Neighbors - a 15 post

The other day, I was with my good friend A who said, "You know Johnny. We really had a good neighborhood. We had it great back then. I really miss it."

Well, I had to tell my friend, "Dude. I don't want you take this the wrong way. But that's not quite how I remember the neighborhood. Sure, we were friendly, but really we weren't all as tight as we are now - when we all moved away is when we became better friends."

And then, because he knows I have a better and more analytical memory them him, he nodded his head and said, "Yeah, maybe you're right. Maybe because I was the last one out of that neighborhood, I'm thinking of my time there." (and it's implied with us out of the neighborhood and having dinners at my place and visiting back at his old house).

But you see, it also comes back to the fact that back in the old neighborhood, his wife was still healthy. She's the one who passed away from breast cancer just over a year ago after battling for 3 years. In fact, as I'm typing this, I realize that it was a definite line-break in his life.

One of our former neighbors became a big-shot guy at a well known computer company. So, as with all these guys who become wealthy, he had to build a "trophy" house - because how else do you measure yourself against your peers? The house is very pretty - but it leaks and has "issues". However, our rich ex-neighbor and his wife took a 2 year assignment (that has now stretched into 4 years) in Singapore. And, he needed someone to watch his house.

Our friends A & J were itching to get out of the neighborhood. The "gang" had moved away and they just didn't want to be tied down to that neighborhood. So, they took our ex-neighbor's offer to house-sit their house for 2 years.

But I remember that J found her lump a week before they moved. And then it was confirmed as cancer a week after they moved into their new house.

And, she died on a medical bed - provided by hospice care - in the living room of that million dollar house.

And my friend, he hates the house. He thinks the maintenance of that house is rediculously difficult. And he looks back to the old house as a simpler time where he and his wife were fat and happy.

I've told my friend that he does have a simplified and sometimes unrealistic memory of the past. His old, old computers worked much better than the newest computer. His old house, was much comfier than the current house. I do take the time to point out his gripes about his new next door neighbor (at his hold house) painting the eaves of the house purple - much to his great horror.

But maybe....yes I know it to be true, he would trade that all for time "back in the bottle", so to speak with his dear wife A.

Maybe that's really what he's thinking about deep in his heart when he says that "He really misses the old neighborhood and the people who lived on that street"

But, life has to go on.