Las Vegas is a transient town. People come to boom, and leave when they bust. Many live in the valley for a few years and then move on. For Tommy, this meant that he would make friends at school or in the neighborhood only to lose them. In the 1980s and 1990s, before the availability of cheap communication (i.e. Internet and cell phones), moving meant losing all contact with most of the “friends.” A few friends actually wrote letters and Tommy was able to maintain a connection with them until the advent of MySpace and Face book allowed more and easier access. Virtually everyone else who moved on was lost.
Thomas may occasionally look online for names from his distant memory, but some names are very common and he has no idea where in the world the former friends now reside. Apparently, Thomas is more sentimental than his former friends are. He wants to be reacquainted. However, none of the former friends have attempted to contact Thomas, even though he is easily findable as a Las Vegas attorney, who never moved away.
Thomas wonders if some may have looked him up but are too timid to contact him. If so, that is a shame. Life is too short to live in fear. More likely, however, they just never considered friendship that important and are apathetic. Thomas realizes that it serves no purpose to waste time on people with this attitude.
I didn't grow up in Vegas, but I live here now. I'll be your friend Thomas ;-)
ReplyDeleteI'm enjoying reading your blog. And I'm not a weirdo. Just some one who searched "80's Las Vegas" and found this.
Hi Lola, welcome to town. I need to write some blogs that are more positive about Vegas--as there are many excellent qualities that were not apparent as a child and sometimes as an adult. I watched the first season of Vegas, which was filmed entirely in Vegas in 1978 and it is fun to see how much has changed since then.
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