I swore I wouldn't do it. Facebook. I don't have time for it. I love Twitter. I love 140 characters as a parameter for your thoughts. I love the kind of culture that has developed out of Twitter. I find some of the greatest thinkers are Twitterers. I get more smiles and encouragement coming (only after the Holy Sprit & my family) from the 2-3 sentences in a Twit. But I love people and if you want to be where the people are at, you have to join Facebook. Some of my findings have been disappointing. I see pics and read lines from people that I thought knew better. But "we are what we are", so we simply lower our expectations to minimize the hurt. Moving on.

But then my wife asks me to type in the name of a long lost friend and see what comes up. For me that's not so easy because I have an entire generation of friends who mean so much to me. Granted, we're talking adolescence here but still. It was special and it ran deep. No one can take that away. What am I talking about? Spring Valley and South Madison Elementary School.

My family left NYC and moved to the suburbs. They were running away, escaping from a tumultuous season in church life. The legalistic Pentecostal scene had taken its toll on my family and with the encouragement of my uncle (former Congressman Robert Garcia), he convinced his sister to come up to Spring Valley and buy a house. So we did. My sisters dreaded the move because they were NYC Bronx-ites through and through. They had seen so much in city life that going up to Rockland was like going backwards. They developed friendships and had their seasons at Spring Valley HS (Joanne went to Kaqiak???) but it finally got to them and after discovering The Brooklyn Gospel Tabernacle (now The Brooklyn Tabernacle and its famous choir) they started making my folks drive them 2-3 times a week to Brooklyn to worship. 2 1/2 hour drive. Sounds crazy right? But who can say they have kids that demanded from their parents a vibrant church life and community. Most teens are trying to wild out and try everything under the sun. My parents had to respond. It's like a dream come true to see your children hunger and thirst for a relationship with God more than anything else.

But what about me? Very different story. Spring Valley days were formative for me. It's all I knew. I loved my neighborhood, I loved my school, my friends, everything. Spring Valley was home. And in 1979, my parent's move back to NYC ripped my heart out. Thank God for the Szpicek's who took me into their home during the 6th grade so I could finish my final year. But once I left back to NYC, that was it. Gone. I never recovered :-) I made a few visits back to the old neighborhood but everybody was gone. My neighborhood looked like a bomb dropped on it. Desolation. Spring Valley became the suburban capital for drugs and folly of every kind. But that really was nothing knew. I learned all forms of depravity, not from the South Bronx, but from Spring Valley. There was a darkness that I was exposed to very early on in life. But I still loved it because it was home. It's all I knew.

Back to Facebook. I put in the name Craig Ackerman. He wasn't my oldest friend. But he was special and came into the picture towards the back end of things, the times I remember most. He was a rip. Funny and a friend. He was Jim Carrey before there ever was a Jim Carrey. And he was my bodyguard too. Since he was slightly crazy, nobody would mess with him. Vincent Abraham and Mark Edge were the school bullies. But Craig and a red head kid named Patrick would let no one touch me. They would fight anyone anytime. When the profile for Craig Ackerman came up, I screamed. His face had not changed. I quickly wrote to him to confirm and he replied with the funniest profanity I have ever heard. "Call me the f@#! right now!!!" He must have been excited because even his response was grammatically incorrect. (Craig had a filthy mouth in the 6th grade too :-)

What did this lead to? A South Madison group list that included Janet Rosenburg, Stacy Kastens, Shari Kaufman, The Szpicek's, Andrew Green, Joy Koplitz, Jose Melendez, Andrew Kamchi, Paul Locurto. That's just who I found in the past 24 hours. Who knows who they are going to lead me to. Then there are those who you just forgot the names, but never forget them. For example, I still remember a bunch by first name only: Dawn, Felicia, Eric, Tina, John, Norith, Joe Costanzo (Little Joe), Suzanne, Anthony (taught me to smoke and play hooky), Barry. Leslie Zamor lives blocks away for me. Thank God! My only remnant thus far.

So who knows what's to come of all this. It could be great or I may be delusional, only to find out that everybody has moved on and is not nearly as sentimental or excited as I am right now. Maybe those days were something to forget for some. Not sure. But I'm willing to find out. I'm also getting ready for disappointments. This includes those that have passed naturally or tragically, those who are oppressed and afflicted with one thing or another. I have to be ready for it all. That's the adventure that Facebook has created. Amazing!

Time to start scanning the class pics.