What parts of Dealville evolve and what parts do not will always surprise me. I'll think I can count on an area to remain swanky only to find out it's been razzed. You can't depend on any of that, but you can count on the hunt. It was under these pretenses that I went to an old Italian haunt for a dealmaking lunch. The location was a block from an old home...a block also from that nutty intersection, Sunset and Crescent Heights.
After a pleasant greeting from the chef, instead of re-connecting we immediately took stock. He said graduation "is at hand and Father's Day is around the corner." But we're not here to celebrate either and we're not going to fall into the trap of talking about the old workplace...yet. It was more about current dealings framed about the surroundings.
"That used to be a Union 76 station, but I don't know why it's a vacant lot." Me either, but just the fact that it IS helps, doesn't it? Then again, he and I used to work at the same company, and now we don't. I kept trying to steer the conversation to the current and that if we were going to go to the "old days" it shouldn't involve us. At least, I hope not.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised by this fact, but over the past couple years, I've struggled to review culture. Not just for this screed, but to keep up learning of new shows, music, etc. I don't find myself just going back to the old well so much as straining at something...just what, I couldn't say. It may or may not exist.
Memories can last forever, but swank doesn't. You have to appreciate these things while you can. Get knee deep into it. If my time out here has taught me anything, it really is that - "enjoy it while you can" because for every place you love that's exactly the same as it always was, the other 80% are long gone. And these things aren't the new of which I search, they've replaced not the rundown but instead the ember of time with sterile forced fun. All things considered; I'd rather keep my money. How defiant! I've only been able to watch 1 Dodgers game all season (when I was available) but I've also saved over $400 since the offseason.
And some of that money can be spent at places like that Italian place as we dine on the patio, mainlining iced tea on a sunny summer day, worn out old songs playing while we discuss the new. I looked beyond to that intersection, saw my old self, and raised my glass. I wonder what he'd think of me. I'm not sure what I think of him (besides the parental want of help and guidance). Back to now, the waiter took the plate and we acknowledged Drew's old phrase:
We can be here and there.
