The weekend has arrived. Although I am retired I am still close enough to my previous career where Friday still has a special place place in my heart. During my career I worked very hard yet at the same time loved my time away from work. To use an old and almost worn out adage, I worked to live but did not live to work.
Back "in the day" when my friends and I were all in our 20s, we declared Thursday as the new Friday. Our thought process was that no matter how hard we might celebrate on a Thursday night, we could make it through Friday because Friday was the last day of the work week. I cannot tell you the number of times I had to run home during lunch on a Friday in order to nap because I'd had way to much fun on Thursday night!
Then the years passed and we all moved into our 30s, 40s and 50s. For a good many years while I worked in the Silicon Valley a group of us guys would get together on every Friday night at this dive bar called Renegades. I am not sure how it all started any longer but I do know that a co-worker and I were the original two...for around 11am on any given Friday one of us would get an email from the other saying "want to get together for 'one' after work?" The response was always YES and after work we would head off to Renegades for that Friday cocktail. Then there was Charlie that joined us...and then Greg...and before long there were 16 or so of us that would meet at the bar on Friday nights. We called ourselves "The Friday Night Social Club." At one point in time we even had our "Friday Night Social Club" Christmas parties...which started with all of us meeting at Renegades and then moving on to a nice restaurant for our dinner.
Good times accompanied by good memories and as I am typing this I am smiling at the thoughts and memories flowing through my mind.
Then the AIDS epidemic began affecting our group...our Friday Night Social Club. When the epidemic was done with our group...of the 16 or so of us...only three of us were left: Charlie, Greg and I. Those few years were very painful as friend after friend died...sometimes two in one week. Eventually I changed jobs, Charlie retired and moved to Las Vegas and that then Greg was the only one left in San Jose. Charlie, Greg and I did meet at Renegades one last time a few years later. The three of us were sitting quietly at the bar having a drink surrounded by the ghosts of our friends and I believe it was Charlie that actually said "There are too many ghosts in here...let's go" and with that we finished up our drinks and left. That was the last time that the three of us...the last of the Friday Night Social Club met.
After that Friday nights became nights spent at home. I remember the extremely satisfied feeling of getting home, triple locking the front door, building a fire in the fireplace, and unpacking groceries...the work week was done and the weekend was at hand.
So, now many many years later I am retired and at my wee little cottage in the woods on this Friday. I am thankful for all the good memories accumulated over the years. Each and every one of these memories is a blessing.
So, what am I doing this Friday evening? I think I will bake a pie. I think it will be a blueberry pie.
E'nuff!
Back "in the day" when my friends and I were all in our 20s, we declared Thursday as the new Friday. Our thought process was that no matter how hard we might celebrate on a Thursday night, we could make it through Friday because Friday was the last day of the work week. I cannot tell you the number of times I had to run home during lunch on a Friday in order to nap because I'd had way to much fun on Thursday night!
Then the years passed and we all moved into our 30s, 40s and 50s. For a good many years while I worked in the Silicon Valley a group of us guys would get together on every Friday night at this dive bar called Renegades. I am not sure how it all started any longer but I do know that a co-worker and I were the original two...for around 11am on any given Friday one of us would get an email from the other saying "want to get together for 'one' after work?" The response was always YES and after work we would head off to Renegades for that Friday cocktail. Then there was Charlie that joined us...and then Greg...and before long there were 16 or so of us that would meet at the bar on Friday nights. We called ourselves "The Friday Night Social Club." At one point in time we even had our "Friday Night Social Club" Christmas parties...which started with all of us meeting at Renegades and then moving on to a nice restaurant for our dinner.
Good times accompanied by good memories and as I am typing this I am smiling at the thoughts and memories flowing through my mind.
Then the AIDS epidemic began affecting our group...our Friday Night Social Club. When the epidemic was done with our group...of the 16 or so of us...only three of us were left: Charlie, Greg and I. Those few years were very painful as friend after friend died...sometimes two in one week. Eventually I changed jobs, Charlie retired and moved to Las Vegas and that then Greg was the only one left in San Jose. Charlie, Greg and I did meet at Renegades one last time a few years later. The three of us were sitting quietly at the bar having a drink surrounded by the ghosts of our friends and I believe it was Charlie that actually said "There are too many ghosts in here...let's go" and with that we finished up our drinks and left. That was the last time that the three of us...the last of the Friday Night Social Club met.
After that Friday nights became nights spent at home. I remember the extremely satisfied feeling of getting home, triple locking the front door, building a fire in the fireplace, and unpacking groceries...the work week was done and the weekend was at hand.
So, now many many years later I am retired and at my wee little cottage in the woods on this Friday. I am thankful for all the good memories accumulated over the years. Each and every one of these memories is a blessing.
So, what am I doing this Friday evening? I think I will bake a pie. I think it will be a blueberry pie.
E'nuff!
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