Jeff Calder's 50th Birthday Memoirs > David Greenberger (1) > Tools
Jeff has wandered through the past two-and-a-half decades of my life with numerous sterling moments, rich with hilarity, surreality, intellectual hijinks and more. We've never lived in the same city, hence our interactions were first when the Swimming Pool Qs were touring in the late Seventies, and I lived in Boston (and they'd stay at my apartment), and also annually or thereabouts when I come down to Atlanta to visit my family (and I must add that I have never lived in Atlanta - they moved down there in the early Seventies while I was in college).
Barbara, my wife, has only known Jeff as the guy we visit in Atlanta, often late at night. I tell her of my first introductions to him, as a performer buoyed by the strength of the band and the material. He'd be possessed by the rich and honest characterizations the songs afforded him, springing to enormous life on stage.
Equally compelling, albeit out of the traditional performance realm, was a jaunt we made with him a couple years ago whilst visiting in Atlanta. We met up late one night, for beverages. After two establishments closed, Jeff suggested we go to the Home Depot which stayed open 24 hours a day. And we did. Strolling the aisles around two in the morning it was clear that Jeff's familiarity with the various product lines was deep and broad, indicating that these store visits were a somewhat regular event for him. It's rare that I go to the Home Depot near our little village in upstate New York, but when I do, it's just not the same. Jeff is the glue between the Home Depot and me. without him along, I'm aimless and adrift in the aisles.
-- David Greenberger