'There You Are'

‘There You Are’

Noel Laflin

10-16-15

If we’d had our collective druthers, and just a bit of magic at our disposal, I think many of us would have stayed for the remainder of the summer - or maybe even forever.  As it was, however, we only had the reality of three short hours together before the day ended and we drove back down the hill, returning to our homes, families, and the present.

Most of us had not seen one another in decades.  But that is the purpose of a reunion after all – that bringing together of old friends, the swapping of memories, the telling of lies, and the opportunity to relive the past just a little bit.   And so it was for this gathering of former boys now turned middle aged and beyond – the once youthful bodies that belonged to kids from another century now moving a little slower and being a bit freer of hair.

But like that remarkable scene in the movie, Hook, where the youngest of the legendary Lost Boys finally recognizes his old pal, Pan, and then declares: 'There you are, Peter!' so most of us found friends of our youth merely hiding in grownup bodies now.