if I ever lose my mouth, I won’t have to talk...

Song Of The Moment

I'll start by telling you of my "walk" last week. I was up early last Friday to make the walk into town in order to pay some bills (a walk I hope NOT TO DO every 2 weeks, I might add!). My walk to town brought me by many familiar places, but, more so, it took me by every school I had attended in youth.

Firstly, Charlottetown Rural...my old high school. Walking by it, I remembered walking to the corner store across the highway to get lunch and rent video games for "afterschool entertainment". (Super Mario Bros 3...yeah baby! Castlevania and MegaMan.....NES, you served me well). When I think of all the people I knew from high school, they all feel so familiar to me still, even though I stopped talking to them all when we all went our seperate ways once we all graduated. Names like Donald MacDonald, Duanne Pound, Tracey Burke, etc....they still bring up familiar memories to me. Duanne calling me "Hugh Dog" for the full 3 years....still laugh when I think of it now

Next on my walk was my grade school, Sherwood Elementary. I walked past the 6 doors for that school and remembered how each Grade had a particular door. Grade 3 was my favorite grade, only because that door had TWO cross bars by it that you could climb up and do hanging acts off of it. I remember Donald daring me to climb up one and jump down. 3 days before I could go back to school after that one...

Lastly was the middle school, Stonepark Junior High, where I learned things like German, philosophy and such things that a kid my age just did not think of as useful at that time in my Life. .. MAN, I wish I had paid more attention in German class now, remembering the Kraus's, neighbours I had 6 years ago. It was here that I also FULLY discovered girls and also discovered that I was an awkward kid around them ... heh, good memories.

Anyways, getting back to my rambling here....after my walk to town, I went to work. An old school friend works here, coincidentally. Went out to have a cig and was talking to him. The topic turned into people we knew in High school. Steve works at the DVA building and was remarking on how many people we both knew from school tht he has seen at the DVA (yes, the DVA works with death incidents). He kept listing off names, names of people I still had fresh in mind, names of people who I joked with, names of girls I had a crush on,.... names.

Duanne Pound was killed in a windsurfing accident. He went too far out and the current got him,...pulled him under. He was only in his late 20's. Others died of cancer, vehicle accidents, etc. I guess, at that point, I was reminded of my own mortality, my own limited time on this earth. Thinking of this and also knowing that I lasted longer then quite a few people I went to school with does not make me feel accomplished. The opposite actually. I feel like I should do as much as I can with the time I have left before I become just another name for Steve to remark about as "not with us anymore"...another grave-maker beyond a burned bridge, so to speak...












Btw, was going to have "Alma Mater" by Alice Cooper as the song for this posting but, it just doesn't give the same meaning, the feeling of hopelessness at ones own destiny and the acceptance of it.

Ciao