Time Stand Still

by Rush

I turn my back to the wind to catch my breath,

Before I start off again

Driven on, without a moment to spend

To pass an evening

With a drink and a friend

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I let my skin get too thin

I'd like to pause, No matter what I pretend

Like some pilgrim

Who learns to transcend

Learns to live

As if each step was the end

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Time stand still

I'm not looking back

but I want to look around me now

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Time stand still

See more of the people and the places

that surround me now

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Time stand still

Freeze this moment a little bit longer

Make each sensation a little bit stronger

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Experience slips away...

Experience slips away...

Time stand still.

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+++++++++++++

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There are places in our past that leave indelible imprints in our hearts and minds. For my friends and me, that place was Pickerington Cemetery.

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Although I think Steve Gorgias was the first to find the cemetery, I'm sure half a dozen others will claim the find as their own. Throughout the Summer of 1987, our group ("The Pit", we called ourselves) began most nights by gathering at Burger King.

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Dennis Macy took the brown Gran Torino, Davis took his yellow "Le Car" (not just a car...it's 'Le Car', as Poirier often reminded us), Andy Van Buren took his baby blue VW Beetle and Poirier took his bright orange Fiesta. Other cars went, too. So, it was a parade of teenagers speeding through the streets of Reynoldsburg and Pickerington to go to the cemetery. Pickerington police must've figured we were looking for our drinking spot.

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 But we weren't. We were just hanging out. Hanging out and hanging on to our friendships.

.A small gravel drive led up the hill to the cemetery. Approximately 300 gravestones lined the cul-de-sac and the tiny turnaround at the top of the hill. At the bend, you could see the surrounding lights of Meijer's to the left and 33 South to the right. For 18-year-olds, the view was impressive. Better than the view around us was the view above. Yabo (Eric Yavitch) and Pedro (Pete DiSalvo) told us when there were meteor showers or planets or constellations to look out for. 
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After we parked our cars, we'd all get out and lean on the bumpers or sit on the hoods of the cars. Sometimes, Yavitch would lead a group through the cemetery to the nearby apple orchard.

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One time, we'd heard a dog barking at the top of the hill near the orchard. I remember Eric and me being there, but I also think Tiffany Reddy and Allie Woodall were there in the orchard, too. As soon as the dog began barking, we all took off, every man (and woman) for themselves.

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I managed to avoid the barbwire fence that separated the graveyard from the apple orchard. Eric, however, did not. He tore a six or seven inch gash in the upper inside of one of his thighs. I don't remember if he got a shot for it, but he never got tetanus, as far as I know.

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We stayed out 'til 3, or 4 in the morning, worrying our parents to death. But, we weren't drinking (well, not too much). We weren't smoking pot. We played a game we called "conversations", asking questions like "who was your first?", "If you could marry any girl from high school, who would it be?", and "best original album ever?"

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In college, I had to write an essay, visiting a high school memory. I chose the old Pickerington cemetery. I took classes at Ohio University's Lancaster campus and the Pickerington Cemetery lay halfway between college and home.

I went to that old cemetery in the light of day. In daylight, and 5 years later, the cemetery was just a small plot of land with some gravestones. The rusty wire fence that encircled the graveyard was broken down and worn out, although it was probably still strong enough to rip another gash in Eric Yavitch's leg.

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Maybe it was just the timing. Maybe it was just the romance and mystery that moonlight gives to a place that sunlight does not. Maybe it was being eighteen years old.

At eighteen, we were too old to be kids, too young to be adults, but we we desperately wanted to be both. We wanted to play baseball in Doug Leonard's backyard. We wanted to make out with that girl who sat next to us in Chemistry class. We wanted to know where our separate lives would take us.

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We just wanted more time.