What Comes Around

For three years when I was a kid, I lived near Somerville, New Jersey and attended Old York Elementary School located on Old York Road. Built in the 18th century, York Road (the “old” part came a bit later) connected Philadelphia to New York. A stagecoach could make a one-way trip between the two cities in two days with multiple stops along the way—super fast at the time. The road still exists in pieces. My family lived just a few blocks from one of those sections. I remember my dad explaining the significance of the road at the time. Being a history nerd even then, I tucked that piece of information somewhere in the back of my brain and really didn’t think much more about it.

Years later, back living in the Philadelphia area, I had a job interview just off the PA Turnpike in Willow Grove. As I exited the Turnpike going north on 611, I realized that I was driving on a portion of, you guess it, Old York Road. The very same Old York Road that I had gone to school on and lived just off of 15 or so years earlier. I got the job, moved to Willow Grove, and found an apartment sitting on York Road. I still live a few blocks from it.

After a few years, I started freelancing. While talking to one of my client’s, I discovered he had grown up near Somerville (small world) and had attended that same elementary school back when it was just a one-room schoolhouse.

Over the years, places, things, people, connections circle into my life and circle back out. Not always exactly the same or in the same way, but there, casting shadows and memories, tying the past with the present in patterns that aren’t always obvious at the time. It is something that comes to my mind in January, a month named after the two-faced god (the god literally had two faces) that represented endings and beginnings, transitions and passages, doorways and duality.

My first real grown-up job was at Commodore Computers. In the computer and electronics industries, the yearly CES show held each January is THE EVENT to show off new products and ideas. Each year, the engineers and tech folks, would spend a crazy December putting finishing touches on some new computer to present to the world at CES. Yes, those prototypes were usually held together with some combination of spit and bailing wire (and a lot of fairy dust), but they always made it to the show. I worked on the Commodore’s consumer magazines, and we always needed to have a super special issue ready for January that could be handed out at CES. There was always a huge sigh of relief as January passed into February with CES was in the rear-view mirror.

Now, almost 40 years later, I find I am once again consumed by a mid-January trade show/conference. VMX, NAVC’s yearly extravaganza for the veterinary community, takes place for five event-filled days mid-January every year. The conference includes exhibits, continuing education plus networking events galore. And lots and lots of materials that need to be designed. I work on signage, proceedings, handouts, booth layouts, digital advertising, you name it. The show makes for a very hectic fall and winter. And when it is all done, there is once again a huge sigh of relief as January passes into February, and VMX is in the rear-view mirror.

It is not the same, but a familiar pattern and feeling. And if you don’t believe me, you can ask my cat, Cleopatra. She is my fourth Cleopatra. Not the same as the rest, but all most excellent cats.