Thursday night, our friend Andrew organized a going away get-together...
The invitation list was mostly friends from the company I had worked for for the first seventeen years of my career, and that Jeanie had worked for for a number of years as well.
In hindsight, Thursday night probably wasn't the best timing - we should have been at home boxing stuff, but, it was a nice break from packing. We had a nice turnout, with maybe twenty or so friends making at least an appearance.
We had the gathering at George's Garage in Durham, mostly for old-time's sake. George's is a block away from the location on 9th Street that most of us had worked in for many years. It has a nice bar area that is very well suited to an informal get-together.
It was nice seeing so many old faces. A few people drove over an hour which made us feel really special. While it was a really nice time, it did make me feel a little sad. Partly just because of my separation issues, but partly because it forced a sad fact into the harsh light. We were so close to some of these people. We worked hard and play hard with them for many, many years. Yet, after Jeanie and I left DataFlow, we drifted away from almost all of them. Sure, we'd see many of them once a year, at some event or another - a wedding, or a Christmas party. But, we had lost that special bond that we had once shared. That special closeness that you have with only a small number of people in your life. I know, back then, many of us weren't even married, yet alone parents. Our life was our work. People get busy, they focus on who they know at work, and church, and family. There's so little time - not enough to keep up with people that fall outside that small circle.
It also made me sad to think what might have been...
We were such a sharp, dedicated group of people. In hindsight, we had some truly gifted, generous, visionary people in our company. Unfortunately, in the end, the owner of the company wasn't. I can only imagine how all of our lives might have been had we all instead gone to work for a Microsoft or a SAS.
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Posted by David at May 22, 2005 10:24 AM