43rd reunion Reflection By Al Mariam
43rd reunion Reflection By Al Mariam
To the 1971 St. Joe Brothers who showed up in Seattle:
WARNING: You have only Yohannes Tadesse to blame for what you are about to read below. He taunted (tormented me, is a better word) me about my “Monday commentaries” and dared me time and again to issue a commentary about our reunion. I initially ignored the dare, but on the flight back, I decided to accept the challenge. So here it goes…
“A special Monday commentary on the 2015 St. Joe 1971 reunion in Seattle”
Bro. Asrat Betru: Them stylish spiked shoes gotta go. I mean go to me. They are hard to get through TSA security. I will gladly mail them to you in Abu Dhabi for delivery in 2018. BTW, whoever said “if man was meant to fly, he’d have wings”, obviously never met you.
Bro. Asfaw Bisrat: I ain’t saying nothing about you, Bro. Neighbor!! (Psst! I can’t say nothin because I have to ask a lot of favors from the guy in the future, y’all understand!) Wazzzzup Bro. Asfaw! Right on!)
Bro. Solomon Bekele: I gave you so much crap about your fancy camera and not seeing any one of the pictures, I hope you will forgive me. But I still got my pix out to the crew before you did. Ha ha ha… So, deal with it, Bro!
Bro. Dawit: I know the guy at the Improv in LA. I got him off on a drunk driving charge last year. Let me know if you would like for me to set a gig for you there (of course, for a small fee, you know what I mean). For a much larger fee, I could arrange the launch of the Dawit Teklu Comedy Hour on Youtube channel.
Bro. Mesfin: You made me so proud, bro!. Seeing you walking with such grace and poise was, without question, the finest moment of the whole reunion! You taught us all what it means to have sheer will power. They say, “Adversity causes some men to break; others to break records.” You have broken all the records, Bro. Thanks for the book club. You know I am in there with you. In the memorable words of Larry the Cable Guy, “Let’s git ‘er done.” The book we all talked about I mean.
Bro. Solomon Ketema: I didn’t mind carrying you for the last 500 yards of the Seward Park walk. Like I told ya, what are brothers for if you can’t lean on ‘em (in your case if you can’t carry them to the finish line).
Bro. Yared: I ain’t sayin’ nothin’ about all of the 3457 pictures you took (ok, it could have been 3458). I heard Dawit Teklu say that you take the pictures first and put the film (SD card) later. That makes perfect sense and explains why I have not seen any of the pictures you have taken over the past decade(s). You think you can get the 2014 Seattle pix ready by 2018?
Bro. Melaku: All I can say is that we both could have been rich. Dog gone it, when I saw you walk down the steps out of Bro. Solomon Alemayehu’s house, slip and fall (that’s the critical legal phrase to use) and suffer that catastrophic injury (ahem!), I am sure you were seeing stars. Me, I was seeing weird symbols that looked like this, “$$$$$$$”. Count the number of symbols bro. You should have stayed down until I called 911 for an ambulance (and of course follow it to the ER). But you had to get up and walk like nothing happened. What’s up with that? Let’s set up another one in Boston next year. Practice until then.
Bro. Neb: I am going to say it straight. I love them brothers and all. But after travelling from Ethiopia a day or so before the reunion and actually coming to Seattle, man… it ain’t happening. If it was me, I would have said, “Y’all come see me in beautiful Minneapolis” ‘cause I ain’t going nowhere. (Minneapolis is my old stomping grounds y’all.)
Bro. Joe Gebreyes: I just love them eskista moves of yours. Where did you learn them, man? You burned the dance floor, bro. Of course, I am the only one who saw you dancing.
Bro. Tesh: You outwalked everybody at Seward Park. Now I know what you meant when you told me you were the best player in the “Senior Soccer League of Atlanta”. Allow me to offer you unsolicited advice: Next time you play soccer in the League, try walking (and not too fast).
Bro. Asrat Yitref: Paul Simon wrote two songs for you and me. For you, the song is “Still crazy after all these years.” For me it is, “You can call me Al.” Like it is bro, you can call me Al, but I ain’t calling you “still crazy after all these years.” We love you and I will personally go after the first guy who mentions the “C” word in connection with your name. You made us feel so welcome in Seattle, thanks a million. On the second thought, hell, I am not going to thank you for that; it is you brotherly duty. It is your wife Zewditu who deserves all the thanks for preparing all the great food and welcoming us. She was a gracious and lovely host. Please thank her on behalf of all of us. [Bro. Asrat, is our deal still on? You know I have a direct line now to find out. Watch it!]
Bro. Tamrat: We got to stop meeting at the watering hole, bro. Every time I go to get a drink, bro. Tamrat is in front of me. You gotta give me a break man. BTW, y’all notice the XO cognac ran out early on? Yep! Talk to bro. Tamrat. Next time I will bring my own XO bottle and hide it in Fiseha Taye’s rental car.
Oh yeah! Bro. Fiseha, It is good to know that back in the day in California they used to hand out driving licenses without any performance tests. Turning 360 degrees in the middle of a busy freeway and main thorough fares, turning into the driveways of strangers, missing clearly marked exits, etc. If I had known that I would be riding with you, I would have had a long conversation with my agents at Lloyd’s of London; or GEICO where I could have talked for 15 minutes and gotten $5m insurance for me and my wife. BTW, thanks (but no thanks) for offering to pick me up from Oakland airport next time I visit there. I have a special deal with Avis. If they run out of rental cars, not a problem, I will just hoof it. (Did anybody see the Omerta Mafiosi brothers at the reunion.)
