For Tom, I Suspend

An old friend, a classmate, a bandmate from many years ago, is dead.  We only find out now, a year later.  Just a death notice, no details.

I sent this to the class, and he deserves much more.  At the suggestion of another classmate, I'll risk perdition and post at least this:

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Chambers was a front man. Had he been in the Rascals he would have been way better than Gene, and Eddie and Felix couldn't have stood the competition.

He introduced me to Winwood, Clapton, Hendrix. He loved hooking up his very impressive stereo at the beginning of a term and taking it down at the end. In the meantime he slept as much as possible because, he told me, it made time go by more quickly. He could not wait to get on with life.

He bedded great looking girls.

There was a tape of us playing the 25th. We all kind of showed our age, but Tom did at least one break that wiped me out. I found myself shouting.

Awful to find out this way, but he was hiding from us. I think - based on very little evidence - that he was ashamed that he did not live up to his potential. And he did not. Because if he had, he would have been a star.