My best friend Gordon turns 43 today.

I first met Gordon in August of 1983. He worked at Crown Books, at store #828, in Bradlick Shopping Center. That’s in Springfield, or maybe Annandale. It’s at the intersection of Braddock and Backlick roads.

Eileen was his boss, the manager of the store, and Gordon was her assistant manager. And Eileen was … well …. my friend, I guess. Boy, is that a long and complicated story. Long and complicated to me, anyway. Maybe not so interesting to you, though.

So anyway I went to see Eileen at her store, I think to talk to her about Mark Buckley, maybe. And while I was there I met some of her staff and co-workers, Gordon being one of them.

Oh, and I bought a porn magazine, a copy of Swank, while I was there. And Gordon rang up the purchase. I seem to remember now that he maybe asked to see my ID, I think to see how old I was. Since Eileen was older he thought that I was older too, but then learned that I was a few months younger than he was.

Swank had bought some pictures of John and Yoko naked, that somebody had found in the trash at the Dakota, is the only reason why I was buying the issue. I mean, hey, don’t get me wrong: I loves me my porn. But Swank? Not really my particular cup of tea. Way too outre for my tastes.

And but anyway, so then I had a passing acquaintance with Gordon, more so when Eileen moved over to Crown #807 and took Gordon with her. And I saw more and more of Eileen over fall and winter 1983 and 1984. And then Gordon and Babs and I all got dumped by our respective dating partners all around February and March of 1984, and all started hanging out together. Lots of dinners at the Pizza Hut across Beauregard Street, playing Back on the Chain Gang on the jukebox.

I used to call Gordon Dad for many years. It came mostly from Daddy Gordon (or maybe Daddy Gordo), what his girlfriend’s daughter called him. And I think it partly related to the Our Speaker Today episode of the Good Neighbors, where Richard Briers refers to the young Robert Lindsay as son, so Robert Lindsay kinda testily then calls Richard Briers dad. But still, calling Gordon Dad. That seems kind of weird and significant, now that I think about it, twenty years later.

And now Gordon is a dad, of course. He and Babs finally got married, and then they had Ally, who’ll be eleven next March. Goodness, how time flies.

Happy Birthday!