From: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org (JMDL Digest) To: joni-digest@smoe.org Subject: JMDL Digest V2011 #622 Reply-To: joni@smoe.org Sender: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk Unsubscribe: mailto:joni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe Website: http://jmdl.com JMDL Digest Saturday, November 26 2011 Volume 2011 : Number 622 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- hello my old friend - (njc) ["patrick leader" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 26 Nov 2011 00:16:08 -0500 From: "patrick leader" Subject: hello my old friend - (njc) i had my friends tom and laura over to my place tonight, and the following amazing thing happened. i've known tom for 25 years. he's been dating a woman named penny for about two years; she lives in santa fe and we live in new york; i asked him how they met and he told me this: tom had a serious health scare about four years ago (nearly died), and he told me that, as one does, he reflected a lot about his life and people he had cared about. so he made efforts to reconnect with two friends he'd loved very much in college, in santa fe, in the early '70s. one of them was penny and the other was a guy named jack. jack had been a roommate of tom's in the dorms, and then a housemate when they moved off-campus. jack was a guitarist, a really talented guitarist, with a huge laugh. he was some kind of business major. they had many many great memories together in college. tom lost track of him years ago. so he googled jack and he was thrilled that jack had stayed in music, he had even opened for arlo guthrie. tom wrote to the website he found, an excited email saying how glad he was that he'd found jack, that jack had stayed in music, it'd be so great to speak or get together, etc. a note came back from the website. the responder said, 'i didn't want to reply, but you clearly feel so deeply about jack, i had to tell you that jack died two years ago'. at that point in tom's story, i asked my friend what this jack person's last name was, his college roommate, and he said nielson, and i told him, i knew jack nielson. jaws dropped in my apartment! tom knows about my joni obsession and i think he's aware that i've been going to these jonifests, so i explained that jack had been my roommate one year (2002, i think), and that i had had the pleasure of watching him perform many times, rocking back and forth while playing the guitar, just as tom had remembered from 1974 or so. i told him how jack had been loved by the jonilisters that met him, and how jack's dear friend michael paz had encouraged him and helped console his daughter sarah, when jack died. michael paz is the person who wrote back to tom. then i said, 'i'm sure i have some of jack's music around here'. it took a while, but i found a song on a sampler that chris marshall gave me at the first holycombe fest - thanks chris!! so we listened to the song and had a good cry. first, what are the chances?! that my new york friend's college roommate would turn out to be someone i knew from such a random circumstance? second, what were the chances that i would be able to dig through my music and play tom a song written and performed by his old friend? and that the song would be called 'hello my old friend'? patrick np - silence ------------------------------ End of JMDL Digest V2011 #622 ***************************** ------- To post messages to the list, send to joni@smoe.org. Unsubscribe by clicking here: mailto:joni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe -------