Tuesday, October 25, 2005
(song you don't want stuck in your head)
I've had some unusual "small world" things happen to me...some of which I documented here, I think. Where's that link? Hmm, can't find it. Maybe I didn't write about that.
Anyway, here's the latest: Nicola and I took Lindsay for a stroll around the block last night, and we ended up talking to two neighbors around the corner. One says that I look familiar, and eventually we figured out that we knew each other back in high school, when I went to Chatham Township HS and she went to Chatham Boro High School. She even dated a good friend of mine from back then. I'm giving the short version to spare you the boring details, but I was quite amazed to have found out that I'm living around the corner from someone I knew 18 years ago and probably haven't seen since. Spooky.
And we're not talking a booming metropolis when we speak of Chatham -- population about 17,500 between the two little towns, according to the 2000 census. The schools were separate back then but have since merged; I assume much of the Township vs. Boro rivalry is now lost.
What a truly wonderful place to grow up, and I believed that long before Money magazine weighed in on the issue. We moved there when I was in sixth grade -- not too late to find a way to fit into what was a pretty cliquish school environment. What made it so good...interesting thought. It wasn't the diversity: one person of color in my class, and the Jews all fled to private school. In this WASPy town, Catholics counted as diversity, I think, which should have made my Unitarian, Democratic family stand out more than we did. This is a town, too, that fought the inclusion of "affordable" housing in the condo development down by the river. So not the most tolerant place, really. But those are the reflections of an outsider, peering back into a cozy suburban town with age and experience providing perspective.
Back then, I was nearly ignorant of the town's shortcomings, such as they are. What made Chatham home to me was -- no surprise -- my friends. I can count at least a dozen people who I considered good friends in high school, and we continued our closeness for years after graduation. We visited each other at college and in our first apartments, we traveled en masse to each other's weddings (Boston, Kansas, Georgia, New Jersey, San Francisco, Arizona, etc.), we saw each other at home over the holidays. The bonds have weakened among the larger group in recent years, as we've moved farther apart and added kids and made new friends. But I still hold all of them in a special place in my heart: they were there -- sharing experiences and making mistakes and growing up -- during the most formative years of my life. I saw one old friend just last week -- he and I have been "best friends" since sixth grade. Yes, we're not as close as we used to be...some of that is the natural march of time and distance, and some is due to circumstances in our lives that have strained our connection. Still, thank god for him, and his family, who helped me stay sane in high school and beyond. It's the little things, like driving around Chatham's 9 square miles on a random Friday night in 1987, listening to Level 42 or the Fat Boys or the Cult, that I hope will keep us friends forever.
Anyway, here's the latest: Nicola and I took Lindsay for a stroll around the block last night, and we ended up talking to two neighbors around the corner. One says that I look familiar, and eventually we figured out that we knew each other back in high school, when I went to Chatham Township HS and she went to Chatham Boro High School. She even dated a good friend of mine from back then. I'm giving the short version to spare you the boring details, but I was quite amazed to have found out that I'm living around the corner from someone I knew 18 years ago and probably haven't seen since. Spooky.
And we're not talking a booming metropolis when we speak of Chatham -- population about 17,500 between the two little towns, according to the 2000 census. The schools were separate back then but have since merged; I assume much of the Township vs. Boro rivalry is now lost.
What a truly wonderful place to grow up, and I believed that long before Money magazine weighed in on the issue. We moved there when I was in sixth grade -- not too late to find a way to fit into what was a pretty cliquish school environment. What made it so good...interesting thought. It wasn't the diversity: one person of color in my class, and the Jews all fled to private school. In this WASPy town, Catholics counted as diversity, I think, which should have made my Unitarian, Democratic family stand out more than we did. This is a town, too, that fought the inclusion of "affordable" housing in the condo development down by the river. So not the most tolerant place, really. But those are the reflections of an outsider, peering back into a cozy suburban town with age and experience providing perspective.
Back then, I was nearly ignorant of the town's shortcomings, such as they are. What made Chatham home to me was -- no surprise -- my friends. I can count at least a dozen people who I considered good friends in high school, and we continued our closeness for years after graduation. We visited each other at college and in our first apartments, we traveled en masse to each other's weddings (Boston, Kansas, Georgia, New Jersey, San Francisco, Arizona, etc.), we saw each other at home over the holidays. The bonds have weakened among the larger group in recent years, as we've moved farther apart and added kids and made new friends. But I still hold all of them in a special place in my heart: they were there -- sharing experiences and making mistakes and growing up -- during the most formative years of my life. I saw one old friend just last week -- he and I have been "best friends" since sixth grade. Yes, we're not as close as we used to be...some of that is the natural march of time and distance, and some is due to circumstances in our lives that have strained our connection. Still, thank god for him, and his family, who helped me stay sane in high school and beyond. It's the little things, like driving around Chatham's 9 square miles on a random Friday night in 1987, listening to Level 42 or the Fat Boys or the Cult, that I hope will keep us friends forever.
// posted by Bill @ 2:29 PM 
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Nice blog! (got here from Ian's).
I've heard that Chatham is anti-Semitic, but who the heck knows. I'm from NJ too.
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I've heard that Chatham is anti-Semitic, but who the heck knows. I'm from NJ too.
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