37/365 My Girl

I am unable to hear the first measures of the Temptations’ “My Girl” without thinking of my friend Wayne. It’s almost as if that song is the beginning of our buddy movie, the opening shot taken from a moving car on some road trip, speeding along some famous city bridge over water, sky bluer than blue. Cue title, opening credits (with a cast of close to a dozen).

Tim had started working at an activist organization in DC. This was a weekend staff retreat, families invited. I can’t remember where it was, but Tim and I went, and so did Craig.

Wayne had started working there recently, the same day as Tim, but he was a way-higher-up. I don’t remember if Wayne hosted the talent show, but he was the talent. He opened with “My Girl,” those perfect, immediately recognizable guitar notes grabbing everyone’s attention. His wife Sue sang with him. I didn’t know it then, but before long, I’d count this duet among my closest friends.

The other association I have with this song is a Baltimore news promo from the seventies about Channel 13’s weatherman, in which they substituted his name, Bob Turk, for the words my girl. Yes, advertising forever places connections in one’s mind, whether one wants them there or not.

But first and foremost, it is Wayne playing the guitar that night so long ago, Sue singing by his side, and everything that came after. I have really been missing them lately.