Back In Black — by Dan Lynn

By Dan Lynn

I had a wonderful, life-long friend named Dave Kreutzer. We grew up in the same neighborhood. In high school, we were allowed days off to visit colleges. So one day Dave and I borrowed a friend's sports car and set off to visit one.

On the way, we stopped and bought a cassette that had just been released: AC/DC's Back In Black. We put it in, turned the volume as high as it would go, and experienced that album for the first time. Wow. The energy of it. We drove around all day and must have played it twenty times. We found a spot where the road crossed railroad tracks and took it fast enough to hit our heads on the roof, over and over, laughing our asses off. I still laugh about that with the friend who lent us the car. He doesn't laugh quite as much as I do.

We never made it to the college tour - although we told our parents and teachers that we did.

But here's what I know now, more than forty years later: I couldn't tell you very much about any college visit I actually completed. And I remember everything about that day. The tape. The tracks. The laughing. Dave.

Dave passed away in 2020, from kidney cancer. I miss him. And I've learned something about the days you steal — the ones where you don't do what you were supposed to do. At the time, they feel like skipping. Later, they turn out to be the treasure.

When someone is gone, you don't get to go back and schedule a great day with them. You only get to keep the ones you already took. So take them. Take more of them than feels responsible.