Earth, Air, Fire & Water

It was hot today, up in the 90s F. It hasn't been that hot since we returned from Washington, but for the opening days of September, we get a warm blast to remember summer by. By Labor Day, they say, a mass of cool air will be in from Canada to reminder us of all the much colder masses ahead. Still, looking out at my back yard, it's a little hard to believe that all the flush greens will be gone by the opening days of December, and the ground will (probably) be covered with frozen water.

No posting till Tuesday, since Labor Day weekend is no time to blog.

I can't let September 1 pass with noting that I met two of my closest friends in college, Dan and Steve, on this day 30 years ago. I know this because I wrote about meeting them in a diary I kept at the time, though it took a while for the significance of the day to become apparent. Anyway, here they are, Steve on the left and Dan on the right.

The picture was taken in 1986, which is close enough, considering how young we were. I have no images of them in college. Can college kids today imagine such a thing?

On September 1, 1981, Rich and I -- pictured here, also at the same 1986 event, and looking rather young ourselves -- met Steve and Dan.

That evening we went to a party at Vanderbilt's McGill dormitory, where we met a girl named Kim, who in turn introduced us to Dan and Steve and some other people in room 320. It was a lively bunch.

I described the meeting: "The talking went on. My mind tingled with all of it. Many subjects, a lot of laughing."

By the spring of '82, "Earth, Air, Fire & Water" was one way we described our complementary temperaments. Yet as tight as we were during my last two years in college, this is probably the only picture of the four of us together -- that same moment in May 1986, in Washington, DC, as it happens.

Left to right: Freeman, Bill (two high school friends of Dan), me, Dan, Rich, Mike (a close friend of all of ours) and Steve.