Pour a Taste For A Brotha Who Is No Longer With Us
I was talking with another old friend of mine He told me that on the morning of 9/11 Brian called his mother on the phone; from the 80’th floor of WTC #2, to tell her that he was ok. That was the LAST TIME anyone heard from him…
Editors Note: I initially wrote this piece in December of 2001, so some of you may want to skip past it this time around. I wanted to repeat it today, because of an amazing web page (to me) that I became aware of….(Bob Davis)
Brian Jones…
I saw this web page and I started crying.
After I composed myself I realized what a truly great thing this site was and
I decided to write this piece for several reasons.
1. I wanted to further honor my friend, seeing this kind of brought a sense of closure for me
2. I wanted put the face of a real human being to what I had wrote about him
3. I wanted to humanize the MIND BLOWING HORROR of what has happened
4. I wanted to put the site out there so that anyone else who may have lost a loved one to know that there is a place that they are memorialized, especially since for many, their loved one hasn’t been recovered
Anyhow, here is the original piece…
The link is posted again at the end
….Bob Davis
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Brian Jones was my friend
We went to High School together and we lived in the same neighborhood. My parents and his parents were friends. His father was an NBA referee. We used to hang out together at basketball courts & lots of other places. We used to tease him about his lack of skills on the court…
Brian was what some people would refer to as a “pretty boy”. During the 1970’s when we were going to HS he wore an afro so high, that it seemed to touch the sky Some females who hung around us referred to Brian as “foine”. Some said that he looked like Max Jullien, in the “Mack”. While the rest of us were chasing females, women chased Brian..
When we went to “blue light basement parties”, outside of our neighborhood, Brian was always the one who grinded with the best looking women and who would always end up with the most phone numbers at the end of the night.
Brian Jones was also a pretty smart guy, an avid reader. His standardized test scores were always very high. However, in school, he was a poor student. The teachers would often say, “Brian, if only you would apply yourself…”
What they didn’t know is that, Brian DID “apply himself”…He “applied himself”, in areas of music, philosophy, politics, women, sociology, etc.
He was an excellent conversationalist, as were all of the members of our “crew”. He was a participant in the many RAGING conversations that our “crew” would have, long into hot summer nights (on a front stoop, a basketball court, street corner, etc.) about music, philosophy, politics, women, sociology, etc.
In these conversations, there was rarely agreement between the participants In fact none of the disagreements were without serious friction However the friction didn’t matter much, what was important was the sharing of the idea, regardless of how idiotic it might seem like on the surface In fact, many of these conversations would end with the “traditional pouring of a taste for the brotha’s who are no longer with us…”
And with that, everyone would go home, just a little wiser and just a little closer with each other
It was 1973 and our “crew” thought that we could change the world It all seemed possible.
All that we could hope for and plan seemed to be within our grasp. After all, since we were young, had ideas, and had the time to implement them, there was nothing to stop us..
After High School I kinda lost track of Brian Jones.
Time and space separated the two of us as it has many of my friends from that era. The last time that I saw him was in 1980 or so.
Earlier today, I was driving into NYC to attend an event that I had planned on writing about tonight. As I passed the last exit of the NJ Turnpike and I caught a glimpse of the NYC skyline. I saw that “aura”, that surely all New Yorkers must see, where two buildings that I know quite well should be. I also noticed that the other buildings now seemed to be much bigger than before, now that their “big brothers” were no longer there to minimize their size. A chill ran down my spine and I quickly turned my head.
About an hour ago, I was talking with another old friend of mine He told me that on the morning of 9/11 Brian called his mother on the phone; from the 80’th floor of WTC #2, to tell her that he was ok. That was the LAST TIME anyone heard from him…
Right at this moment, I don’t feel much like writing about any event! Tonight, I am pouring a taste for Brian. I know that wherever he is, he has got yet another idea, might be a good one, might be a bad one, Either way, it’s an idea from Brian Jones is always an idea that is worth listening to…
R.I.P. – BRIAN JONES…
