"YOU KNOW DAT'S RIGHT"

All through my life they have been there, two or three non descriptive old guys, laughing at a shared joke, or some forgotten memory stuck in one of their minds, some woman, some dice game, some war. A party not intended to include some nosey girl, or uninterested passerby, just something to laugh about, between them. You'd find them on a bench, a stoop, the old barbershop or like Mr. Bean, propped on a stool in a favorite cafe, or maybe their laughing about that old drunk that hit JuJu and got run out of Fat Larry's Juke Joint that night down in Tupelo Mississippi.

I didnt realize how important two guys like this were, until I saw this picture and began remembering that part of my life I left out a while back. The familiar part that let you know how you still loved your youth when you could turn your nose up at them and now realizing you didnt see many like them anymore. Like all the old familiar things, they too were passing. Drifting away on memory clouds that came less and less these days.

They'd gotten up that morning, went through their ritual of preparing to meet each other like it was going to a job, when in a way it was. The job to remember to meet a friend that might soon go away too. To put on garments that could be taken off if it got too hot or buttoned up in a chill. They called it layering now, back in the day it was just dressing smart for crazy weather. One opened the door and let the dog out, the other glanced at an empty chair in the kitchen table, then slowly closed the door and headed for breakfast. After they'd had enough coffee and the chill had left the air, it was bench time. That would take up the better part of the day, until it was time to go back home, feeling good about your life, your friend, your dog. A couple of things he said he remembered, but really didn't because you had to direct the conversation in a way to move it along when his friend got too hung up trying to remember the color of a button or some other name.

One put his cap on the peg by the door and glanced at the other chair, he smiled, betcha he remembered her. His friend opened his back door and called the dog, Pearly to come on in the house. He had named it after that sassy, big butt girl in Houston that time he left Mississippi and smiled, betcha he remembered that! His old lady never knew. Now, time to fix dinner, just for one. They each smiled remembering their day, ready to do it all again tomorrow, them two old guys.