Plug-in to the Authentics by Southside Author
Posted on May 4, 2008
Filed Under LT Writers |
“There is no better looking-glass than an old friend.” T. Fuller
He’s one of our most read writers in the TAMC Anthology.
In this short story, Mike looks at Tahoe’s endearing transient lifestyle and friendships made along the way.
Plug-in to the Authentics
‘North Carolina’ Nick, ‘That one fool’ Vince, Joe ‘Smith’, Kerianne-‘Man’, ‘Josh-Mang’, ‘Dyl’ Terhune, Alex ‘Baby Frankenstein’, Lady Moe, Andy Lanes—these are only a few of many who crossed paths within the sect known as the ‘Tahoe Connection’. Each person brought some accordance of uniqueness from the spread of California, to parts of the U.S., to countries across the Atlantic. All walks of life take a ‘breather’ in Tahoe to experience the marvelous weather, the terrific times, and the celebrated prospects of meeting individuals that share an embraced propensity to latch on and become cemented into one’s consciousness.
Or it could be chalked up to fate in that who I met served a purpose, supplying a stylized perspective, a perceptive delicacy for me to take pleasure in while maneuvering on my journey through life’s interstates. I am not the type to introduce myself to people when I first meet them. Call me ‘anti-social’ but its part of my eccentricity. Chances are you know my name before we meet, and I yours.
Exchanging names with the newly learned-condition of the ‘post-handshake pound’ appears merely a formality in moving along to meet the next ‘new’ set of people. If you have something substantial to offer we will eventually get to know each other and knowing names will only then be worth it.
Only the ‘truest’ of souls stick out as being remembered. Names can stand in the way yet on the flip-side, the individual that ‘earns’ a ‘Tahoe’ handle remain as markers to those who meant something real in this oft referenced bankrupt world of mere representations. Authentic individuals should be what’s sought after and everlastingly held.
Although I may not keep in contact with every person I eventually became quite good friends with—those people who were more than just a part of the ‘cast’ of surrounding acquaintances will be forever recollected in the cabinet of valued memories. Validated friends and I would partake in all that is offered in the basin both atypical and typical.
Between the skateboarding lifestyle and established nightlife, the intertwined lives of folks met in the Tahoe area will always share within the uniquely qualitative essence of the Lake. Someone who envisions the ‘Tahoe experience’ for the first time shares that adoration with another and when that step is taken to make residence at the Lake, therein awaits a network of deeply-chill folks and straight-up good-people that will connect and set forth upbeat vibrations that cradle the soul.
The Native Americans who once made Tahoe their own expressed that the area possessed a supernatural power that would uplift the soul and caress the body’s woes, creating the most genuine of experiences—the direct link of the senses to nature.
Rarely will someone waltz away from Tahoe wishing that their time spent could be taken back. Maybe it could’ve been done differently, but most definitely well worth the leap of faith. For the relationships that spawned out of this remarkable Lake, to those in the future, an eternal lasting coats the area, fostering impressions of sanguinity and exclamations of authenticity.
by Michael Ribaudo
“Fate leads the willing, and drags the rest along.” Seneca
Photos by Brandon Rein
