Who Knew Connections Could Be So....Disconnected??????????????????

                          This is a tale of four guys who went to high school together in Highland Park, New Jersey. They are/were Neil, Alan (whose tragic passing I wrote about in an earlier post), Elliot, and myself.

                          Several years ago, on a classmate website, Neil got in touch with me.  We have kept in touch since then.  He is living in his childhood home in Highland Park.  Many people of that era are.  Or at least still living in the town itself.

                             I wrote to him recently, mentioning Alan's passing, and he said he was sad to see that Alan had passed, because, back then, Alan was one of his closest friends.  As was Elliot, he mentioned.  And I knew them all.

                             I just find this fascinating that we all knew each other, and none of us realized it..

                            As I said earlier with Alan, and this applies to both Neil and Elliot--any meetups we had were strictly one on one.  And when together we never talked, really, about other people, so I had no idea Neil knew the other two.  Even though they were in his class--remember, they were a year behind me--I had no idea they were friends.

                               I was prone to gossip, but none of the others were.  So, when together, we talked about our common interests.  With Neil, it was movies and especially comedies.  Sometimes the culture of the day.  And we were both in choir.  With Alan, it was comic books--his collection was fabulous, and in his home attic, like an archive--and literature.  With Elliot, we often ate lunch together, and we would talk about all sorts of things.  In the early 80's, when I first began working in NYC, I got onto a bus to New Brunswick, there was Elliot, and we took the bus home, catching up at that point.  He said his father was picking him up, and would give me a ride home.  He did, which was very kind, and I recall telling him he looked just like Lee Strasberg.  Elliot's father knew who that was.

                              So, all of us knew each other, but did not realize we did, and never hung out as a group.  I wonder how that might have gone?  But the thing about all three--and I did say this about Alan--they accepted me for who I was, with all my peculiarities.  It didn't seem to make a difference to them.  And if they had any, I never noticed, as they were all genuinely kind to me, and I always appreciated that from all of them.

                                 As said, Alan passed a while ago.  Neil and I still keep in touch.  But I wonder if Neil can help me find out about Elliot?  I would be curious to know what he is up to.

                                Isn't it funny that I find out all this, months before my 50th high school reunion?

                                 Or maybe it is not.  Maybe I am trying to be told something?

                                  What could that be?