Pivotal Moments…

PIVOTAL MOMENTS... That's all that make up the big things in life. A dear friend was over... He's wonderful, because he has (because of his own pivotal moments) got a wide-eyed-wonder view of life. After helping me clean up at the warehouse (Read: letting me load he and his mini-van up with magic that went against our 2016 resolution to perform more of our magic and less of other's creations)...we were all gathered around my wife, Athena's, meatloaf and fresh brewed coffee; telling tales of magic.  

He paused, my friend did. We had been talking about Darwin's Magic Club...and of my early days. He shook his head, and chuckled. And then he said the most profound thing. I had heard it, even said it before. But this, for some reason, was one of my pivotal moments.  "You had the perfect magical childhood". 

I did. I had. It was. I cannot explain what happened in those next few moments. A "whooshing" sound effect and falling back in time movie. From right then at that moment...

To....

I'm 7 years old. 1967. My mom has made plans for us to go to Looy and Cholly Simonoff's apartment for dinner. Looy is a professor of mathematics at the University here in Vegas (SNU at the time), and his wife Cholly - an archaeology post grad I believe; but honestly... even though Cholly was awesome, I don't remember her in my moment... I don't remember dinner either. Adults and adult conversation: "Blah blah blah?" "Blah!  Blah blah blah blah!"  Who knows!  Who knew....

I remember the first thing that caught my attention.  Looy. Deep bass voice. Quizzical look. Cocked head. Staring at me asking "Barry?  Do you like magic?"  I didn't know. I saw Bozo the Clown (Mr. Wizard was on Bozo). The magic land of Ala Kazam... I had joined the club even. "Sure, said I...enough I guess!" 

The rest, a blur. A coin rubbed into an elbow, the elbow shaken so you could hear all the previously vanished coins jangling around in there!  Later, I would kid that, being Jewish - I had seen learning how to do that as my way to get through college. Great line. Not true. Coin reproduced and set in my hand. Looy did maybe MAYBE a solid 15-20 minutes. Just with a coin. The coin in my hand. The Pivotal Coin....

"How?  How did you do it?" Asked pivotal me. "793.8" replied pivotal Looy. Look it up next time you are at the Library..... Odd. I never begged, or pleaded... You know-- the typical "But please? Can't you just show me?"  None of that. 

793.8.Tomorrow...what could it mean?