Sunday, November 02, 2008 Hillside Farm, Meigs County
I was just thinking today that it has been a while since I wrote anything on my Thoughts Page. I just haven’t felt thoughtful of late… well I guess I really just didn’t feel like sharing my thoughts. As time passes my body hurts more and well, I just feel my age. Who cares about that stuff anyway… I’m not the only one. While I was lamenting the end of the journey, whenever that might be I got an email from an old friend’s sister. When I saw that it was from her and that the subject was Bill Haile, I knew immediately what it was about.
Jorma, Billy died suddenly yesterday, November 1st, while riding his bike. Other than his heart, he was in good condition, full of life and energy and humor, and he enjoyed his job, loved his wife, was a very positive person, as you undoubtedly remember. I don't know any details about the funeral, or even if there will be one, but he will be buried near Tappahannock.
Sincerely,
Jane
Bill and I lived on Northampton St. in NW Washington, D.C. We both went to Lafayette Elementary School, Alice Deal Junior High, and we both graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School. We rode our bikes together in Rock Creek Park when it was still safe for kids, or anyone, to do that. We built model airplanes together… we were in Cub Scouts together and in the same Boy Scout Troop. He was my best friend all through school.
His was a southern family and they had deep roots in Tappahannock, Virginia. The Hailes had a little summer place on the water down there and one year they invited me to spend a couple of weeks with them. Bill’s dad taught us water skills, handling a canoe, driving their little outboard motorboat, fishing and the like. There is nothing like being young in the country. The Hailes had a beagle named Jeb. My dad had given me a .22 rifle… a bolt action Mossberg from the early 40’s. Bill and I would walk the dirt roads together with that dog. ‘Get a rabbit Jeb!’ Bill would shout, and Jeb would take off through the forest singing that beautiful dog song that only hunting dogs can sing. We would be ready with our .22’s, but you know, we never did get that rabbit. Jeb did though. What a dog! What a time! I don’t know if the Haile family ever knew how important those days were to me back then. Life at the Kaukonen house was volatile to say the least and I always thought that all other families were happier than ours. Such are the neighborhood dreams of children. This was in 1952 or 1953.
Bill was a year older than I. When we came back from my dad’s post in Pakistan, I was fifteen. Bill was sixteen so he already had a driver’s license. We double dated in their 1953 Buick and then in their 1956 Plymouth which was a stick and had a V-8. These were indeed teenage dreams come true. When I started to play the guitar, Bill encouraged me to come with him on a church retreat. My first ‘public’ appearance was on talent night on that weekend. I played, ‘Worried Man Blues.’ ‘What do you know about being worried?’ my Dad used to say. Teenagers know lots about being worried, but that’s another story.
Bill graduated high school the year before me and went to school at Virginia Polytechnic Institute… that’s Virginia Tech today. He left his 1939 Ford four door with the full race ’48 Mercury flathead in it to keep for him until he got back so he could sell it. It was a much cooler car than my 1950 Studebaker Starlight Coupe. Of course, any of those cars are cool today.
Bill went in the service when he got out of school. I went to school in Ohio and wound up in California. Sometime in the 60’s, I wish I could remember when, Bill spent some time in California. Indeed, I wish I could remember.
We really re-connected in the 90’s. I was working in Annapolis, and there was Bill. We rekindled our friendship and kept in touch via email from time to time. I remember on time he came to see me when I was working at the Birchmere. He had been diagnosed with cancer and was just beginning treatment. ‘Bring it on!’ he said. That was Bill.
I would occasionally see him over the ensuing years. Last year he came to the Ram’s Head Live in Baltimore with his sister Jane. I hadn’t seen her in years and it was nice to touch the family again who was so important to me as a kid. My eleven year old son Zachary was there with me that time and it gave me great pleasure to connect the generations. I was sorry he never got to meet Izze, but that was not to be. We talked about our lives and the paths and choices we had made. He pointed out that our paths in life had taken us to places where we would have never encountered each other. At the end of the day, our roots transcended whatever differences there might have been. We knew where we came from… our boyhood memories were steeped in the sameness of our time. Friends and loved ones are the foundations of our lives. Old friendships have the strength of bedrock. As long as there is one who remembers, they will endure.
I just recorded a song by my friend Roy Book Binder and I would like to include a verse of it here.
‘Winter, Summer, Spring or Fall
You got to go when the good Lord calls
He made us laugh, until we cried
But we never got a chance to say goodbye
Another man done a full go round’
Another good man done a full go round. Fair wind and following seas, old friend. I will miss our occasional meetings but you will live in my heart for a very long time!