I am fascinated by names. If you tell me you have started a band, created a business, or formed a kickball team, my first question will be what is the name?  If I hear a unique phrase in a conversation, say dancing elephants, my response will always be Dancing Elephants, the name of my new band. I enjoy this elaboration on the unique name game. Being a musician, I will always think to band names first.

And so, at the beginning of this site, I wanted to talk about the name. Endless Driveway. My parents’ house is on a relatively small cul de sac street. Growing up, my friends and I would hang out there a lot because we could be out in the yard and street without worrying too much about cars. In high school, my circle of friends was not a part of the cool crowd. Therefore, we did not get invited to all of the cool crowd crazy parties. And so, on Friday and Saturday nights, we found our own entertainment. Many nights were spent in my house’s bonus room playing music. Alas, Endless Driveway was not the name of our band.  The music side of the story is for another time.

We would spend the rest of the time sitting in lawn chairs in the driveway.  We would stare at the stars and talk about things that seemed very mature for our high school minds.  We would talk about life and the universe and what it all meant. Now that I am a good deal older from that time, it seems very ridiculous.  But, it was good times spent with good people.

When my clique of mostly guys collided with a neighbor’s clique of mostly girls, we would meet up at the driveway.  When we felt silly, we would take out old riding toys we were way too big for and race down the driveway.  We shot hoops on the driveway.  When we graduated high school, we smoked cigars on the driveway.  When we got back together during our college years, we returned to the driveway.  And when one of our number tragically passed away a few years after college, we remembered him on the driveway.

It was this unfortunate event that spawned the Name.  Missing and remembering my friend, I wrote a short story about the two of us and the driveway.  The name of that short story?  I’ll give you two guesses, but you’re only going to need one.