Take From The Past But Don't Let the Past Take From You (Photos)

This afternoon, Gray Kitty settled down on Dave's lap for some pets and he got this look on his face, the kitty version of a thousand yard stare. He's been in a strange mood recently.

 

While going through my old photos, I found this old photo of Dave. This was probably from 1990 or so, when he was a cook at JB's:

He was in the kitchen, behind the pass bar. This was probably taken during the dinner shift. I was a waitress there, but I think I had the night off and was going around taking pictures with my 110 camera. This is me on my way to work in my uniform (striped shirt, black skirt, pinafore apron) with a big jean jacket thrown over. 

This is a Polaroid of the two of us around a year later:

Dave was twenty-one years old and I was twenty. I remember that apartment on Buena Vista. We were living with my older brother (who also worked at JBs) in a two bedroom place that we rented from the father of one of our coworkers. I remember that cassette rack that held all our cassettes (where did all those things end up I wonder) and I remember that black bedspread that I hung up over the window. We didn't have a bed, just a mattress on the floor.

This photo--taken on prom night--is from earlier, 1987 or 1988. Dave and I were either juniors or seniors in high school. Our friend Robert is on the far right. Robert and I had met in middle school after he was adopted out of the foster care system by two really not great people (a cop and a judge, go figure). The two girls in the photo were Robert's prom dates (he asked the girl in the middle but when her best friend didn't get a date, he agreed to take her, too).

That night we went to Robert's parents' house to take photos (they insisted) and then we left there and went to a park where we got very drunk and very stoned. After that we went to prom for about an hour. I don't remember much after that. None of us were older than seventeen. (I was fifteen as were Robert's dates--or maybe they were fourteen?--and Dave and Robert were around sixteen or seventeen years old.) 

Dave and I are still together. Robert died by suicide a few months after this photo was taken. It's been ten years since I heard anything of the other two girls. We ran into the one on the far left (I don't remember her name) at a friend's house (they were neighbors) and she told us the other girl was lost to a drug addiction. 

That's all I've got today.