When my 50th came around, a few years ago, there were only two individuals whom I gave a damn about seeing. They were the two nuts I had been thickest with in junior high school and high school.

I emailed the contact person, and sure enough, they were going to be there, and had in fact asked if I was to be there. "Great! I'll show up!"

Turned out one is the tuba player and leader of a Dixieland band in Sacramento, CA, and the other is a pretty durn good photographer. I, of course, am a folk-song nut. We worked out a cultural exchange, whereby I sent each of them a tape cassette with an hour of me singing on one side and an hour of my Beautiful Wife playing the piano on the other; the tuba player sent each of us a CD of his band; and the photographer sent each of the others a wonderful framed color photograph of a Monarch butterfly on a flower whose name escapes me.

We have kept in touch by email since then.

Dave Oesterreich