Friendship Renewed

The pond behind our coach in New London.

Tommy and Jim

We have traveled from Crofton, Maryland, to New London, North Carolina.  I awake this morning to a continuing chorus of crickets that sang to us through the night mixed with the songs of awakening birds in the dim light before dawn.  I think to myself if only I could record their melody.  Trees and grass stretch out before us and behind a pond with gliding geese on the silvery surface of dawn’s water yields the knowledge that their choice of a place to spend the night was wise.  The calls of their circular landing the night before have given way to silent gliding along the tall grasses of the shore with rest now replaced with foraging for food.  Then in three groups as if responding to a silent bugle, they lift off with each group waiting for the former to gather itself together in the air above before joining in the day’s journey.  Calling out to one another, the geese are gone as their journey beckons them onward, leaving the banks of the pond to mallards who don’t seem to entertain the same urgency for their day. 

Vicky and Tommy

Here we visit a long time friend and relative of Jimmy’s.  Tommy and and his wife Vicky live in a development on Badin Lake that stretches 23 miles long through the rolling hills of North Carolina here and in part the lake is bordered by a National Forest.  Tommy gives us the tour of his home and community along with nearby towns and property he and Vicky are clearing.  We have discovered that Southern sweet tea is a staple and grits are on the menu for breakfast.  This is a community where you know your neighbors and those who manage town hall and the public services.  Gas and food are less expensive and people seem to take life a little slower.  The humidity is palpable; the temperature comfortable in a sleeveless shirt day or evening.  We catch up on lives spent separately, swap stories about the children and debate the current state of affairs in government.  It is a satisfying visit and we leave knowing we are connected once again.  Even I (for whom this is an initial visit) feel the warmth and friendship that neither time nor distance diminished between these two men and now their new wives.

Badin Lake