Strange how soon a person comes back to you after so many years ... and how much comes back. For Johnnie and Dave it was another 30 year reunion. Well, 29 years in this case.
In 1973, Dave Betts lived in a house with some of his college roommates. Guys inside, and motorcycles on the porch. Dave was the only person Johnnie had ever seen lift his bike back on its rear wheel and accelerate down the street. Sure, lots of guys did it, but Johnnie hadn't seen them. But that had been in Jax Beach a year earlier - the Beach Studio Apartment days.
Dennis Boerckle - another friend from the Navy - drove up from Florida, and collected Johnnie in North Carolina. Boerckle's brother-in-law, sick with terminal brain cancer, rode with them, but he could only enjoy parts of the trip due to his advanced illness.
In Ohio, Dave Betts took them all in. Johnnie got a chance to meet Dave's roommates and his parents. Dave's sister, whom Johnnie had already met when she visited Dave in Florida, stopped by, too. In fact, by the time she came home, sleeping arrangements had displaced her from her room, but she couldn't have been nicer about it.
Fast forward 29 years to April 9, 2002. Dave, having worked for a time in Italy, proved to be handy with fettuccini. Home-made pesto, diced and seared chicken, tossed greens and wine rounded out the menu, and all of it was good.
It turned out Dave could go with them to the Rockies game the next day. A few calls, a trip or two to get the boys on the way to school, and they left. J and D saw quickly enough that riding with a friend was the best means of transportation in Denver.
Attendance was light at the game, and Dave managed to buy a ticket directly behind the Coxes. In the stands, they all sat together anyway, with Delphine occupying a seat left vacant by some unlucky no-show. Unlucky, because it was a great game. The Rockies won, breaking the curse that J and D had been having on home teams so far in their journeys.
That night, gormet eats again. At least Johnnie thought the teriyaki salmon was delicious, but Phillip, the younger son, didn't like the brown parts. Apparently, in a bid to bribe his son to eat more, Dave had chopped up a samll piece of salmon. Trouble was, Phillip wasn't crazy about fish at all. He was anxious to leave the table and continue with a complex school assignment involving an essay on his grandmother.
Marshall's band practiced in the basement. Dave's oldest son Marshall has only been "really playing" for two years, but he already felt completely comfortable with the instrument. He liked rock and roll tunes with solid guitar riffs, and he played them like he wrote them himself. Later, he played a medley of songs for Johnnie and Delphine.
In the morning Johnnie and Delphine headed out again. In just a couple of days, Dave would leave for a vacation to see his mother in Florida. There, he would play a round of golf with Dan Huff, another 30 year reunitee for both Dave and Johnnie. Johnnie left Dave's house this time feeling sure the next reunion would come sooner than the last.
