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What Awaits at the End of the Rainbow?
Six Word Photo Story: “Freestyle”
Rekindling a friendship from long ago.
Mike and I became good friends in the mid-1980s while stationed at RAF (Royal Air Force) Bentwaters in England. As two young American airmen, we traveled all over Great Britain together. I remember quaffing ale with Mike at a pub in the famed university city of Cambridge. Or was it Oxford?
On one trip, we traveled to Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, the birthplace and burial place of playwright William Shakespeare. Wanting to attend a play at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, the proprietor of the bed and breakfast we stayed at told us that Shakespeare’s Henry VIII was playing. He also warned us that it was unbearably dull.
As poor airmen, we purchased tickets for cheap balcony seats. There, we found wooden pews, not chairs. We both stand nearly 6' 4" tall and, squeezing into the pew, our knees jammed into the pew in front of us. As forewarned, the play was boring. We were also uncomfortable and left the theatre shortly after the intermission.
Mike and I both left Bentwaters in the fall of 1984. We lost contact, and the years passed by.
I was surprised and delighted to find an email from Mike in my inbox sometime in 2022. Over the…