SAYING “GOODBYE” TO AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE

There’s a man named Larry I knew. I say I knew because he just passed away. He was really an acquaintance that I’d meet every 15 years or so at some function. He could sit and hold court and in his very wise way assessed and surveyed the world at large.

With his high-pitched voice and years of working under the sun, he could hold you in the palm of his hand, and make you laugh. He could play a tune for you on an organ, and make you feel good.

His humor was of the high kind. He laughed at himself, and loved everybody. He never tried to put you down, but you knew he had a measure of every conversation he had.

I once teased him about a local issue. It seemed he was on the warpath about the possibility of the local airport expanding their runway. Larry was dead set against it. Visiting him one day, I suggested that they were planning to move the runway down his street, and across from his house, they were building a hangar.

Larry entertained the idea for a moment and played out the possibility, giving me the whys and whatnots of such a bad idea, then looked at me, and laughed.

I hope he can laugh from his vantage point way up there. He has a special place very high. He was a good man. I’m sure he made some mistakes, like I do and maybe you too. But he loved his family and his God and country.

Goodbye Larry, the world is less today.