Wednesday, January 19, 2011

WHY I LOVE FACEBOOK

About once a week I hear from someone in my past and am able to send them a message like this. This one went to a childhood friends mother; he had died last year and I had not seen him in 35 years.
Dear Mrs. Barnard;
Yes, I found out about Ken last year through Nancy Street just before the Reunion (it was my first to go to after 35 years). I had rather disappeared after High School, working as a Chef. I worked for Luminarias, up on the hill over the Turnpike for almost 4 years. Then I worked for Hyatt hotels for a long time, then Rivercrest and Shady Oaks Country Clubs. I got to be pretty good, carve ice and everything!
Mom and dad both died inside a year back in 87-88, and my grandmother as well. I had married in 1984, my mom loved her a lot, her name is Shila. she and I had two kids, 20 and 21, but we divorced in 1998. We remain very good friends.
I am not a Chef anymore, I write a lot these days, and if you look through my notes (almost 250) and picture albums you may get a pretty good idea of who I am these days.
I guess the best thing I can say about myself these days is that I have 912 days without any drugs or alcohol. They caused me a lot of trouble over the years, and cost me a lot of things I can't get back, but I am blessed to still be here and to have found another way to live.
It is very good to be able to tell this to people that I haven't seen in all these years.
I'm so sorry to hear about Ken. When I pass ya'lls old house on Cheryl I always remember the day Ken and I walked to Whataburger and got the biggest shakes they had.
They were huge, and we swore to have them every day for the rest of our lives!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good job, my friend. I don't love Facebook, but I would if there were more entries like that one on it.

UF Mike

Anonymous said...

I agree with UF Mike here. And I like to add: perhaps there ARE a lot of these entries on it but they get burried... I find it so hard to hear those good voices in the deaphening chorus (even with only 16 Friends!). It's like a room filled with 150 people all talking at once. Here, in this Blog monastry, we read and listen and appreciate. Beautiful & moving post, Steve!

(P.S. I like Facebook too, sort of, but just for the precise opposite reason: for me it is a place to be un-serious... to dick around.)

Martijn

bulletholes said...

Well, I seem to do Facebook a bit dfferent from most. And I dont really love it, i've just developed some kind of responsibility to it, and one I enjoy. I can change some peoples days, and they tell me I have, and about the time I think its not worth it, being immursed in all that lameness someone says "when i get a little down i always go to your page and it cheers me up"...
Makes it hard to stop when a woman in a wheelchair tells you that.

Anonymous said...

You're so right with this. And I am so crazy and ill-adjusted. I know I am. Society is just not made for me... which is just unfortunate, but I am not jealous but instead glad for everyone for whom it is. Well done.

Martijn