April 14, 2010

Once upon a Mesa

The suburban housing tract I grew up in provided me with many wonderful memories. One such memory was unlocked yesterday through a series of scanned pictures dating back to the late 1970's.

Getting in front of a group of people and making a fool of myself is not a big deal. While I can get embarrassed I always figure my quick wit will pull me through. However, getting up on stage, pretending to be someone written by someone else and parroting out the lines like they are my own, tends to tie my stomach up. So entertaining good, acting bad... for me...

In my formative years (read: High School), I was involved in, yet apart from the Drama Department. There was any number of reasons. Primarily because I was a willfully distracted student and my folks saw drama as a greater distraction.

They did strongly support and encourage my singing in Choir and Madrigals, without which I might have not attended school as regularly as I should. I guess I owe my parents many apologies for the angst I caused.

So I knew the Stage Crew, I knew the Drama kids, I was the Usher at many, many performances and did swing a hammer and grab a paintbrush or two.

A drama friend from High School posted a group of pictures from those old days on her Facebook page. This lead me to find David, the kid from up the street. An old friend.

David M. lived a few houses down from an outlet from our tract that was supposed to be a cul-de-sac. His backyard was next to the drainage ditch and the layout of his home matched my own. We both liked Sci-fi, and played Wild Wild West in his backyard. He was always building, forts and stages and other wonderful sets. He made a tropical paradise at one point, complete with Hammocks. We both started doing magical illusions around that time.

Still it was one of those friendships that lacked consistency. Every few months we would hang out then time would pass between.

Come High School things changed. He did hang out with a different crowd then I. However, I would catch up with him when I was hanging around the Drama folks. He was an artist, the best one I knew. Come graduation divergence of life paths occur and like so many others, I never really kept. track.

It is one of those things you wonder "whatever happened too" followed by the hope that they made themselves a good life.

Dave Wilder did just that and kept. very true to himself as well. He changed his last name (from Meek) to something fitting and as you can see on his link, is still very much an artist. He is also a cowboy, which fits his nature.


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