No. 959 – Friends

Performer: Eric Johnson

Songwriter: Eric Johnson

Original Release: Tones

Year: 1986

Definitive Version: None

By the time Christmas rolled around in 1991, I must have been home five times in the previous three months due to one thing or another going on.

Everyone was there for Christmas. Scott was at Ball State, Jin was in Chicago, and I was in Flint, so it was no trouble to get together. I have a crystal clear vision of the three of us in the living room around all the stacked up loot from the morning before, a fire crackling in the fireplace, listening to this song. I had found Eric Johnson that fall, and Scott got me Tones for Christmas, so we were giving it a spin. It was late afternoon, and the setting sun along with the fire and lit Christmas tree gave the West-facing room a yellowish glow.

I don’t remember the conversation, but I remember the feeling. It was comfortable, and I began to entertain thoughts that I could go home again.

This realization was something of a revelation, considering that I couldn’t wait to leave Columbus when I graduated from high school nearly a decade earlier. But most of my friends still were there, and I was seeing them more frequently than I had in years; and my family was there, and I was closer to them than I had been before. Staying at dad’s place was a big stress-reliever compared with staying at my mom’s, and it was fun to be with Matt and Casey.

When I got back to Flint, I sent a letter to the Dispatch sports department, inquiring about openings, but nothing came of it. The timing wasn’t right yet.