what happened

  Today I celebrate another year. Born in 1953, the last century, I'm enjoying what this new world and progress has brought. I have to say I'm a bit disappointed, no flying cars or space travel. Progress hasn't proven to be all that it was hyped up to be. Still I'm thankful I'm still here to complain. I'm certain I will receive many birthday wishes on my Facebook page and I am grateful for every one of them. They will surely be far more plentiful than any cards I used to receive in the mail. With postage now at 78 cents I can't blame anyone for that, plus a Hallmark card is about five dollars these days! I'm thinking I may have some cake and ice cream today but there is no party per se, and that's fine with me. Birthday parties are just too much pressure. 

  But it being my birthday my thoughts turn to an old friend of mine that was born on the same day, in the same hospital as myself. Growing up he lived less than a mile from me, next door to my Aunt Betty and Uncle Doc. I believe his daughter still lives in that home, a home that was purchased from Sears and Roebuck! Yes, that's a fact and I believe my Uncles house was also. We did play together when we were young and I attended a few of his birthday parties over the years. You know when I was growing up in the fifties and sixties organized birthday parties didn't happen every year. What I mean to say is, you might be given one of those two, maybe three times when you were younger, milestone birthdays and sixteen was usually the last marker! That was when my sister gave me my first and only organized, planned, invitations sent out birthday party. 

  I do have a photograph taken on my first birthday with that friend. His name is Barry and I haven't seen him in person in many years now. After high school we all just went our own ways. I located that picture this morning thanks to all this progress and technology. I located a digital copy of that photograph using a search engine and AI. It has been Seventy one years since that picture was taken. I suspect a brownie camera was used. I do have the original photograph tucked away in a box full of old stuff like that, a box I call my archives. A lot has taken place since that photo was taken. The home I grew up in has been demolished. Amazing to me that his house is still standing, almost unchanged from the way it was all those years ago. Barry went off to college and I went in the Navy. We both married and had children. I don't much beyond that. 

  As I look at that picture a good portion of my childhood is brought to mind. The friends I knew, the adventures I had and I'm back in time. I'm thinking I might use some of this modern technology to geo-mark the exact location that picture was taken. I'll be sure to include that in a description of the picture. I just remember it as being "down to soak hide." That was long before it was the "Hamptons"  Yes those Hamptons, long before they were a prize on the Price is Right. 

  It was in Barry's back yard. In the seventy two years preceding that picture the United States had fought the Indian wars, the Spanish-American War, World War One, World War Two, with the Korean war ending seven days after my birth. We have done better in the last seventy two years having fought in Vietnam and the Persian Gulf wars. A lot can happen in seventy two years. I'm looking at that picture now and saying to myself, what happened? The answer depends upon the day. 

                                                                                               

                                                    Barry on the left, I'm on the right.