BUT, in his profile he had an October birth date listed. MY old bud's b/d was in October. He also had his town listed in his profile. Dang, this dude is only like 10-15 miles from me. No way ... this is way too much of a long shot ... what are the chances? I started to write it off as coincidence, I mean, we knew each other in Orlando ... we're 60-70 miles from the old neighborhood ... different city, different county. Well, what the heck, his e-mail addy was listed so I popped off a "is there any chance you're the J.W. I grew up with?" ... and added details about who I am. I'll be damned if I didn't get an answer that started, "JIMMY!!! My old best buddy growing up!!" Come to find out, I moved here in 1989 and he moved here in 1992! All these years, we've been neighbors and never knew it. He lives in the sticks and does much of his shopping in the same stores we do. (I'm in the suburbs on the north edge of town, and he's in the "country" north of me, so when he "comes to town", it's to my neighborhood). He sent his phone number, we talked and I went over to his place yesterday morning. We sat and talked for hours ... all day in fact, catching up on the last 46+ years!! Ha ha! I'll bet we said, "Remember when we ...." about elebenty-bazillion times yesterday!
It started getting dark and Lynn called to find out where I was and to let me know that she was working on dinner ... otherwise, I'd have thought it was still mid-afternoon. The time FLEW by. What a super cool day! And the weird part, our lives parallel each others in a lot of eerie ways and somehow, we ended up as neighbors in a town neither of us had ever had any connection to previously. We both agreed, we very well may have crossed paths over the years, but neither one of us would have recognized the other. I'd have never in a zillion years recognized him .. but I didn't realize I'd changed that much. :D
The next get-together will be to take him to my Mom's house and see how long it takes her to figure out who he is. That should be fun. What a neat day yesterday was! I seriously doubt we'll lose track of each other again ... at least until one of us is 6-feet under!
Anyway, we moved out of state in 1967 when my dad was offered a job he couldn't refuse. This was in the days before internet/e-mail ... long distance calls were cost prohibitive ... and face it, at 15 yrs. old, we weren't big letter writers. What I didn't know is, shortly after we moved, his parents divorced and his family was on the move also. Once he struck out on his own, he bounced all over the country (much like I did) developing a career.
When I returned to Florida to start my own business (1989), I bought a computer (DOS) to do my invoicing, advertising flyers, customer letters, etc. I later graduated to a PC and good ol' dial-up internet. That's when I first tried locating my old buddy. There was no listing in Orlando for he or his parents, so obviously he'd relocated. He was the only boy of 4 kids, so I assumed his sisters had all married and changed last names (tried their maiden names to no avail). To make matters worse, he has a VERY common name ... pretty danged close to "Bob Smith", so I eventually threw in the towel and figured he was "lost" forever. Oh, every year or so, I'd dig around a little, but the common name was frustrating and I'd give up. I contacted a couple of old neighborhood friends I located, but all they could tell me was, "After the divorce, they moved away."
Well, recently, I decided to search again. "His" name came up on a chat site dedicated to growing bonsai trees. Naaaa, no way that could be him ... BUT, in his profile he had an October birth date listed. MY old bud's b/d was in October. He also had his town listed in his profile. Dang, this dude is only like 10-15 miles from me. No way ... this is way too much of a long shot ... what are the chances? I started to write it off as coincidence, I mean, we knew each other in Orlando ... we're 60-70 miles from the old neighborhood ... different city, different county. Well, what the heck, his e-mail addy was listed so I popped off a "is there any chance you're the J.W. I grew up with?" ... and added details about who I am. I'll be damned if I didn't get an answer that started, "JIMMY!!! My old best buddy growing up!!" Come to find out, I moved here in 1989 and he moved here in 1992! All these years, we've been neighbors and never knew it. He lives in the sticks and does much of his shopping in the same stores we do. (I'm in the suburbs on the north edge of town, and he's in the "country" north of me, so when he "comes to town", it's to my neighborhood). He sent his phone number, we talked and I went over to his place yesterday morning. We sat and talked for hours ... all day in fact, catching up on the last 46+ years!! Ha ha! I'll bet we said, "Remember when we ...." about elebenty-bazillion times yesterday!
It started getting dark and Lynn called to find out where I was and to let me know that she was working on dinner ... otherwise, I'd have thought it was still mid-afternoon. The time FLEW by. What a super cool day! And the weird part, our lives parallel each others in a lot of eerie ways and somehow, we ended up as neighbors in a town neither of us had ever had any connection to previously. We both agreed, we very well may have crossed paths over the years, but neither one of us would have recognized the other. I'd have never in a zillion years recognized him .. but I didn't realize I'd changed that much. :D
The next get-together will be to take him to my Mom's house and see how long it takes her to figure out who he is. That should be fun. What a neat day yesterday was! I seriously doubt we'll lose track of each other again ... at least until one of us is 6-feet under!