1966

This morning I opened my personal email to find a nice note from my longest term friend, Robin Bastian. I had completely lost touch with him after a visit to England in 1994; we were both going through very rocky times then, and the visit ended up with my first full-blown atrial fib episode. He was in the process of ending a very dysfunctional relationship, and my 15 year one had ended the prior October. We've never been intimate, other than childhood friendship.

Both Robin and I were kids with military move-around-the-country-fathers when we met in Mrs Peak's English class in the Fall of 1966...two very out of place 12 year olds with no other friends, and we bonded quickly. Of course, neither of us knew it at the time, but we'd both come out as gay at about the same time, living two completely different lives.

Although losing touch with each other seems to be the norm over the years, I'm glad that a recent internet search brought me to an thesis he had done about textile conservation in 2003 or so. I contacted his university on a whim, and they forwarded my note on to him.

Robin (he goes by Rob now, in the same way I no longer go by Billy) now lives in Dresden Germany and is a textile conservator at a museum there. He mentioned he's married to a German, but since he didn't elaborate whether the spouse is male or female, he could only leave me guessing! I'm suspecting a female, since he hinted at leaving a lot of his old life behind.

Rob is (or was) a talented artist, linguist, and writer...I always felt like a clod around him, having no special talents. But he liked me, and I liked him, so have always been happy we had that early touchstone of a friendship.

1966

This morning I opened my personal email to find a nice note from my longest term friend, Robin Bastian. I had completely lost touch with him after a visit to England in 1994; we were both going through very rocky times then, and the visit ended up with my first full-blown atrial fib episode. He was in the process of ending a very dysfunctional relationship, and my 15 year one had ended the prior October. We've never been intimate, other than childhood friendship.

Both Robin and I were kids with military move-around-the-country-fathers when we met in Mrs Peak's English class in the Fall of 1966...two very out of place 12 year olds with no other friends, and we bonded quickly. Of course, neither of us knew it at the time, but we'd both come out as gay at about the same time, living two completely different lives.

Although losing touch with each other seems to be the norm over the years, I'm glad that a recent internet search brought me to an thesis he had done about textile conservation in 2003 or so. I contacted his university on a whim, and they forwarded my note on to him.

Robin (he goes by Rob now, in the same way I no longer go by Billy) now lives in Dresden Germany and is a textile conservator at a museum there. He mentioned he's married to a German, but since he didn't elaborate whether the spouse is male or female, he could only leave me guessing! I'm suspecting a female, since he hinted at leaving a lot of his old life behind.

Rob is (or was) a talented artist, linguist, and writer...I always felt like a clod around him, having no special talents. But he liked me, and I liked him, so have always been happy we had that early touchstone of a friendship.