An Old Mans Rant - It started today...Saying Goodbye!

I have known this day would come and I have dreaded it...thought about it and worried about it...however, I realize nothing can be done to stop it.

Last night I got a message on Facebook informing me of the passing of an old college friend...I had really hoped to get to see my friend while in Ohio this summer, sadly time slipped away before I could get there. You see, I knew he was sick, diagnosed with a terribly debilitating disease ALS and was failing. Rest in Peace my friend Bob Pyke Jr., you will be missed.

Bob Pyke, Jr.

I met Bob after High School through a couple other friends, we all ran around together, Terrorized Kent State University and Akron University and various bars and clubs around both. We had some great times and surprisingly maintained contact for over 40 years, sharing our lives from a distance but always "In Touch". When my mother started to fail, it was Bob who contacted me and helped my sister and I through the myriad of paperwork to get my mother some benefits from Summit County which enabled her to finish her life with grace in a wonderful home for the aging and when the time came Bob recommended a hospice facility. Bob was a good man and dedicated his life to helping the sick and dying...it hurts to know he is gone.

While trying to sleep last night, I came to the realization that it is starting, that terrible time in life when you reach an age where old friends begin to leave, no not travel to some distant place, but leave this world for good. So we are left with only memories...

We now have electronic social media and have managed to be able to contact and stay in touch much better than any other generation, which is good and bad. Think about all the friends, old classmates and people we have worked with that we now are able to "see" daily through Facebook and other social media outlets.

As I look around the various Facebook posts, I realize we all have many, many friends who are battling various diseases and for some, their time is running out...today make it a point to make plans to say goodbye, before the time comes when you can't.

In the back of my mind, while in Ohio this summer, I have been planning a time when all my friends can gather and share some memories and in reality say goodbye...so make plans to be there. It is a time for all of us to be more aware that time is slowly running out.

We can reminisce and say good bye to some of our departed Barberton HS Friends. We have already lost 57 of our classmates.

I took this picture in 1972 and have always loved it...It is a simple picture of an old man barefoot in Fairmont Park along the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, it was a beautiful spring day and I could not help but realize he was going back in time to his youth...barefoot on a spring day! How wonderful. Well, today I am barefoot and going back in time....

Barefoot on a Spring Day!

The photo always brought this song to mind, one of my all time favorites by Judy Collins.

Enjoy the song....

Who Knows Where the time goes?

Didn't mean to be such a downer, but just reflecting on where the time has gone...

Stay tune for a more lively post soon, I am still having fun!

Capt. Jim - "The Wanderer"

Traveling and photographing the Southwest and Alaska!