Time Passages

Well, I'm not the kind to live in the past
The years run too short and the days too fast
The things you lean on are things that don't last
Well it's just now and then my line gets cast into these

Time passages
There's something back there that you left behind
Time passages
Buy me a ticket on the last train home tonight

"Time Passages" - Al Stewart


I was in my Mom’s kitchen, sitting at the table after dinner. I was sitting there and just, I don’t know, being with her as she went about tidying up. She had the radio on, as always, which is probably why I listen to Sinatra and Bennett still to this day.

I remember that the radio announcer told us that some musical artist had died, one who was obviously known to Mom, because she said, “Oh, that’s such a shame.” I thought, at the time, it was because she really liked that artist and would be sorry she wouldn’t hear him again.

There have been a slew of artists that I know, who have passed away recently. Not in the shocking, headline grabbing deaths like Lennon, Morrison, Joplin, Hendrix or Corbain, all who died suddenly and much too soon. No, these announcements were the inevitable passing of people who reach a certain age, who just died the way we all will. The start of the erosion of that large block of life called the Baby Boom. Now I know what my mother meant when she said, “Oh, that’s such a shame.” It’s not they died. It was that their death brought home the fact that she was closer to that final scene herself. With the passing of each artist that we listened to, or the screen stars we saw in our youth, it means that we are now on the far side of life. We are heading to the dark side of the moon.

I was saddened today, a day where the feeling of inevitable outcome was driven home. I received an e-mail that told me that a life long friend, indeed the guy who might have symbolized my youth, had passed away. Taking a jog near his winter home, Tom McBride had a heart attack and, just like that, he is gone.

I had just been with Tommy back on the old block last September. We had grown up together. It was almost twenty years since the last time we saw each other but we got together, of all places, at the wake of my Mom. At that somber scene, Tommy looked great and I was genuinely happy to see him. Tommy was a natural athlete; we were on the same Little League team. I was his catcher and like Bruce sang, he could throw a pitch. It was a curveball, the best I had ever seen. We also played basketball together on teams all through school. He was good enough to get a scholarship to play big time college ball.

When I left the Jersey Shore for good, I stayed with Tommy for a few days before heading west. I didn’t see him again until I returned for my 20th high school reunion. The last time I was with him, we had dinner with his wife Elaine, and my son Matt, the night before I went back to Sweden. We had played golf that afternoon, which now seems the way it should have been, considering how many games we had played together in our lives.

Tommy is now as Dylan said, “forever young.” Friends and love ones will gather and look at one another with the sad and discerning eyes of age. Tommy won’t hear them talk about others who have gone before and the ailments and aches that they bear. He is now forever young in our minds and hearts. He will always be throwing curve balls and hitting winning baskets. He will live on as long as any of us who knew him are around to remember.


Our generation was once called the Youth Culture We have strived to stay young for longer than any other previous generation, and probably for any future one. Our refusal to accept aging has seen the development of Rogaine, botox and Viagra. However, we have reached the stage where, when any group of us gathers, we are shocked to see how old every one of our friends has got. It is one of the mischievous pranks that life plays on us is that we can never see ourselves getting older. The remedy for that malady is, of course, the mirror. From our side of our eyes, we are Dylan’s words. But, have you noticed how old HE has got to?