Throwaway Youth, (A New Year's Eve)

My father threw out the photo album containing my and others youth when I was away, aah, "vacationing," at Silver Hill Hospital. It wasn't deliberate; the book was stored with a lot of junk at Moishe's storage in Queens, so out it went too.
The most important photos in there were of a New Year's Eve at Vicky Rappaport's house in DC in the horrible Reagan Youth mid-1980s. I was a sophomore in college, which would make it the turn of 85-86. I knew that that night was going to be the last time I would see most of these people together, or at all. So I did some photojournalism of the night.
Now I can only describe what I remember of the pictures, in words before I lose the memory:
John Huddle holding a half-eaten Fudgesickle at his house on Rittenhouse Street
Me with longish hair holding out two Milwaukee's Best in the living room. I am wearing a dark blue T-shirt with the name "Hudson Explorers" on it. I had stolen it from my college roommate, Jeff Mack.
Robin Kreisberg outside Circle Liquors, posing as being comically confused at the cheap champagne bottle he had just bought.
Scott Wilkerson smiling broadly, leaning forward from the back set in the car going to the party. Naturally, he is holding a can of Best.
A wide shot showing partiers in the kitchen at Vicky's. Scott McLeod is in the forefront, with hair dyed blond on top. Keith Campbell is looking nonchalantly towards the camera. There is also some guy in glasses named Paul something. There are way too many guys in the photo, though I don't remember it being a sausage fest.
Jeff "Swaz" Dlimini wearing a wide-striped blue and black sweater. He had a kind of boxy haircut, making him look the part of the African. Kenny Kiron, looking swarthy but without a beard, is standing next to him. He is wearing a black and white flannel-type shirt open over a white T-shirt.
Joe Flint, in a close-up, is looking up and out at the camera, his face in a a transparent plastic kegger beer cup. His hair is dyed orangy on top, and is wearing a Ramones-type black leather jacket (he wins the fashion award for the night).
Martin Yancy, in a pink polo shirt, of course. From the pictures, it looks like maybe a quarter or a little less of the crowd is black.

I don't think I took any direct shots of girls for the album. This is part of why my brother Paul said of my friends "those guys don't really like girls." Not meaning that we were gay, but didn't really like them hanging around us. Remember, we were the Brewski Brothers (emphasis on last word).
Most people have a group or gang that they hung around with when young. What was so good for a certain period of time was that ours was extraordinarily friendly and good-natured for the most part. I remember driving down from Jersey to Tulane at the start of sophomore year. Me and my Tulane friend Tony Rotelli stopped in DC for a party in Upper Northwest somewhere. He was welcomed by everyone of "the brothers" and others.
Afterwards, I asked him if he liked my friends. "How could anyone not like those guys?" he said.
Now if I could only get the girlfriend photos somehow (mostly Erin A. and Lynne Bowers).
Didn't Billy Bragg sing of middle-class England " where nostalgia is the opium of the masses?" Wait, that album was from the 80s. This is nostalgia over nostalgia.