Have you ever given up a passion ?

For a number of years I wasted hundreds of man hours in the chess room at the Mechanics Institute. Those were the salad days when I had a sense of humor. A very eclectic bunch of folks frequented that room, and too many of them have since died. There were Elderly Russian gentlemen who had actually fled the revolution with their parents to Shanghai. And the Russians were SO funny. There were tugboat crewmen, 10 & 12 year olds who’d skip school to be there, along with high toned professional people. Caspar Weinberger would hang out there, and great chess masters passed through the place like migrating birds. The air in the room was blue with cigarette, pipe and cigar smoke. The room would close at 10 PM, whereupon many of us would walk to North Beach or Clown Alley where those with money would pitch in to feed those without. Happy memories from a bygone age.

Anthropology.

Chose a major that I could actually make a living with instead.

Went back to grad school in Anthro while working full time. Lasted about 1½ years before it got too be too much. (didn’t help that we had a second child at that time too). Work, Home, Family, School, something had to give and Anthro was it.

I am self taught on the piano (which means I suck). I have always had a piano. When I had my small apartment, I had one in the kitchen.
I now live in a pretty large house, but there really isn’t a space for one. Combined with my arms and hands now cramping when I play, I have given it up.

Guitar, while I still play it’s at a very attenuated magnitude and frequency. I’m too busy and old to stay up in some smoky shit-hole bar somewhere playing music that only a quarter of the audience is even slightly interested in listening too. I’ll pick it up every few weeks or so and play for about an hour. If anything just to keep the skill from leaving me completely. I tried to form a new group a couple of years ago after a 15 year hiatus and it was pitiful. Most musicians still playing around the age of 40 are either burn-outs or have a 16 year old mindset. I simply can’t deal with it.

@stanleybmanly

God, I’d love to have been around a place like that back in the day. I’m guessing, then, that you probably at least crossed paths with guys like Walter Browne and John Grefe?