Lester died young, of lung cancer, and after he passed my father moved on to other foursomes and other courses. Maybe ten years later, my sister got married. My new brother-in-law was a golfer, had grown up on Long Island, didn’t want a bachelor party (he was too old for that, this was his second marriage), but he thought a golf outing would be a nice way to celebrate. I tried to arrange an outing at Bethpage, but dealing with the state is just a huge pain in the ass, so on a gorgeous May morning we found ourselves, about two dozen of us, milling around the first tee at Lido instead. It was a great day. At the turn, we remixed the foursomes and I ended up playing the back nine with my Dad. He was quiet and pensive, and it took me a few holes to figure out why, but eventually I realized that he couldn’t walk that course alone: his friend was with him every step of the way.

Jeez, Will, I never realized till now that golf was about mortality.

[8] bp1, that’s what it’s all about. Keep up those traditions.

[9] Thanks Diane. It was definitely cathartic. One buddy in the group and I got rid of some of the sadness of the wake Saturday night at the Rush concert. The writing was a good release, though.

I’ve lost touch with all my college friends, but there is a small group that I gather with once a year at a lake up north for a weekend of fishing and true escapism. We catch up with each other’s lives, but mostly talk about past trips, fishing, and other nonsense we’ve experienced in the past year. I treasure those weekends, and look forward to each year the minute I get home. We’re not getting any younger, and there will come a time when one of us can’t make it. That will be a terribly sad day that I don’t like to contemplate.

We used to compete all weekend – most fish, biggest fish, first fish, etc. etc. – but most of that has faded away. Now all we care about is getting there, enjoying ourselves, and just spending time together. There are a bunch of long honored traditions, and plenty of inside jokes and old stories. Everyone has their job, their list of junk to bring, and it stays the same year to year.

Those two days go by far too quickly.

it’s gotten harder and harder to co-ordinate though, for a multitude of reasons. we had a ‘partial’ reunion for a wedding in philly last month. we’re hoping to have a massive one at the school next summer…

my grandpa used to get up before dawn to play with his ‘quartet’ at eisenhower. he played at sawgrass in florida, too. i’m with alex about the golf thing, but i’m glad you have a nice way to honor your friend.

Thanks.