It was more than just a chicken pot pie.  It was a chicken pot pie I will remember for a great while, I think.

Above is a picture of the Ohio River near the deck of The Overlook Restaurant in Leavenworth, Indiana…that is.  This is where I sat down with my old friend Jerry Brown for lunch today.

When we did the math, we were last classmates at Brownstown Central Elementary School thirty-nine years ago.  We were on opposing high school football teams thirty-three years ago.  He has been married to his wife, Tammy, for twenty-six years.  I have been married to my dear wife, Carrie, for twenty-two years.

Jerry and I were in each other’s weddings.  It was a good time both times.

We spent a little over four hours together this morning into the afternoon.  We were due.

We just talked.  We asked a few questions.  We talked about the past.  We talked a little about the future.  We talked of hopes and aspirations.  We spoke of some past disappointments.  We did not get stuck, or low, or bogged down in any pile of mud.  We walked over the worst things or just plain walked around them.  We never have a need to work to manufacture something interesting for the other to talk about.  We are connected beyond friendship in the traditional sense.

That is the “it” factor Jerry and I have in common.  As I always say, we are not here to have a bad time.  Jerry and I saw each other today for the first time since we both turned fifty years old earlier this year.  That never came up during our speaks today.  But, that too is characteristic of the unspoken feeling between us “it” factor we are blessed with.  When we see each other we just take up where we left off.

Jerry and I have seen some of our best days and our worst days…together.  I was there when Jerry’s Dad, Tom, passed away in 1991.  Jerry and I were twenty-two and shocked and hurt. Jerry handled it all with a graciousness any father would be proud of.  A year later Jerry was married.  Tom was a huge influence on my life.  I wish I could have seen the look on his face when I graduated from college.  And I know what he would have said.

“I knew you could do it.  You just had to get your ass in gear.”

I think Tom would have been pleased with the two guys having lunch today.

I know I was proud to be there.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson