When A Comet Comes Back Around

Sometimes you get lucky.

This weekend marks the 40th anniversary of the 2nd Annual Atlanta Pop Festival, held in Byron. I don't remember much about it. I had just turned three years old and was there briefly with my parents and brother. I've been told that my Uncle Gene flew a plane over the festival that whole weekend. I wish I could remember that. I wish I could remember anything about it except all the cups on the ground. That's the extent of my memory. I was just too little. Something really cool was happening that weekend, though, that Larry and I like to think was the beginning of our journey to each other. Our destiny. He said something to me this weekend about when a comet misses the first time, sometimes it'll come around again. I LOVED that! When we were getting to know each other 20+ years ago, we discovered that we were both in Byron that weekend. He was down from Atlanta, about to go to Germany in the Army. He was 17 years old. We like to think we saw each other and our eyes met and we connected and knew that when our time was right, we'd be together. That comet would come around again for us. I found these pictures online and I thought I'd steal 'em for my blog. Ha! These folks were so brave coming down here to little bitty Byron with their long hair and their peace-loving mentalities. I'm constantly amazed when Larry tells me how he was treated just because he had long hair. How he wasn't welcome in some restaurants and how rednecks would throw bottles at him when he was on his motorcycle. BECAUSE HIS HAIR WAS LONG. Nowadays, hair is the least of our worries. I saw a teenaged boy at the mall the other day with a Hitler mustache. I was mortified! And I wanted to hold his butt down and shave that mess off. But you know what?? It was my Larry and his generation who made it possible for that boy to have a Hitler mustache and walk around with it at the mall. It was my Larry and his generation who changed the world. I'm sorry I missed that time with him but I thank God every day for Larry and that magical comet that brought him back around to me.