What Do We Know?

This is a post that I planned to write several months ago, before my whole world crashed down around me a gazillion times.

Today a storm is nearby and I am trying desperately not to turn into a major slug, so I decided to get myself going on something.  This blog post came to mind.

This all began when I pulled out my Elton John Goodbye Yellow Brick Road vinyl record and in the sleeve I discovered this:

It is dated October 18, 1973, and is from my friend Chuck.

I dated Chuck for a couple of months during my sophomore year in high school. He was already out of school at that time, but was friends with a guy we knew who was still a senior in high school. A while after we dated, he began to date my friend Laura, and it seems they have maintained a friendship to this day. 

The letter itself was a little upsetting to me. The first thing Chuck mentions is that it was the one year anniversary of his being drafted. He still had another year to go. I guess I had written to him about something that he had done; apparently he came over with some friends and they were high and I guess that bothered me and I got all judgy about it.

Reading what he had to say and understanding that I knew absolutely nothing about what he was going through made me see how we never know how anyone else is really feeling. This guy had a job and an apartment he had to give up because he was drafted for two years and became a cook at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Of course, we were glad he wasn’t sent to Vietnam, but that’s beside the point. His life was disrupted by things out of his control. I was living my nice white girl suburban life and I thought I just knew everything about Vietnam, and about how he should act. 

His letter reminded me I didn’t know a damn thing, and maybe I still don’t!

But Chuck is the forgiving type. On March 19, 1994 I got to see him at a class reunion when Laura brought him so that he could see all his old gal pals, the ones he used to drive home from school on occasion or have over to his house for parties. He really was a great guy through and through, and even though I don’t know what he is doing now, I hope he is well.

Laura, Chuck, and me