Men's Club

I was talking to Patrick on the phone the other day to ask him about his playing out as a guest guitarist for one of his musician friend's band and it sounded so good to hear his voice. We really do need to get together and we agreed to make that happen very soon.

Talking with him reminded me of all our times hanging out together with a bunch of guys in what we called Men's Club. The group basically consisted of me, Dave, Tom, Patrick, John and Bob. Occasionally there would be another person at any given time but the core group had been getting together regularly since the early to mid 1980s. We started out going to rock shows, just a group of friends, a guys night out. We enjoyed the company. 

Later we started having families and the Men's Club became a boys night out and after a while instead of going to some club or bar we would take turns hanging out at one another's house. The focus was still music but then it became a time and place to share new music we had added to our collections. All of us had significant album collections and this was a fun way to listen to each other's new albums. We'd have an occasional joint too. At that point we were getting together every few months or so and at least about six times a year. Sometimes more.

This when on through the 1980's, 1990's, 2000's and then slowed down somewhat in the 2010's. Right now I'm sitting in out in our backyard cabana sunroom and there were many times when we would sit around in that room on a summer evening listening to music and talking sports and politics.

Many times when we came by someone's house for the gathering we would put the CDs we'd brought on the dining room table where everyone could peruse them. Then we would pick something out to listen and that would go on all evening. In the later years I would bring CD mixes and that was a lot of fun too. Nobody else did that and I was the king of the mixtape. Not everyone continued to add to their music collections over the years and the stack of new CDs on the table shrank over time. At some point I brought along a stack of mix CDs. I would burn extras and offered them to anyone who wanted to take one home.

At one point Patrick and his wife bought their cottage in Wilson because they wanted somewhere to go as a vacation place but they didn't like to travel. The cottage worked out for them on Lake Ontario. Very nice. Patrick invited Men's Club to come up there to spend the night together about once a year during the summer. We would hang out, eat some food, listen to music and then crash in the several bedrooms in the cottage. It was all very nice and we always had a great time.

It's been a few years now since we've gotten together and I miss the group. It's time to have a revival.