For the first time in more than a decade, I missed Bonnaroo and, more importantly, four or five days in Paul Jennings' Clifftops cabin on Monteagle Mountain. Over the years, I've come to count on my time on the Mountain in June as a time to relax, regroup, and recharge. It's needed time away for me because I tend to be incredibly busy at work every spring.
This year, though, after a week with Joe in Cooperstown, I didn't want to miss another one of JP's baseball tournaments this summer. His 15U HBC team was scheduled to play in Knoxville this weekend and, possibly, in the Tri-Cities if we won a couple of games on Friday and Saturday. Also, I was looking forward to some one-on-one time away with him, too.
Maybe I can plan a trip to the Mountain later this summer. I sure hope so.
Friday morning, JP and I left Nashville for Knoxville and I made the familiar drive down I-40 East. It's a drive I could make in my sleep, after attending college and law school at UT and having football season tickets for 26 years in total. In recent years, I've rarely made the drive because we're so busy with the boys and all of their activities - life, really - that I don't have any reason to be in Knoxville, especially since I gave up my season tickets almost 10 years ago.
We stayed with Warren and Jennifer Sanger, two of my dear friends from what seems like a lifetime ago. Warren (aka "Sarge") and I were fraternity brother. He was my pledge trainer at a time in our lives when being a member of a fraternity meant everything to us. It's laugh out loud funny now but there was a time, almost 40 years ago, when I was intimidated by Sarge. He took his job as our pledge trainer seriously and when I made it through to initiation, it felt like I had accomplished something important. Because life has a sense of humor, always, Sarge and I grew to become close friends, roommates when I was in law school in Knoxville, and in each other's weddings. I drove to Knoxville a few months ago to see his oldest son, Josh, get married, an event I was honored to attend.
Sarge and I, and our wives, sat together at Tennessee football games for more than two decades. Four of us - all fraternity brothers - had tickets together in the North End Zone Section - Sarge (Jennifer), Todd (Kristin), Mike (Stacy,) and me. In those days, my life in the fall revolved around Tennessee football. Almost every weekend, I was drove to Knoxville to watch the Vols play or took a road trip to Auburn, Georgia, Tuscaloosa, etc. On one or two fall weekends a year, I drove to Athens, GA, Tuscaloosa, AL, or Auburn, AL, to see the Vols play football.
Time passed on, though, as it inevitably does, and our group broke apart. Mike and Stacy moved to Bradenton, FL. Sarge and Jennifer began sitting in her father's seats as his health deteriorated. JP and Joe took up more and more of my time, too. I didn't want to miss a weekend coaching one or both of them in baseball, or watching them play softball, while I was in Knoxville at a Tennessee football game. After 26 years as a season ticket holder, I gave my tickets up a decade or so ago.
I drifted, as one does, away from my post-college group of close friends and away from Tennessee football. We still saw each other occasionally or talked on the telephone. Their were group texts during big games but it wasn't the same. It never is. Gradually, I lost interest in Tennessee football, and what had once been a very important part of my life took up residence on the periphery. JP and Joe were my life, in Nashville, and that didn't allow for regular travel to Knoxville or anywhere else. And I was completely fine with that.
What I was reminded of this weekend, though, is how important friendship is, deep friendship borne out of spending the formative years of your lives together. The teenage years. College. After college, before marriage and, certainly, before children. Still waters run deepest and friendship bonds like those are strong.
JP and I had a great and memorable time together. We at breakfast on Saturday morning at a place I found, the Plaid Apron, then drove over to campus for what became JP's first college visit. We loaded up on merchandise at the UT Bookstore, the one place I told JP he had an unlimited budget. To my delight, he bought a couple of baseball shirts and a UT hat, along with a pair of Christian Moore (UT second baseman) sunglasses, no doubt because the Vols are on a historical run in the College World Series and ranked #1 in the nation. Maybe I'll turn him into a Vol fan yet.
We walked all over campus in stifling heat. So much has changed since I last walked - really walked - around the Hill. Really, that's a whole different post. It was nostalgic, to be sure. It was also surreal, touring a college campus with JP. How did we get here?
I took JP to Litton's in Fountain City on the north side of Knoxville for what might have been our best lunch ever. Although it was packed with a 25 minute wait, we lucked into two seats in a side room at the bar, all by ourselves. We looked at all of the UT paraphernalia on the walls and watched the U.S. Open golf tournament on a television above the bar as we ate the best cheeseburgers I've had in, well, forever.
After JP's game at Knoxville Catholic on Saturday night - a tough 6-5 loss in which he pitched 3 scoreless innings in relief - we grabbed dinner with the team and went back to Sarge's house. Jennifer was in bed but Sarge had waited up. He and I had a bourbon or two and talked for a couple of hours. We covered it all. Friends. Memories. Our children and wives. Politics. World events. We laughed, we argued good naturally, and we reconnected in a way that you can only do with old friends. It was beautiful.
All in all, it was a weekend I'll remember for a long time. I got to spend one-on-one time with JP and watch him play baseball. I got to show JP around UT's campus and reminisce with him about my time there. I got to spend time with Sarge and Jennifer.
What more could I ask for?
No comments:
Post a Comment