Note for Maki

Maki,

Sorry to hear about your accident. It sounds like you’re on the mend. I thought I’d drop a line so you didn’t feel so disconnected from this group. Fact is you guys left for the US quite early and many of these people schooled in the later years of Edron life. The few you met and/or might remember are probably those who were around when we were in Form 1-2 or maybe earlier. Ivan, Sandrine, Sean, maybe Miguel, myself. Sandrine (and Rocio) must have been in your class. I think these people were at the Edron before it even existed! Ivan is the “oldest” friend I have. We went to pre-school together at Ms. Oakley’s at the prominent age of 3 or 4. I still remember the red balloons, Kool Aid and tea biscuits (galletas Maria). The tight English mistresses never seemed to loosen up an extra biscuit or two no matter how starved you were (I think I’ve been eating since I was born). In fact, I’m not sure we ate a heck of a lot until some inane Mexican lunch hour or 3 or 4 o’clock. I’m going to have to check with the parental units on this.

In any case, I’m sure you remember the visit I paid you guys in Nevada and the transmission we swapped out on your racing green MG. I’ll never forget the sight of the arrival of your car after your brother and I decided it was a good idea to go camping for the weekend without supplies. We were so brilliant as to manage to camp on a beautiful ledge which offered an awe inspiring sunrise at 6 am over the desert valley. Of course we subsequently got lost on our hike and ended up completely dehydrated at high noon without a drop of water (Chris cleverly managed to disappear with the coke bottle of crusty snow which I think had frozen jumbo flies in it – it tasted fantastic to us all the same).

Maybe we didn’t tell you the complete story but we also managed to feel quickly bored after crash landing in the river upon our rolling decent from Mt. whatever it was (I should remember). It felt kind of like a scene out of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly when Clint drags himself into town after crisping up in the desert for a few days. Actually afterwards we had a craving for beer since our blow up steaks were somewhat laden with salt. So, again, brilliantly, we headed to the highway, stuck out our thumb and waited patiently as the semi’s motored by (not that anyone was actually going to sell beer to a couple of 18 year olds). Chris wasn’t very optimistic while also letting me know that hitchhiking was illegal in Nevada . So I said, right, we’ll wait for 13 vehicles. If we don’t strike luck, we’ll head back into the woods. Surely enough, the 13th vehicle stopped. It’s like the lighting of a cigarette when you’re waiting for the bus you know (wish I smoked, the bus would always be there). Anyway, to not make the saga too long and boring, we ended up going with this Nevadan cowgirl to her place where we drank Budwiser (that was quite significant since Chris apparently believed strongly in Canadian Moosehead beer which, by the way, one can rarely buy in Canada – I live here). After that, a quick detour to the affluent town of Sparks supplied our ride with a certain kind of rock she was looking for and we headed back out into the high woods of Nevada . Me in T-shirt, Chris in shorts and we ended up spending the evening with a wanted ex-convict (at least in a few other states) doing what young people do. Aside from managing to absolutely freeze our asses off the moment we moved away from the fire, we did actually end up back in our sleeping bags, stiff as bricks, at some point in the middle of the night. I, of course, was the lucky one to ride in the bed of the rather small pick-up truck as the ex-convict, his cowgirl and Chris, comfortably seated in the cab, careened down the highway loaded with an abundant dose of stimulants, narcotics and plain old alcohol. Seeing your green MG at the end of those 3 days felt a bit like the apparition of Mary Magdalene. Besides, then, it had one hell of a transmission!

Good to touch base with you mate. Hope you and your family are all well. Maybe we’ll catch up at one of these various reunions. BTW, married? Kids?

Bye for now, David.