Shipmates

A few days before Christmas, I was strolling through a department store when I caught a glimpse of someone I knew. It was Lincoln, a guy I used to work with. At first, my initial reaction was to hide...I don't know why, shyness? unease? But then a moment later I thought, "hey wait a minute, I KNOW this guy! we spent years together every day, like shipmates..."
So I waited until he walked past, "hey Lincoln!"
He was startled for a second, "oh my god! hey Dan! how ya doin'!" and we shook hands with genuine smiles and an instant feeling of camaraderie. As it should be...when you work with someone every day, for months or years, there's a certain bond...even if you weren't necessarily 'friends' there is still that bond of knowing someone every day. And you do come to know them....
We chatted for a bit, I asked him about his music, his son.... and whether he was still working as a computer artist. He said "nooo, I've tried and I've tried..."
I said "yeah, me too. I work at Safeway now...
"phhht yeahh, well hey, work is work!"
So we said bye, and as we went on our way, at the same moment we both looked back and we gave each other a little salute!...And it struck me, where did that come from? Maybe because we always worked on military type games, and were immersed in that?...or did ol' Lincold think the same thing I did...that we were once shipmates, on a good ship, and we both missed those times.