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There and Back Again

The Moncton Boys will soon be together again.

I first came to Asia (to China) in 1997, and then in 1998 I moved to Tokyo. That year, I started what would now be called a group mailing list with friends from back home (my hometown of Moncton in Canada). It was simplified in the sense that we would just send our messages to everyone’s individual addresses, and then “reply to all” for the follow-ups.

In January of 2006, I used Google Groups to make it easier for us to continue sending our messages, creating a group I called “Moncton Boys,” and we’ve continued to use it to this day — although we’re certainly not as active as we used to be.

What I just realized now when I checked the group to find out when I had started it, is that every single message we sent is archived there, which as you can imagine is an interesting way to look back at what was being said over the years.

With my upcoming trip in August — the one I need an FM transmitter for — I decided to organize an old-school get-together at my parents house, inviting all of the “Moncton Boys” (we’re a dozen) over for some drinkin’ and chattin’, listening to tunes, and basically catching up. Luckily, most everyone will be in town — 3 others had fled like me.

The one thing that won’t be the same is when we end playing billiards, as I imagine we will. My parents have long had a pool table at home, and using it was a staple of hanging out at my place. One thing that possibly enhanced — but in reality, distracted from — the playing was that the second dog we had — a Shetland Sheepdog named Zarico — had the extremly odd behaviour of constantly running around the table whenever a game was being played. Never stopping. If he was near a pocket when a ball went in, he would let out a bark.

Zarico passed away quite a few years ago. Our games of pool just won’t be the same.

Woof.

By Jean Snow

Production Services Manager at Ubisoft Shanghai. Before that, half a life spent in Tokyo.