[johnco]

One of my best friends died Wed. he was 83. Although I went to school with his kids, I was closer friends with him. I used to sit there for hours listening to his war stories, about his childhood, etc. once after telling his stories about the war, he gave me names of people he served with.. a few hours searching the internet and I had phone numbers and addresses for a few of them. One call reached the son of one of his friends.. that call turned into hours of stories about this guy's dad he had never heard before. My buddy's death upset me much more than my own father's recent death earlier this year.. I'd have no specific questions to ask but would give anything just to hear the same old stories again I had heard so many times before. another old buddy, 87 years old, was murdered a few years ago, used to sit there for hours talking about times long ago.. once you get those old guys talking, they seldom run out of stories