Twists And Turns

Every now and again I get caught up in wondering how different my life might have been if certain turning points had turned a different direction. The first and biggest one I wonder about occurred in 1968, when my parents decided to move us from Odenton, Maryland to Vero Beach, Florida during the summer. Many things would have been a lot different. Better? No telling. Different, definitely. By the end of ninth grade, I had made a name for myself as a photographer, with my own darkroom and growing expertise. Those in charge of the yearbook informed me that I would be a staff photographer during my last three years of high school. Also, I was a good football player, and I'm pretty sure I would have made the Arundel High School team. Instead, I was moved to a place where I knew nobody, had no history or credibility, and the weather was way too hot to think about donning a football uniform.

The second one kind of grabbed me this past week. After graduation from high school in 1971, I moved back to Maryland and before long was working in the Display Department of the Montgomery Ward store in Glen Burnie. I lived near a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant called "Leo's Sub Stop," where I became friendly with Leo and the whole Canaan family. I was a big help to Leo, and when he bought a restaurant in Charmco, West Virginia, he always included me in his big plans for the place. He envisioned a hotel, a putt putt course, an arcade, a gift shop...But things got off track between us, we had a falling out, and that was the end of that. Recently I've been looking up Canaans, trying to find out whatever happened to Leo, Norma, Paula, Danny, Donna, Mary and David. I haven't learned much, but it appears that Leo's extravagant plans never came to fruition, at least not the Disneyesque venture he had drawn on the napkins of Leo's Sub Stop. 

So perhaps I would have stuck with my family away from family for some time, and perhaps not. All I can say with certainty is that it doesn't matter to the rich and full life I've had since the early seventies. But I do wonder whether any of the Canaans even remember me and my two years of devotion to their family.