A Friendship Nourished by Music

Aside from those in your family of origin, which relationship in your life has the oldest roots? What has helped to nourish those roots? 

Bob and I started kindergarten together in 1954. We remained schoolmates and on/off friends through grammar school and junior high. Beginning in 1964, when he drafted me to learn drums to complete the band he'd started, we were virtually inseparable until graduation from Irvington High in 1967.

In our sophomore year of college - me at Newark State, him at Seton Hall - I turned the musical draft around, asking him to round out a group I'd formed as a freshman. The three-part harmony he heard in my trio sealed the deal; we were joined at the musical hip again until spring of senior year, 1971.  

Although each of us knew what the other was up to, young adult life separated us until the mid-80s. In an odd coincidence, it turned out we'd each bought homes less than a mile from one another. After we discovered the proximity, our musical bond helped re-ignite our dormant friendship. We began following a smoking ten-piece band for years. Next: Starting our own families - quite a bit later than most of our peers - and a longer break, except for holiday cards.   

The final movement in this lifelong symphony began over ten years ago, soon after I stopped working full time. Thank you, Facebook. For the last few years, our distance from each other has made regular face-to-face contact more challenging. But not long after having lunch together last month, it dawned on me that my relationship with Bob had now entered its eighth decade. Those long periods without contact apparently did little damage to our strong and enduring roots, which have been continually nourished by the most ancient of the arts, music.