Goodbye Jason

My friend Jason is moving back to Arizona. I met him 8 or 9 years ago when he answered my add online looking for a bass guitar player. Aside from the unmistakable fact that he considerably taller than me (and I am 6'3") he stood out with his easy going and somewhat flambouyant attitude and excellent musicianship. He could play, sing, and he stood out in a crowd! Most importantly, Sue also thought he was great - the "Anti-Bob" as she referred to him as (inside joke) - despite the fact that she was appalled that I would trust meeting someone off of the internet. After a few years playing together in the band, Jason quit when he moved to Worchester. A while later when I had the need for a fillin bass player, I called him to ask if he could help out. Surprizingly, he said he had recently dreamed that I called him and we played together again - so he accepted. This lasted a while longer, but the travel distance and lack of steady band work was too big an obstacle, so he joined another band. Still, we made attempts to keep in touch and get together a couple times a year. The kids totally loved him and fight for his attention when he visits, and he is very patient and amused by them. When he called the other day to say he was moving back to Arizona where is mother and sister and many friends live, we were sad for us but happy for him. So a simple cookout and singalong at our house served well as a going away party, where we all got to do our best to make him feel loved (and feel bad for leaving us!). Julie & Jamie set him up with an "Instant Message" screen name under the assumption that he might actually IM with us, I gave him all of our blog links (so maybe he'll actually read this), recorded his special song "Interstate 80 Iowa", and of course took lots of pictures.





Goodbye Jason :-(
Peace be with you!