"An Ol' Friend"

I would like to take this writing to give a special nod to an old friend.

When I was much younger and fresh out of high school, which was longer ago than I care to admit, I had various friends and acquaintances. People I grew up with and so on. As you leave high school most of the people you see there daily are never to be seen again except maybe at a rare class reunion or a chance encounter. If your lucky you'll gain at most a friend or two that you continue to see or correspond with on a regular basis from then on. Such was the case for me. In the tenth grade I met a tall easy going tobacco chewing fellow with a great sense of humor. I wouldn't say we were the closest of friends then but we did hang out together at school and always seemed to share a few laughs. After high school was over I guess it was a year or more before I saw him again. About that time we had both enrolled in the local community college to try and figure out our futures and it was from there that our friendship grew. Me a newly budding guitarist, and he an already very good banjo picker and guitarist himself. Even when I was very young music intrigued me and it kept my attention span busy far more than most activities. I had been basically beating around on the guitar since I was about twelve and about the time Bobby and I where getting reacquainted at college I had begun taking music much more seriously. Bobby impressed me with his musical ability and later I learned a lot from watching him and my talent grew as a result. I guess it was the passion we both shared for music that struck up our friendship in the first place. With many friends you meet through music the friendship begins and ends with the music but Bobby and I were different. We had a lot more in common than just music. We both shared an interest in history, we both enjoyed fishing, and looking back our views on society and the world where probably very similar. We used to both enjoy tennis, as did his younger sister, and we all played together on many occasions. We hunted for arrowheads together, researched history together, and of course played music together. Lifelong pals I figured we would be. At 21 years old or so both of us still lived at home and the world seemed to all fit together for me. That when it happened. Bobby informed me that his father had taken a job in another state and that he and his family were moving. By this time Bobby, my girlfriend, and I had become close friends and we were both sad to see him go. It’s not often you gain a truly good friend in this lifetime. Time goes by as time does and we get on with our lives. My father passed away, my girl friend became my wife, I began my life in the working world, and the bills and mortgage followed. Through the years I thought of Bobby and his family often and wondered how they were doing......................

The technological era sprang forth from a silicon chip called a processor and the home computer was born. Now email was available to anyone with a painfully slow dial up connection and a funny thing happened. As I sifted through my spam mail one day I saw an email from an old friend. Yep, it was Bobby. He had gotten my email address I think from classmates.com. Now I was surely thrilled to hear from him after all these years and we corresponded for a time. After a while I guess we both got on with our lives again and the emails slowed to a halt. During that time I found that he lived within a few hours of me close to a beach in North Carolina which is a popular tourist spot and had always been a favorite retreat for my family. For the longest time when I would go to the beach my wife and I would look and look for his or his family’s number in the phonebook but was simply stumped every time and couldn't find it. I guess this went on for a good number of years and I pondered whether they had moved again or whether I would ever hear from him. Then to my dismay and once again out of the blue some years later I find another email from… you guessed it… Bobby. Again I was so happy to hear from my old friend and to see he and his family were well. This time we have stayed in contact often enough to inform each to the other how we and our families are doing. To discuss our lives and of course chat a little about music and history. Maybe sometime before we both meet the almighty we will find the time to see each other face to face, share a laugh, and pick a timeless tune. My first few emails from Bobby after our reconnection were pretty standard fare. How are you? Hope your fine and so on. As the emails came every so often I began to see bit of a change in my old friend. First from the words he would write and later a more obvious testimonial. Bobby had found god. I almost felt like he had slipped that fact in ever so gently in his emails so as not to shock me. I have to admit I never really thought about him in that capacity and I may have experienced a brief moment of confusion that lasted a day or so. You see for me I have been a lost soul to faith from time to time in my life. Not knowing sometimes what to believe and all along asking for a sign to show me the way and a wish in my heart to have the unshakable faith that others posses. I guess I still search and struggle a bit even now despite a strong belief in god and what some of my friends call a moral streak a mile wide. For me maybe it’s having never found a church I feel as comfortable in as I do when I’m in the outdoors seeing gods work first hand or simply being with my family. And although I understand that camaraderie and congregation with others of faith would help me solidify my own beliefs I tend to shy away. Maybe I’m a bit of a loner when it comes to something so personal. I confess that the hypocrisy I’ve seen in most of the churches I’ve attended has been a big turn off for me. You see in small town life you know almost everyone and you know almost everything that goes on. It’s probably my own sin of being to judgmental at times that blocks my way to a higher level of faith and something I continue to work on.

Going forward though and enough of me.

As I saw more and more of Bobby’s emails come through Iwas made aware that he was writing. Not cookbooks, novels, or scary fiction but of god. Bobby has written and published two books and many shorts on his own blog and although I have yet to read his books his blog messages are wonderful. As I read through some of his works I was captivated by his stories and the ease at which he relates gods message. He is a truly gifted writer and truly a man of unshakeable faith. I can honestly say I was proud. And as any proud friend should I have bragged on him to many others and given them the web address to his writings so they to can enjoy his talents. He displays the kind of faith I wish I had and delivers it in a way that instills faith in others as well as myself. Thanks Bobby for giving me a stronger faith and inspiration through your readings.

Treat yourself to Bobby’s writings by going to http://www.littlesorrel.blogspot.com/


And so to Bobby. This entry is for you my friend.
Stay strong in your faith and deliver the message.
Pick a tune along the way.


Keith H.