Category: Friends

My oldest friend turns 50 today.

Glenn Young and I were born two days apart, in the same hospital, and grew up in the same neighborhood for the better part of over 30 years.

We didn’t actually meet until Mrs. King’s kindergarten class.  About a couple of weeks into that school year, Glenn was reassigned to the afternoon class, and we didn’t attend school together until we were in Mr. Van Pelt’s Algebra I class in freshman year of high school.

In between that time we’d see each other around the neighborhood, on our way to the corner store or going to or from school.  I recall one day when I saw Glenn coming home from the store, arms full of every pack of the 1976 Star Trek trading cards that they had.  Or so it looked that way.

Glenn has been my conscious at times throughout the years, helping me through matters of the heart and head, and generally helping me keep sane.

He and I pretty much share most if not all of our interests, from comic books to Star Trek to baseball to Star Blazers.

Glenn fed my interest in tabletop gaming and role-playing games, introducing me to both Star Fleet Battles and the Star Trek Role-Playing Game during high school.  He helped me get a job at Gamemasters Distributors in the early days of college.

And we’ve been going to baseball games together for about as far back as the late 1980s.

We’re both avid Barry Bonds fans, having attended most of the significant events of his career as a San Francisco Giant, including milestone home runs, the day he hit his first grand slam as a Giant (vs the Rockies) and the night he hit the 500-500 mark in his career (homers-stolen bases, vs. the Dodgers).  We plan to take the trip to Cooperstown the year he gets into the Hall of Fame.

The most interesting dynamic between us is that although Glenn is a Kirk fan and I’m a Spock fan, Glenn is more Spock to my Kirk: calm and collected to my over emotional outbursts.

And as I said about another friend who turned 50, Glenn probably knows me better than I know myself.

Happy Birthday, Glenn.  Thank you for telling me what I needed to hear, instead of what I wanted to hear.  I have been, and always shall be, your friend.  Peace and long life.

Second grade seemed to be a time when I had met a lot of people who became life long friends.  Another of those friends turns 50.

Jeff Segal and I met under the same circumstances as with most of my friends from Mrs. Sinton’s 2nd grade class: forgotten circumstances.  All I know is that Jeff and I seemed to be joined at the hip from 2nd grade through 8th grade.  You usually didn’t see one of us without the other around.

I remember the first time he came over the house for dinner, my Mom greeted him and hugged him, and would hug him at any opportunity.  Jeff noted later, when we reconnected on Facebook, that he remembered Mom doing that.

We went our separate ways in high school, he going to McAteer while I went to Lowell.  We stayed in touch over the years, he came over for a house party that I threw during sophomore year, and later invited me to his wedding in the north bay.

Last time we saw each other was for the above picture, when he and Nelson and I met up for lunch.  Jeff was on Facebook for a while, but recently has deactivated his account.

Wherever you are, Jeff, Happy Birthday!  Thanks for being a great friend over the years.  Hope you’re doing alright.

One of my oldest friends turned 50 today.

Nelson Wong and I first met under forgotten circumstances when we were 7 years old, in Mrs. Sinton’s 2nd grade class at Longfellow Elementary School. In 3rd grade we were placed in separate mixed grade (2nd and 3rd) classes, and while we were supposed to attend the same school in 4th and 5th grades, the campus was under renovation for both of those school years.

We were reunited in 6th grade at Luther Burbank Middle (Jr High) School. We then both went to Lowell High School, and then college, he at CCSF, me at SFSU. Eventually Nelson transferred to SFSU as well.

Our post-college careers took us along different paths, though we did keep in touch, until I started working for the Judicial Branch of California, where Nelson had already been working for a couple of years. He was the one who actually recruited me for this job. And we’ve been working at the same place ever since.

Over the years we’ve made a habit of watching Star Wars films together, specifically premieres or at least our first viewings of each film. This started in 1980 with The Empire Strikes Back, though we just planned to be there with school friends and family. This has continued through last month, when Rogue One premiered. We attended our first sci-fi conventions together back in high school, and made a few geek road trips to San Diego Comic-Con and Star Wars Celebration.

Our interest in games are similar, as we played the same tabletop RPGs in high school, and as we later played the same online RPGs over the past few years. We still get together with friends for monthly Games Days, and occasionally play a board/card game at work with coworkers, during lunch.

I sometimes joke that he’s one of the few people that probably knows me better than I know myself. As I get older myself, this may or may not be more true. Memory is the first to go, y’know.

Happy Birthday, Nelson. Thanks for being there for me over the years, and for being such a great friend. The Force is with you, and you are one with the Force.