I’ve been thinking and talking about having a Garage Night, a monthly hangout where friends can hang out and talk shop, hobbies, life, whatever. It’s been floating around in my head for a couple years, but back in January I heard an interview on NPR with Boston Globe reporter Billy Baker about his book: We Need to Hang Out. I haven’t read the book, but in the interview he talks about how middle aged men in general have fewer friends than women, and how he set up a regular hangout night for his friends.
I feel lucky to have met some really good friends in my 30s through the motorcycle community. A small group of us got together weekly for a few years, traveled together, and went on weekend cabin excursions. A few years ago though, I moved to a different city. I kept up the weekly trips to our regular bar for a while, but after a few years, the weekly trips were getting much, and I had quit my job in Seattle, and I faded away. I’ve met a few people down here, but I don’t really hang out with my Seattle friend anymore, and the pandemic made it a lot worse.
A month ago I bought a new tool chest. It is big, heavy, and took up the entire back of my truck. I tried to see if some neighbors were around to help me, but then I thought of my friend Jason. I met him through roller derby probably 10 years ago, and he moved down here about 2 years ago. Like 3 blocks away. And I’ve probably seen him 3 times. We got to talking about the pandemic and no seeing anyone for the last year, and I told him about my Garage Night idea and the story I’d heard and how I haven’t hung out with anyone in a really like time, and we were like we need to hang out.
But my garage is a mess. I’ve been working on house projects and personal projects, and I have a Karmann Ghia in there and two motorcycles. Getting that new tool box helped me organize a lot of stuff, and building drawers in my workbench got a lot of things put away as well. A few weeks back also found out that one of my neighbors has a cool old BMW, so I got talking to him. I also kind of got shared custody of Tacoma’s classic motorcycle and scooter night, and with pandemic restrictions coming to an end, I decided that it was time to get in gear and clean out the shop.
I held Garage Night #1 on June 24th. I invited my old Seattle friends, and I invited some new friends from Tacoma. We talked shop. We talked life. I kind of over did things by firing up the grill, but it was kind of neighborhood piknik, so it was all good. I got to talk to people that I hadn’t had the opportunity to talk to much. I introduced people to new people. I’m skipping it for July because I have a motorcycle event to plan, but I hope to make this a monthly thing starting in August.