20 years in 40 mintues starting.... NOW

So I go to my 9 year old's basketball game prepared for the usual excitement.  A bunch of kids who have had two practices trying to play something that resembles an actual game always makes me smile. 

I was certainly not expecting to see a friend from high school.  In the twenty years since I graduated from my Catholic high school with 87 other kids in a town six hours away from here, I have not once run into someone from my class.  But there he was.  Sitting behind me to watch his son who played on the team my son was about to face.     

We had not seen each other since graduation.  Let's just say that our class has never really had it together enough to get those reunions planned.  So we were faced with the challenge of catching up on twenty years while we watched our boys play four six-minute quarters of basketball

The last time we saw each other, I was a weird combination of nerd and jock off to college on an athletic scholarship.  He was a fun, likeable kid mourning the sudden death of his father while trying to help his mom and go to college.  And here we are now, closing in on 40.  We were both glad that we hadn't gotten too many wrinkles/gained too much weight/lost too much hair to be unrecognizeable!

First order of business was to size up the competition.  Knowing I was an athlete back in the day, the first questions out of his mouth were:
  1.  Which one is your son?
  2.  Is he fast?

Luckily for him, it didn't matter how fast my son is or isn't.  Our family is full of soccer players who aren't allowed to use their hands.  We aren't exactly adept at the whole passing, catching, shooting thing.

I didn't need to ask which boy was his.  He looks exactly like his father.

We then moved on to the most logical topic.  Who do you still keep in touch with?  Names that I haven't thought about in years came rolling back.  Can't remember the names of half the people in my current church, but I remember the name of the kid who had one math class with me.

We briefly discussed our spouses and children, and came to find out that not only do we both have 9 year old sons, but we both have 11 year old girls.  And we both seem to have kids leaning towards the nerdy side.  Just like us.

The game ended too soon, but both of our boys did well.  His made a 2 point basket, and mine made a free throw. We made quick introductions to our kids, a vague see you later, and we went our separate ways.  (It was 8:30 on a school night, after all!)

For twenty years my life has been full of moves which required me to constantly meet new people.  It takes so long to go from acquaintance to friend to family-like.  Even living in this same area for the past 13 years, people here have never met my family.   They don't know what I was like before I walked with a child on my hip.  I have to tell them and explain things that have happened to me. 

It was quite odd to go the other direction.  Here was a person who didn't know me in my current phase, but knows so much about me from my teen years.  We didn't have to explain things.  Our current lives made sense.  (Although, I didn't have time to tell him that we live on a hobby farm.  That might surprise him!)

We may go out for a night with our spouses.  We may get our kids together.  We may see each other at future school events.  We may never see each other again.  Who knows?  It was just nice to chat with someone I both don't know, but have known all of my life.

Have a lovley day!