"THIS COULD BE THE LAST TIME"

A combination Davey Moore story, Rolling Stone lyric, and death of a sort of relative/friend led me to today's On The QT.

Davey Moore won a championship in 1963, lost it and his life the same year. It seems that after he had given up his title, he was giving a post-fight interview. He regretted his loss but said he felt fine physically. Then he keeled over and died.

When a high school friend and former wife of a cousin of mine passed away yesterday, I asked myself when I had last seen her. Years was the answer. In fact, I can't remember where or when to borrow another musical lyric. Same with her sister, also a high school friend.

Which made me recall one of the Stones' best songs, The Last Time. Which may have been part of the reason I entitled my first novella The Last Game. An episodic tale of neighborhoods and how our lives were entangled and intertwined when we were growing up in Mid-America back then.

One perspective is the wiffle ball or football or basketball games that we played on a daily basis. Not just once a day, but most of the day. Carrying over into the night with Hide-and-Go-Seek and flashlight tag. Now why we added the Go to Seek, well I don't know as Mick sang in the same song. But one day, unannounced, unforeseen, we had to grow up. The games were over without anyone noticing that it was The Last Game. It just was.

And that's too bad. Most good-byes are that way. Unspoken. Unsaid. Uncelebrated. Without fanfare.

So to Davey, whom I'd never heard of until today, and to Paula, I say farewell. Oh, yeah, and to the old neighborhood guys, gals, and games.