Tomorrow will mark the mostly annual Gathering of Fools. The core members of my earliest gaming group from my High School and College years and beyond (1982-97) will be gaming, eating, drinking, watching bad movies and generally doing stupid stuff.
Although we stopped gaming weekly back in March of 1997, we keep in contact daily through emails and get together every June starting in 2002, as we lost one of our members on 9-11. Paul's birthday was in the middle of June, so we gather in his memory. We used to get together once or twice a year before we lost Paul, but June became the time to mark the memory.
Which of you still game with your original gaming group all of these years later? Still keep in contact with them? Gather up the lads and lasses once or twice a year?
Internecine Ice Cream Infighting
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We all like ice cream. There is nothing like a 99 Flake on a hot summer’s
day with its soft, Mr. Whippy—thank you Margaret Thatcher, crunchy cone,
and a s...
1 hour ago
My first gaming group was with some friends in junior high. For good or ill, I don't really ever talk or see anyone from that period of my life any more.
ReplyDeleteOne of my original group, from back in the early 80s, is a member of my current group. Another one did join us but his heart wasn't in it, however his wife is now a stalwart member of the new group. The last member of my original group moved away and drops in when he can - unfortunately that seems to be getting increasingly infrequent as the demands of his job increase.
ReplyDeleteI started playing again regularly (via Skype) with most of my original gaming group in 2009. We see each other periodically - not often enough, but we've all managed to stay good friends and in touch for 30 years, despite now being scattered to literally almost every corner of the country. For us, D&D is a good excuse to stay in routine touch, as a group. The gaming is just a bonus.
ReplyDeleteMy earliest players were all in high school and earlier, and the only one I still know is my sister, who stopped gaming around 1992 (the last game I ever ran in which she guested). My first college group in 1989 has almost entirely gotten back in touch with me via facebook, where they reminisce about the good old days. If they ever got back into gaming and stopped in my neck of the woods I'd welcome them to my group, but they all, to a man, have lives that forced them away from any sort of personal fun for the last two decades that wasn't socially acceptable in the most conventional sense, best as I can tell, so they seem happy with keeping it as reminiscent nostalgia.
ReplyDeleteI still game with two of my HS friends. One sometimes plays. The rest, they were people I played with and not so much friends.
ReplyDeleteI play with a guy I used to play with in Junior High (he re-joined us like 15 years later), and some guys I played with since they were in High School. My original group? No, that was elementary school, and none of them still play that I know of.
ReplyDeleteNot a single one of them. I started gaming at 9, 33 years later I'm not in contact with anyone from that era anymore.
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