we walked right through the door
Today was a big day of transitions. This morning I dropped K off at the airport to fly to D.C., where she'll spend the next three months working at an environmental think-tank trying to make the world a tiny bit better. We're managing to see each other every two weeks, and I'll spend about two weeks there in July, but overall it's our longest separation since....ever? If Long Division still had a weblog I would ask to guest post.
After I dropped her off, I drove to one of the other myriad of Detroit suburbs to meet some old high school friends to drive up to our hometown. They built a new high school and are going to tear down the old one so they invited all the alumni to come up and have a last walk-through. Now, I didn't go to my reunion and am not particularly sentimental, but I was intrigued. So, I laced up my 16-year-old Doc Marten boots and got in my friend Lori's car with our other friend Jeff to drive the hour to get there. Jeff, ever the DJ and music archivist, serenaded us with new albums from LCD Soundsystem, Broken Social Scene, and MGMT, all while giving in-depth anecdotes about the music and excellent tidbits such as:
"Have you heard of Fucked Up?" -- neither of us had -- "They're like the Sonic Youth of hardcore punk."
By the time we got there it was early afternoon and none of us had eaten, so we decided to get some lunch beforehand. "Where do you want to go?" Jeff asked. "Somewhere with beer," Lori replied. We hit a little restaurant on the St. Clair river so we could sit outside and watch the big freighters go by. The service was fashionably slow and we made it through two rounds of drinks, a basket of fried dill pickle chips and other unhealthy delights. Talk was fast and loud, perhaps too loud for the quiet, small-town folks around us. We discussed lots of ridiculous high school stories to get us in the mood. Someone remarked, "I think I need one more before I can go back there" and the rest of us demurely agreed.
We finally left and leisurely walked the half-mile or so up to the high school. None of us were in a hurry. Going through the school was somewhat anti-climactic. I saw a few people I knew and visited all the old places I had spent countless hours in. But the wrestling room was gone, the drafting room and many of the other rooms were updated and renovated. So we left. We all agreed, it had been a worthwhile trip, but not so much for seeing the school or other people there but rather for seeing each other.
We drove back to Lori's house. Jeff played us more music (Duchess Says--I really like them). After parting ways, on the drive home I heard Jane's Addiction and Nine Inch Nails on the radio, just as I might've in high school. It was perfect. I turned the radio up and sang along loudly, windows wide open.
After I dropped her off, I drove to one of the other myriad of Detroit suburbs to meet some old high school friends to drive up to our hometown. They built a new high school and are going to tear down the old one so they invited all the alumni to come up and have a last walk-through. Now, I didn't go to my reunion and am not particularly sentimental, but I was intrigued. So, I laced up my 16-year-old Doc Marten boots and got in my friend Lori's car with our other friend Jeff to drive the hour to get there. Jeff, ever the DJ and music archivist, serenaded us with new albums from LCD Soundsystem, Broken Social Scene, and MGMT, all while giving in-depth anecdotes about the music and excellent tidbits such as:
"Have you heard of Fucked Up?" -- neither of us had -- "They're like the Sonic Youth of hardcore punk."
By the time we got there it was early afternoon and none of us had eaten, so we decided to get some lunch beforehand. "Where do you want to go?" Jeff asked. "Somewhere with beer," Lori replied. We hit a little restaurant on the St. Clair river so we could sit outside and watch the big freighters go by. The service was fashionably slow and we made it through two rounds of drinks, a basket of fried dill pickle chips and other unhealthy delights. Talk was fast and loud, perhaps too loud for the quiet, small-town folks around us. We discussed lots of ridiculous high school stories to get us in the mood. Someone remarked, "I think I need one more before I can go back there" and the rest of us demurely agreed.
We finally left and leisurely walked the half-mile or so up to the high school. None of us were in a hurry. Going through the school was somewhat anti-climactic. I saw a few people I knew and visited all the old places I had spent countless hours in. But the wrestling room was gone, the drafting room and many of the other rooms were updated and renovated. So we left. We all agreed, it had been a worthwhile trip, but not so much for seeing the school or other people there but rather for seeing each other.
We drove back to Lori's house. Jeff played us more music (Duchess Says--I really like them). After parting ways, on the drive home I heard Jane's Addiction and Nine Inch Nails on the radio, just as I might've in high school. It was perfect. I turned the radio up and sang along loudly, windows wide open.
random bits cobbled together by j-dub
4 Comments:
Since they're tearing it down anyway, they should have let you have a big party and trash the place, Rock and Roll High School style.
I miss Long Division.
It sounds like a cool trip with a great soundtrack.
I was definitely tempted to break something when I was in there. I was surprised no one else had done anything destructive to it yet.
I thought it would be a good fundraiser to let people pay to smash up the school. Then I found out that school was still in session for another week or two. Missed opportunity!
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