"What did we talk about when we were teenagers?" I say to my old pal, John L.  We're been talking on the telephone about books we've read and about raising our kids and about retiring some day and about health care and politics.

"Depends on who we were with," he says.  "If it was just you and me, we talked about girls and cars and girls and sports and girls, in that order."

"I guess that's about right," I say, trying to remember back.

"And, if Rooster was with us, we talked about sports and girls and sports and girls and cars and sports," he says.

"Right!" I say.  Now it's all coming back to me.

We pause a bit, reflecting.

"Now, if Turk was with us," I say, "we'd talk about girls and getting hurt and cars and getting hurt and girls and sports and getting hurt and girls and sports and going to the woods and getting hurt and girls."

"Now you've got it," says John L.  "When Mercury was around, we'd talk about him, most of the time, doing sports and his weird science fiction theories and more about him and sports and then girls."

"We should call Rooster and Turk and see what they remember," I say, so John L, who knows how to do these things, pushes some buttons and pretty soon, we hear Rooster's voice answering his phone.

"Hullo?"

"Rooster, it's John L and Jim," says John L.  "We're trying to remember what we talked about when we were teenagers hanging around the Hot Bog joint drinking RC Colas."

"Hi, guys," says Rooster.  "That's an easy question.  We talked about sports and girls.  And you guys talked about cars." 

"What about Turk?  What did he talk about?"  I ask.

"Girls and sports and getting hurt in sports.  And cars and getting hurt in cars, and of course he liked going to the woods all the time, same as the rest of us, but he usually got hurt in the woods and so we talked about that a lot."

"Let's ask him," says John L.  "I'll get him on the line, but before I do, d'you remember what we talked about when Mercury was around?"

"Yeah," says Rooster.  "We talked about Mercury!"

The phone is soon ringing again and way out in California Turk answers, sounding sleepy, as usual.

"Hey, man, yo," he answers.  "Whaddaya want?"

"Rooster, John L and Jim here, Turk.  Whazzup?"

"Nothin' much.  Good to hear from you guys.  I'm goin' stir crazy here-I sprained my ankle climbing out of my car a couple of days ago, so I'm not getting out much," says Turk.

"Of course you did," says John L.  "Hey, do you remember what we talked about when we were riding around town when we were teenagers?"

"Sure," says Turk.  "Girls and sports and cars.  Oh, and if Mercury was with us, we talked about Mercury and whether the space invaders were going to reveal themselves that day or the next day. And, did I mention girls?"

"Hey, enough of that old history," says Rooster.  "Did you guys see that game on TV last night?  It was amazing.."           

                               by Jim Whitehouse

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