Bro. Eli: I had my eyes on that Marley T-shirt bro. So did my wife. We figured it was too small for you. I was hoping you’d check it in with Mesrak. Like Marley said, “One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.” Let me put it this way, when you take off and check in that Marley T-shirt with me, I guarantee you will feel no pain. (BTW: I am glad to know you are married to a comedienne. Sophie cracked us up! Could you ask her if I could get her a double billing with Dawit Teklu at the Improv? )
Bro. Lou: I told ya not to vote for Boston for next year; instead vote for Frisco and stick it to the Frisco/Oakland crew. You wouldn’t listen to me. So now you’re stuck. I feel sorry for you because you now have to put up with me (and my clan) several times during 2015. Bro, you gotta learn to cut you your losses. Too late for now!
Bro. Negash: It was good to see you. First time to meet you. Obviously, you and I being the youngest guys in the crew (I don’t mind saying I am only a year or two older than you are), we did not know each other. Hope to see you in Boston (I think they pronounce it Baa-ston).
Bro. Abe Keorhagian, what can I really say about you! For each and every one of us, you are the brother from the other mother. You bring so much love and good will to all of us. All I can say is your name says it ALL!
Bro. Solomon Alemayehu: My homey from Kazanchis! With your brothers Dawit and Berhanu we were the coolest cats in that part of town. (I know Mesfin Teferra is itching to get a word in edgewise on the “coolness” comment. Bro. Mesfin, please don’t volunteer any comments.) Thank you for hosting us. But it is your wife Genet who deserves all the thanks for preparing all the great food and welcoming us. She was a gracious and lovely host. Please thank her on behalf of all of us.
Bro. Yonannes: You are the guy who forced me, yes forced me, to write this “commentary.” I just have one question for you: What mortal sin has Seattle committed to get you and Asrat Yitref at the same time? Thank you so much for making us feel welcome. You kept us cracking up with your jokes. You made our stay crazy fun. But I have a complaint and a question: 1) you let out too many secrets about the good old days to the wives; 2) did you get your driver license in California with Fiseha Taye back in the day? (Just to be sure, you do have a driving license right?! I don’t mean just from Washington, any place on the planet.) I am collecting donations to get you a GPS device so you can find your way and easily get around Seattle. (Special news: As I am sure Johnny told everyone, he is getting married next year. He has asked me to be his best man. As I understand it, the bride to be will be graduating from Nazret High School in Addis in 2015.) P.S. I will give a big prize to anyone who can produce a photo of Yohannes looking into or in the direction of the camera!
Bro. Joe Tafesse: It was good to see you. I don’t blame you for showing up Friday night. Who wants to hang out with a bunch of old, wild and crazy guys? (Other than me, I mean.)
Bro. Habte: Thanks of the constant spiritual inspiration you brought to the reunion. Thanks for the benedictions at the various events. We all know it is a divine blessing for all of us to be able meet at one place and enjoy each other’s company year after year. It is always important to know and thank the Almighty who made it possible for all of us. You made sure that we knew and offered our thanks. Thanks, Bro.
Sister Conchitta and Bro. Ray: It was just wonderful meeting you both. I forgot to ask you one question (and I know you know the answer to this question): What happened to Mr. Dum Dum (more like doom doom) Bro. Michael Devaney used to keep us on the straight and narrow?
Bro. Medhat: It was just great to see you. The pictures you sent out were excellent. Merci beaucoup! You have proven the proposition that it is not the fancy high tech camera of the professional photographers that matters but the quick finger on the iPhone camera of the citizen photographer. (Ahem! Did anyone see three guys with hi tech cameras lurking around?)
If I forgot anyone else, consider yourself lucky. But if someone reminds me of you, I will send an update.
Let me just say a few words about Bro. Al. He had not attended many of the reunions. Many of them for not-so-convincing reasons. It is true that he don’t like long trips (e.g. LA to DC). A whole day trip and all. But he learned a big lesson this time. As crazy as it sounds, it is crazy fun to be with a bunch of old, wild and crazy guys. Bro. Al knows he is the youngest one among all of you y’all; and y’all really should be good role models to him. Like in driving cars on public roads and highways, fashion styles and fine wines [not too crazy about cigars], etc.
Speaking for myself, all I have to say is that y’all crazy. You guys are so crazy that my wife issued a fatwa ordering me to attend all of your future crazy reunions. For those of you who may not know, the consequences for not following a fatwa of she-who-must-be-obeyed are dire.
Both Mesrak and I had a lot of fun (to the point that having so much fun should have been illegal). It is all about taking it easy and smelling the roses. Sometimes we don’t make enough time to smell the roses and sometimes unwittingly we get pricked by the thorns trying to pick them off. But no one ever stopped smelling or picking roses because he was pricked by a thorn once. It is a matter of perspective. We should focus on the beautiful rose instead of the single thorn that pricked us and made us feel intense momentary pain? It is a metaphor for life. If we focus on the rose, we still appreciate its beauty even when we are scratched by one of its thorns.
I shared a few words about the reunion with a local friend at the Seward Park walk. His first reaction was how lucky and blessed we are to have such an event for so many decades. A wise person once said something along the following lines: “To the outside world we all grow old. But not to brothers and sisters. We know each other as we always were. We know each other’s hearts. We share private jokes. We remember the feuds and secrets, the pain we were in each other’s necks. We shared grief and joys. But as brothers and sisters we live outside the touch of time.” For a few days every September, we really live outside the touch of time. (Can anyone explain how fast those 4 days went?)
Of course, none of it would have amounted to much without the presence of our better halves. They deserve our love and appreciation always.
At the next reunion in Boston, I hope to see all members of St. Joe 1971 (that is including me).
Love you guys, even though y’all are a bunch of wild and crazy dudes!
P.S. Yohannes Tadesse: You see what you made me do! Are you happy now? Huh? Huh?