The weaving of the old into the new

There is no way I could have seen that phone call coming. But I have to say, in the end, I am so glad it did.

Twenty-six years ago I left the Southland to live out a dream, one based more on fantasy than on reality. I had it in my head that professional fulfillment would only come to me if I settled in Seattle, but instead taking a direct line to the fabled Emerald City I took a long series of detours, instead. This wasn’t the first time I went wild for a big town. There have been plenty of “fabled cities” in my life over the years. Los Angeles, Portland, Hong Kong and Manila all come to mind as cities that really rocked my world. In my later days New York, San Francisco and Cleveland all rose to the top and fit the bill as well. But Seattle, wow, that was a city that really came out of left field. I took a trip there over Labor Day weekend in 1988 to visit an ex-pat friend who went on and on about how cool it was in comparison to LA, how arty and intellectual it was in contrast to OC. I had time to burn, no commitments to anyone and a few weeks till my first semester at UCLA was to start, so, what did I have to lose?

Well, Seattle floored me, just as my old pal said it would. I was wowed by the craft beer scene, by the wealth of independent bookstores, by the Bumbershoot art festival and the sheer beauty of the Puget Sound. The ferry system was awesome, the university district was incredible and the art scene, oh so much of it downtown in those days, delightful. I took in a side trip to the old main library on 4^th, met the children’s librarian in charge of the department and told myself right then and there that I was coming back. It took a while but in the end, I did.

The biggest thing to come out of that dream was the high cost to old friendships. The week before I left SoCal I had a going away party at my house. Over the years I had perfected the fine art of throwing parties and that final one on Wisteria Street was a barn burner. The best part about it was the wild cross section of folks from all walks of life that I had been happily gathering around me for years. I always thought that, hey, I was going off to the great Pacific Northwest, everyone was going to want to come up and see me there, but life moved on not only for me but for everyone else. Folks got married, had kids, landed serious jobs, found partners and got large slices of real life served up to them. In the end I did have a pal or three come up to visit me in Oregon, a few more made it up to Everett, Washington, but after a while the visits trickled down to the point that by the end of 2005 they stopped all together.

Working as a librarian in Seattle came with plenty of challenges, but so did being a home owner, a husband, a business proprietor and a dad. I had friends come and go there but when you stack up making new male friends against all those other responsibilities, friendships come in last. At the time I didn’t know how important it was to make that kind of time or to manage all those connections, but what I did find out is that over the years it became harder and harder to make male buddies in a female heavy profession. It got to the point where being a dad fed me the most and all those old pals, along with all those wild pal adventures, were all put away.

Fast forward to another place where I longed to go to, Colorado. I never put Denver on the map but recently I have been thoroughly enjoying the thrills this place has brought into my life. Three different adventures in the city in recent months with the family has made it clear that is the city for us. Family friendly adventures aside, it seems to me to be the place where I will be able to launch my new career in the cannabis industry. The whole country, heck, the whole world, is watching what happens with cannabis here in Colorado. The election coming up next week in California and the proposition that could pass on Election day could radically reshape the marijuana movement around the country and I am happy to think that so much of what will pass on election day as far as legislation goes came about because of what has been happening here.

So being here in Colorado has a been a benefit as far as being involved in cannabis is concerned. All well and good. It’s been great to see and embrace new opportunities in a new land. The one thing I never thought I would see are the old strands of my life being interwoven into the new.

Two weeks ago I got a call out of the blue. The last time I saw Jimmy was at that barn burner of a house party I had before I left to go to Grants Pass. I got Christmas cards from him after I made it to Washington, photos of his kids as they came into the world, but sometime after the in-laws gave me and my ex-wife a faulty phone/fax machine, the calls and such all dropped away. Well, the call that landed in my work voice mail floored me but it was the live call that really spun my world. Jimmy and I were old Navy reserve pals, shared a large pool of common friends, spent way too many years drinking way too much beer, and while lines of Bolivian Marching Powder were more his party preference, we still managed to blow numbers of Humboldt grass one long ago Sunday while watching the Grateful Dead and Dylan rock out at the Angel Stadium. But things move on, thank god. He got married well, found a woman to help him clean up his act, grew a family, established a cement truck business and kept his shit together there along the Gold Coast in OC.

We left on good terms and so, even after twenty-six years, our brief meeting in Denver went well. His kids are grown and off to college. His marriage is solid, his business robust and life, well, like all our lives, has had it's share of ups and downs. What is interesting is that his son is keen to find his way into the cannabis industry, something that blows my old pal’s Republican/straight arrow/conservative ways. But he sees the medical path that I am taking with it and is down with the progress the country has made along the lines of legalization. I think he can find his way to sharing the insight we shared about the cannabis business with his kids, especially now that legalization is poised and ready to land in California.

A long time ago I left Santa Ana in search of some sort of wild-assed dream. It was a quixotic move, one that cost me time, cash, tears and more than a few lines on my face. The hardest part of all my adventures was leaving pals, good friends all, behind. This week I was able to see that no matter how far afield I may roam those old pals, like birds settling down from a long flight, can roost together once again.

Salud!