Pictures "Back on the Block"
The family clique
Chicagoland, USA
During my four Army leaves, changes had taken place at each interval. That became pretty obvious when I'd see people with a year or two of separation between. While I kept up contact with many of these persons even after I came back from the Army, had experienced the 'When you leave, you left' notion first hand. Each time back was a whole new ball game, and sometimes I felt more "at home" wherever I'd been stationed at.
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Here's a few of my pals: Ken, Danny and Rick, plus me in May of 1985. We're at the Arie Crown forest preserve partying, like we often did before. They hadn't changed much since I'd first gone into the Army. Rather, it was I who was different on this first leave. |
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| Here's Séan, Robin, and Don at Park Avenue in Milwaukee. I think this was taken on my first leave or just before I left. Unsure. Don had told me he was moving to Wisconsin (in with Robin). When I asked Robin about it, found it to be untrue. Rather than be toyed with, I just went back and asked Don at a full dinner table about it in front of everyone. Sometimes I do that kind of thing. |
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| Here's Ken again, a little over a year later, in the summer of 1986. We had been brief boyfriends in 1984 when we had both worked at Jewel Foods. For him that had been mostly a "coming out" thing. We broke up because he cheated on me, and it happened early on. We stayed friends after I got over being mad, but I haven't talked to him since after this rendezvous here in La Crosse, Wisconsin (where he had moved with some friends of mine). By the way, we were fishing on the Mississippi the day of the picture. |
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| Here's the Racine, Wisconsin crew: Robin, Terry, their two buddies, myself and Rick (one of the high school era buddies). I can't remember precisely when the picture was taken, but either the end of 1987 or end of 1988. Even five or six years after we'd met Robin and Terry, we still took time out to drive up for a visit. |
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| Ed (or "Edna" as Robin would say) and Robin in 1986 on a trip down to see us in Chicago when I was on leave. They had this goal to ride the subway for the experience of it. And here they are — and they're losing those "poker" or "stone-faces" that Robin said was essential to subway-riding survival. |
