Sat on their park bench like bookends...

Everyone has friends. What seperates folks is the quality of those friends and the bond of that friendship.

As mentioned in an earlier post, Jamboree was last weekend and I did the stage managing duties, as always. This year, John Gordon brought in a few old school Jamboree hosts and hostesses from years past. One of those was a one Jennifer Puryear (Now Jen Duncan).

Jen was one of my first friends at Faulkner. Yes, before Brew, and before Sip. Maybe not before Ryan though. Jen and I have seen little of each other since she graduated F.U. She came to my wedding, I went to hers, and other than that, it has been virtual radio silence. Sure, the occational email will be tossed in there, but not much else.

Were we mad at each other? No. Did we have a falling out? No. Was our friendship put on hold? No. But relationships do this from time to time... they don't fizzle out, they just slow down for a period of time I guess. Life takes over and life changes, and friendships adjust accordingly.

Joining MySpace may have been one of the best things I have ever done to push out any remaining depression I may have had in my life. Reconnecting with so many old friends has been glorious. Jen being one of those friends. We were able to reconnect, catch up, and appreciate our friendship again! I then learned she would be coming to town for Jamboree and I was as happy as you could imagine.

When Jen came into town, we went to lunch that day. Let me tell you folks, it was like she never left. We laughed at everything. Just like the old times. Back in the day we would just look at each other in chorus practice and laughter would ensue. I have way too many memories to share so I won't even start. But after lunch last week we grabbed my camera and shot at least 15 pics of ourselves with as many expressions as we could come up with. The top picture is "Melancholy".

A test of a true friendship is going a long period of time without seeing or talking to one another, and seeing how strong the relationship is after that "time out"... and not freaking out or losing your mind when you realize that the relationship is in a time out . I'm happy to say the friendship I share with Jen is as strong as ever, and ever will continue to be.

Of course the obvious question people used to ask is "She is beautiful! Why didn't you ever go out with her?" All I can say is that I never looked at Jen based on her looks. She became my friend when I honestly had few if any friends at Faulkner and from that day forward, that's what she was to me. I wouldn't even call it a brother-sister thing, we were pure and simple friends! I am sure I considered it once or twice in the many years I knew her, but 2 minutes later she would call and ask if I wanted to play hide and seek or go climb a tree and those thoughts just went away for what ever reason.

Hearing Jen sing last weekend was unreal. We all have known her our who college lives, and we were all friends with her. I grew to "get used" to her singing abilities. I guess you could say I took them for granted. I knew she sang well, but I had heard her sing so many times and I knew her so well that frankly, I stopped getting a thrill out of her amazing singing voice. When she started to sing Friday night at Jamboree I could not move. Ussually I am busy backstage when there is a performance going on. I rarely just stop and watch. But I sat there remembering that "Hey, she is a really good singer" because frankly, I had forgotten. I guess in a way this is just another sign of a true friendship; I wasn't her friend because of her looks or her singing abilities... but man, can she sing!

Anyway, I know many of you know Jen, and thought you may enjoy that story. A quick update, she is in a suburb of Nashville with her VERY good looking husband who runs a recording studio. He must be good at what he does because he has a few Grammy's to prove it. Success and money have not changed the Jen we all know and love. She is as solid as she has ever been.

I leave you iwth a few more pics taken during jamboree, of more "Old Friends" as the title of this blog suggests (Assuming you have heard that song).

Me and the lovely Compton sisters.

You can't talk about old pals without talking about Fred...

Perhaps you remember Jason Gray?

Who can forget Knapp?