Photoessay #1248 - Hampton Roads

You've seen these people already. And you know that I like the name of this body of water.

But I want to return to the subject of our friends and also use this picture taken of the four OLD parents by the Asay's 27 year old son Kyle who came along. We're walking along the shore of Hampton Roads at Fort Monroe.

And we're chatting away. We all went to high school together (Class of 1970, Rio American High School, Sacramento CA)! We knew each other in various intense ways then. Matt and Sue married. Dennis and I married. And we're all still married. Was it all inevitable? Don't know but now we're all 58 (or so). Some a little worse for wear. Actually thinking of retirement. Parents (ok we went a little overboard on the parenting thing). Haven't seen each other for years.

We went to high school in California...ok a riff on mobility. Here, people who grow up here, generally stay here. Why would you leave? In Hampton Virginia, where Matt and Sue live now, many military installations so people come and go as they get transferred. In central California during the aerospace boom of the 1960s, people came from somewhere else and their kids figure that they're likely out of here. Why would you want to stay in Sacramento? Later, we realized that Sacramento had its charms. But really no coincidence that they live in Virginia and we live in Washington. I think they moved as Matt worked for a contractor for NASA Langley. We moved because I wanted to live somewhere green and Dennis' family originated here.

Here we are back together. Walking along the water. I'm enjoying myself and I think the others are also.

Plus I heard that they are getting a new puppy, a multi-colored 4 month old Pomeranian named Genghis.

And I can notice the 11 pounds I recently lost on my own image. Very heartening. Keep going!