I was prompted to start this blog after my life-long friend, Rick Baker, passed away. I began writing down some of our stories to share with other friends at his memorial and perhaps as a way to deal with his absence. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. are terrible platforms for sharing these types of stories as far as I’m concerned, so here I am.
His memorial was held just yesterday and I showed a photo montage of photos taken over the nearly 45 years we knew each other. There was much stress over all of this as I had thousands of paper photos and slides to dig through to find pictures of Rick, then scan and restore with Photoshop, upload to an edit program and then organize the shots somehow.
The pressure was completely self-induced as I had always been the “official photographer” during all of our adventures and I wanted to share with everyone the depth of a life not lived from the sidelines in the best light.
It took weeks to dig through all the boxes and totes in my house to find the photos of Rick. The photographs weren’t very organized of course, there always seems to be something else with higher priority and you think you have all the time in the world to get to it. Death quickly brings everything back in focus and forces you to deal with it.
It was both heart warming and heart breaking to look at each picture and think back to the moment when the image was snapped. I would alternately scan the pictures, write a story as I was thinking about Rick in that particular situation and weep over the fact we would never be able to look at them together and tell more lies about our war stories.
I will add other tales I do not want to forget over time, but for now I’ll start with some stories I experienced with Rick.
PS: The photo at the top is a bit ironic as Rick had purchased the camera from a friend at a “great deal”…I’m sure because the camera was hot. He took a roll or two but never really caught the photographer bug.
Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton
Tall Tales From Capt Rogue 
I I am glad you have found a way to express and share memories. I am so sorry to hear about your friend’s death. I still struggle at times with surfing the emotions that come with the loss of friends and family.
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Nice start.
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