i love coincidences, so this is kind of long. sorry.
i was reared in a lower middle class / working class suburban home in a town neighboring atlanta. growing up, i was fortunate to have a great childhood. i cannot complain at all, and one of the main things that made it so great was the tight-knit friendships i had. out of the 6 houses on my street, 4 of them belonged to families who had a kid. in fact, each of us kids was not only an "only child," but we were all the same age. how rare and cool is that. so, we were essentially each other's siblings. i could go on forever about our adventures, but just picture the wonder years, the sandlot, and the goonies all rolled into one -- minus sloth.
my best friend was brandon. my neighborhood had a vintage feel and nobody ever moved. well, until brandon moved to north carolina when we were 12 (1996).
in 2001, he moved back to GA and we went to the same high school, but we shared no classes, and our schedules were just busy with different after-school sports. so, sadly, we never really made time to hang out. the love was still there though. in 2002, i went to college out-of-state and we had lost touch. no contact info. imagine: we had no cell phones, no facebook, and were not google-able. back then, all i had was a phone card and an email address, and i would not return to live in GA again. at best, i fly home to GA for roughly 2-3 weeks per year.
over the years, i'd occasionally think of him and search for him online. no results. one christmas when i was back home visiting parents, i even asked my neighbor if he had brandon's dad's phone #, since they've always been good friends. he gave me a few #s. none worked. oh well. :-( i tried, but i realized he's off the grid. he's probably in some nearby state, just doing construction or grading like his dad, and enjoying life in some remote, country town. oh well, at least we had great times and memories.
late july, 2009: it's a thursday, i'm living in boston, and tomorrow i'm flying to GA for a weekend wedding reception. someone told me of some amazing coincidences of running into old colleagues. with home on my mind, i casually think to myself, "it's no big deal that i can't contact brandon; i bet one of these days, maybe within the next 20 yrs, i'll run into him at an airport or something. it'll happen. well, there are 6 billion people, but we'll see."
the very next day, i'm spending time with sheley in GA. it's around midnight, so i'm about to drive her from my house to hers. as i got into my car, i realized i had left my cell inside my house. why would i need it, though? i hadn't lived in GA in 7 years, and it's midnight. yet, i run back inside and get it. it's 1:30am, and sheley and i are just talking. i had just brought my phone into her room, too. i get a call. i'm finally in the same city w/ sheley. this is my time w/ her. should i even look at who's calling? it's sean -- a best friend from h.s. why in the world would he be calling, and why at this hour? and, he's supposed to be at national guard training... so i pick up:
sean: yo, chris, i hope i didn't wake you! you won't believe who i'm sitting next to in this bar!
chris: who?
sean: brandon williams!
sean hands the phone to brandon, and we're so excited to finally hear from one another. brandon mentions having no cell #, so he had to just give me his dad's #. remember, he's at a bar, so i had to try hard just to hear the #s correctly.
the next day, i call brandon's dad, and man, his dad was so excited to hear from me. he mentioned that brandon came home at 3am and woke him up just to say that he heard from me. his dad and i reminisced on the phone for a while. he told me heart-felt stories about how every time he drives through our old town, he still has flashbacks about brandon and me playing baseball in the streets every day. brandon and i first started playing baseball on those streets 18 years ago. the seasons would come and go, but the one thing constant was our playing outside.
brandon and i met up, and it was like we picked up where things left off. brandon was just as funny as ever, and man, he surely remembered tons, from the colors of our first baseball gloves, to our endless adventures in our backyard woods. a few hours later, i was on a plane back to boston.
it was a great day. it was a really great day.
i was reared in a lower middle class / working class suburban home in a town neighboring atlanta. growing up, i was fortunate to have a great childhood. i cannot complain at all, and one of the main things that made it so great was the tight-knit friendships i had. out of the 6 houses on my street, 4 of them belonged to families who had a kid. in fact, each of us kids was not only an "only child," but we were all the same age. how rare and cool is that. so, we were essentially each other's siblings. i could go on forever about our adventures, but just picture the wonder years, the sandlot, and the goonies all rolled into one -- minus sloth.
my best friend was brandon. my neighborhood had a vintage feel and nobody ever moved. well, until brandon moved to north carolina when we were 12 (1996).
in 2001, he moved back to GA and we went to the same high school, but we shared no classes, and our schedules were just busy with different after-school sports. so, sadly, we never really made time to hang out. the love was still there though. in 2002, i went to college out-of-state and we had lost touch. no contact info. imagine: we had no cell phones, no facebook, and were not google-able. back then, all i had was a phone card and an email address, and i would not return to live in GA again. at best, i fly home to GA for roughly 2-3 weeks per year.
over the years, i'd occasionally think of him and search for him online. no results. one christmas when i was back home visiting parents, i even asked my neighbor if he had brandon's dad's phone #, since they've always been good friends. he gave me a few #s. none worked. oh well. :-( i tried, but i realized he's off the grid. he's probably in some nearby state, just doing construction or grading like his dad, and enjoying life in some remote, country town. oh well, at least we had great times and memories.
late july, 2009: it's a thursday, i'm living in boston, and tomorrow i'm flying to GA for a weekend wedding reception. someone told me of some amazing coincidences of running into old colleagues. with home on my mind, i casually think to myself, "it's no big deal that i can't contact brandon; i bet one of these days, maybe within the next 20 yrs, i'll run into him at an airport or something. it'll happen. well, there are 6 billion people, but we'll see."
the very next day, i'm spending time with sheley in GA. it's around midnight, so i'm about to drive her from my house to hers. as i got into my car, i realized i had left my cell inside my house. why would i need it, though? i hadn't lived in GA in 7 years, and it's midnight. yet, i run back inside and get it. it's 1:30am, and sheley and i are just talking. i had just brought my phone into her room, too. i get a call. i'm finally in the same city w/ sheley. this is my time w/ her. should i even look at who's calling? it's sean -- a best friend from h.s. why in the world would he be calling, and why at this hour? and, he's supposed to be at national guard training... so i pick up:
sean: yo, chris, i hope i didn't wake you! you won't believe who i'm sitting next to in this bar!
chris: who?
sean: brandon williams!
sean hands the phone to brandon, and we're so excited to finally hear from one another. brandon mentions having no cell #, so he had to just give me his dad's #. remember, he's at a bar, so i had to try hard just to hear the #s correctly.
the next day, i call brandon's dad, and man, his dad was so excited to hear from me. he mentioned that brandon came home at 3am and woke him up just to say that he heard from me. his dad and i reminisced on the phone for a while. he told me heart-felt stories about how every time he drives through our old town, he still has flashbacks about brandon and me playing baseball in the streets every day. brandon and i first started playing baseball on those streets 18 years ago. the seasons would come and go, but the one thing constant was our playing outside.
brandon and i met up, and it was like we picked up where things left off. brandon was just as funny as ever, and man, he surely remembered tons, from the colors of our first baseball gloves, to our endless adventures in our backyard woods. a few hours later, i was on a plane back to boston.
it was a great day. it was a really great day.
