“Friendship improves happiness and abates misery

by doubling our joys and dividing our grief.”

– Joseph Addison, English essayist, poet and politician

“I don’t really know the song,” admitted Lloyd.

“That’s OK,” I said. “The words are pretty easy to remember.”

It was evening – July 1977 – Golden, British Columbia. I had taken a week off from my first job in radio and decided to spend it with my cousin and surrogate kid brother Lloyd. We were camping by the Columbia River where a small campfire burned and a case of beer chilled nearby. A night course in music I had taken at the local college hadn’t taught me to sing on key, but I had become a fairly proficient folk guitarist –a poor man&rsqu...

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