An Old, Old Friend

Aaron and I have known each other since we were in first grade. His house was right behind mine, and our backyards touched (imagine two squares touching on one corner). Since we were six, we played with one another, hung out, you name it. After college, we talked less and less, catching up once every few years. The times we do, we seem to fall back into our paces easily. I got a call from Aaron while I was home, and we met up at a local bar called The Red Room in Broad Ripple. Ah, man, there’s way too much to cover here. Lots of history.

I used to hang out in Broad Ripple a lot as a high schooler (more on this at some later date), but it’s a rare outing when I’m actually at an establishment. I used to come to Ripple (as the kids like to call it) looking for someone old enough to buy me cigarettes. This evening, I’m meeting up with Aaron in a bar.

The bar is a place where Conrad, Aaron’s youngest brother, works. Nice place inside, and a decent jazz band.

This is Mike and his step-sister Stacy. Mike is the second oldest brother, with Aaron being the oldest. Stacy I’m meeting for the first time.

Alicia and Aaron. I believe Alicia’s the youngest in the family, but I could be wrong.

Aaron, Mike and I hung out for a good long while before Alicia showed up. The three of us compared stories of what we’re up to, relationships, school, all that fun stuff. As we talked, the place got more and more crowded (we even ended up seeing several folks we went to high school with). I had one beer, and then promptly switched to coffee.

Seeing Aaron again was really nice, and while I don’t have specific stories to pull for you… suffice it to say, it felt great to see him again, after all this time. The one thing I really regret is that we didn’t have a quieter place to settle down into, as conversation wasn’t the easiet thing to do with the amount of noise in the background.

All in all, we had a fairly early night, and we parted ways around 12:30 AM.