Round-faced,
brown-skinned boy with sparkling eyes and a smile that could break your
heart it was so beautiful and real. No fake stuff happening with that
one.
House next door to the elementary school playground, right next to the wing of first grade classrooms, so year after year when I would be there after school to help Mom, I could hear the sound of that saxophone.
He did not take to it easily, so there was often more noise than notes, more sound than melody - So when he DID master it, it was by dint of his own effort and practice and passion
Because music was in the boy's bones - He was a showman. In high school, in that drum major's uniform, no one could strut the field like him. He leaped across that grass like there were springs in his feet.
And then there were The Bands... and there were some great ones (Salt Lick/Salt Puke) was my personal favorite - they were all better than anything you would expect to hear in a bar in Visalia, for Chris'sake!
And always, no matter how good everyone else was, he shone like a jewel. The music came alive in his presence. I always figured I would turn on the tv one day and there he would be, bounding up to the stage on some awards show because the world had finally figured out what we all knew... HERE was a gift!
Bright boy - bright man - big heart - and now we are coming to the end - to the good-bye part. I am so glad he was at that last class reunion. And I am sad and sorry I never said more - never did more - didn't know him better - didn't know me better. It is all, ultimately about ourselves. We are all too young to be doing this damn dying thing, All too damn young.
Let go when you are ready, Eddie... we will miss you - and you will never be forgotten.
House next door to the elementary school playground, right next to the wing of first grade classrooms, so year after year when I would be there after school to help Mom, I could hear the sound of that saxophone.
He did not take to it easily, so there was often more noise than notes, more sound than melody - So when he DID master it, it was by dint of his own effort and practice and passion
Because music was in the boy's bones - He was a showman. In high school, in that drum major's uniform, no one could strut the field like him. He leaped across that grass like there were springs in his feet.
And then there were The Bands... and there were some great ones (Salt Lick/Salt Puke) was my personal favorite - they were all better than anything you would expect to hear in a bar in Visalia, for Chris'sake!
And always, no matter how good everyone else was, he shone like a jewel. The music came alive in his presence. I always figured I would turn on the tv one day and there he would be, bounding up to the stage on some awards show because the world had finally figured out what we all knew... HERE was a gift!
Bright boy - bright man - big heart - and now we are coming to the end - to the good-bye part. I am so glad he was at that last class reunion. And I am sad and sorry I never said more - never did more - didn't know him better - didn't know me better. It is all, ultimately about ourselves. We are all too young to be doing this damn dying thing, All too damn young.
Let go when you are ready, Eddie... we will miss you - and you will never be forgotten.
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