Last weekend, my dad and his brothers got together for a rare boy’s night out. It was my uncle’s 70th birthday and thanks to a little encouragement and planning from one of my cousins, they were reunited.
I was asked to pick them all up, and drop them all off at home later on in the evening. I didn’t mind because I have always enjoyed any opportunity to spend time with the brothers and my dad of course.
They invited me in for a drink when we got there, but I said I would show up early instead to partake in one birthday bevvy. With this being an uncommon occurrence as they get up there in years, I felt it was important that they had this time just the four of them.
There were 5 brothers. My uncle Mel passed away 11 years ago. Just a few months prior to his death, we all celebrated his 60th birthday at this same bar.
As promised, I showed up a few hours later, and we were actually there a couple hours more. The beers were flowing – one beer and a pop for me, and the memories were fumbling along. There were lots of laughs, talking about people and places of their youth, and things like having grown up basically unsupervised in east Hamilton on a street lined with farms, and an outhouse in the backyard of their three bedroom home.
I recorded them talking about their youth once. We gathered at my old apartment which was at least 17 years ago now, played some cards, drank some beers, and then I let them talk about their past and threw in a question from time to time to keep the conversation going. I would love to do that again sometime.