Old Friends

I dont have many old friends left, anymore.. Some have moved, but most are dead now.. I was the rowdy one, yet have outlived the biggest part of them.. A bunch never had any kids, let alone bounce a grandbaby on their knee.. I can just imagine the sadness in their minds as they drifted away knowing that there was still a lot of life left to have been lived.. I talk about getting old with other folks, and the phrase " it aint the years, it's the miles" keeps getting repeated.. In 48 years, I've put a lot of miles on this ol body.. It shows too. Most of my old friends that are gone now had neither a lot of miles, nor a lot of years behind them.. I had 2 old friends that seemed to live their lives thru me.. When I joined the military and was getting ready to ship out, I had one friend that tried to settle down and be a good citizen.. It didnt agree with him tho, and he got killed in a car wreck.. He loved his fast cars and fast women, and I would never have thought he would go while driving a VW to a social function with his wife.. Soon after I got out of boot camp and got to come home before I went to my permanent duty station, I went to visit another old friend.. He was trying to have a life without ol Wild Bill around too.. It wasnt sitting too well with him either.. A couple of weeks later he hung himself.. It scared the shit out of me too.. It didnt take long for me to get divorced and resume my wild side of life.. I was divorced at noon and before dark the same day, I met a girl that liked my wild side, and we spent the next 15 years together.. She got tired of my wild side and when she couldnt change it, she packed-up and left.. I spent the next 5 years keepin God, the EMS service, and a platoon of doctors busy trying to keep me alive.. I've been a fairly "good boy" for the past 5 years and feel myself slowly going downhill.. Hell, I aint even been shot at lately.. My life is turning into one-day-after-another.. I'm starting to wonder if ol Wild Bill still has what it takes.. I've been known, far and wide, as Wild Bill since I was 16 years old, and lately I dont introduce myself as Wild Bill any more.. Just Bill.. Dont seem natural.. When my Dad was sheriff, it would piss him off when somebody would say, "oh, your Wild Bill's daddy" !! What I'm trying to say is, that I want to die in the saddle, with my boots on, guns blazing, for a good cause, against insurmountable odds.. Who knows, I may yet get to be a Captain in the Great Mexican War of the 21st Century..