As the sand continues to run through the hourglass and your Catalyst grows ever older, he tends to look back more often.
At least as far back as he can remember.
Many of those memories are faded into oblivion now but some linger on.
For example, I think it was in 2000, some 21 years ago, that a party was held, a reunion of sorts, at a nightclub/restaurant in Phoenix for some of the then old crowd.
It was occasioned by a visit to the old metropolis by one Ron Talley (nee Ron Thompson) from the East Coast.
Accompanied here by his lovely wife, Joanne, and one of his daughters, I don't think he had drunk enough at this point that he needed that post he's clutching to support him but who knows.
Ron was a reporter at our television station who had gone on to fame and glory in Washington, D.C.
He's retired now in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Some others in attendance included the late Bill Stull, anchorman-reporter-and-legendary ad libber on many election nights; Al Macias, who may still be employed in "the biz"; and a young pup known far and wide to readers of this blog as Baseball Steve, Mr. Torbeck by actual name, a fine photographer and friend of more than 40 years.
Smiling right into the camera, this is the always-stunning Cheryl Parker, a reporter and anchorwoman.
(Another reunion held some years later at her house drew a huge crowd!)
Here we find the photographer/assignment editor and news director far and wide Roger (Rajah, as I call him) Ball; your beered and bearded scribe; and another who is gone too soon, reporter and chief partier Bill "Boom Boom or Boomer" Blannon.
I remember more than one party from back in the day when Boomer would show up with a bottle of tequila, margarita fixings and a blender!
And here we find my fellow traveler, Wacky Wally, surrounded by the highly amused Mr. Macias and your mugging host.
Wally Athey was a Texas transplant, a steady photographer (at least when not finishing whatever was in that glass, and a companion of Mr. Talley and myself on many trips to political events around the country.
And lastly a couple who were not from the t.v. crowd but good friends indeed, the beautiful Penny Pfaelzer and her husband Paul Dean, a newspaper writer extraordinaire.
It's good to look back, now and then, but as the ranks thin, a bit sad too.
Raise a glass to your friends, whether here or departed.
