Steve Hall

November 14, 2011

When we went down to Southern California for Laura and Sean's engagement party, Doug found an opportunity to reconnect with someone he had been very close with several years ago when he was living down in San Diego. Doug had very recently come across Steve Hall on Facebook, and they had corresponded a bit. They were co-workers for about a year, and roomates as well, but had lost touch. With the advent of Facebook, they went in search of each other now and again, but sifting through all the Doug Smiths and Steve Halls out there on the internet is a bit of a daunting task. (Look them up if you don't believe me--a lot of folks seem to think Doug and Steve are great names for the offspring of the likes of the Mr. and Mrs. Smiths and Mr. and Mrs. Halls out in the world.) Eventually, though, their Facebook profiles crossed. It was only a matter of time.

As luck would have it, Steve is currently living not far from where we were going to be that weekend, and as a matter of fact had business to attend to in Santa Monica, which is where the engagement party was being held. Since I knew I had to drive the college kids back down to San Diego on Sunday, Doug had an afternoon to himself. He called Steve and arranged to meet up at a poolroom in Santa Monica. It was actually an ideal way to meet after so many years, since Doug cites Steve as one of his main influences in becoming the real pool player he is today. When they knew each other down in San Diego, they spent a lot of time at pool rooms, and Steve was a good player--better than Doug was, by Doug's own admission. Though they shared good times, good conversation, and easy rapport, their pool games always had the same outcome back in those days--Doug did a lot of racking the balls back then. Probably an association of those good times--combined with a somewhat competitive nature--spurred Doug on to pursue the game of pool and to develop the impressive and considerable skill he developed over time.

In meeting up again, both Doug and Steve found themselves falling right back into the comfortable conversation of good friends--you know the ones you can go for months or even years without speaking to, and yet it feels like just yesterday? They reminisced about old times and old stories, and caught up on where their life's paths had taken them. They made future plans to get together with the wives and kids. They ate, too, and of course there was pool--pretty good pool, as a matter of fact, even though Doug hasn't played much in the past couple of months. Good is good, you know? There's a sense memory there that doesn't really go away, once you get to a certain level. Kind of like the sense memory of a good friend from years past--time passes, but that connection is never really gone.