ABE AND ESTHER--AND WHY APPLES DON'T FALL FAR FROM THE TREE

Caveat Emptor--this one is quite personal and if that makes you squirmy, you will find a few odd tidbits way down at the bottom.  Otherwise, we go on.  I have returned from my reunion and have the following thoughts.

Abe and Esther saved my life--it is as simple and as complicated as that.    And I don't care if that sounds melodramatic--it is true as far as my memory can recall. Married not to each other but to other partners and with other children in their homes, they were the parents of two of my peers. They were fixtures throughout my childhood and adolescence.  Abe was a surrogate father--taking me and his son to baseball games, giving me rides to places, helping my mother out, and, in general, filling a major paternal void.  Esther, my first grade teacher (and later the principal of my elementary school and the first Jewish principal in Dade County), was enormously supportive especially to my mother as she (my mother) struggled with being a single parent with a full time job. Esther was the the voice of professional reason/advice when my mother did not know how to parent a boy.  Together, they attempted to compensate for how different my life was from the lives of those around me.

Their children were at the reunion.  I have know them both for 60 plus years though I have been in close contact with Abe's son for most of that time.  I re-united with Esther's daughter at the reunion.  The comfort of a shared history is not to be under estimated.  Like their parents before them, these two peers symbolically and literally took my hand and emotionally helped me get through the weekend.  Having them at my side at the evening events made the events both tolerable and less anxiety provoking.  There were easier conversations and even when a third party would barge in (who I either did not know or did not remember), I was included.  On Saturday, Esther's daughter and I took a long tour of Miami and visited sights along our respective memory lanes.  Each of us struggled as we saw things that brought up both the good and bad of our childhood and young adulthood.  It was very difficult for us both but so important--and I never would have done it without her.  Even had lunch at a restaurant in a building that used to be Wolfie's which is of course gone. I will say this for Miamah--it makes Boston look like palookaville.  Not that I would move there but oh my is it big, tall, glitzy, and a true bi-cultural place.

Now to the most difficult part for me--brief though it is.  I am frequently criticized by certain people for using my history as an excuse for current behavior.  I get it.  But this visit confirmed for me that the power of that history has really integrated itself in my life, in what I chose to be employed at, at how I function as a parent, at how I function as a partner, and is just here everyday.  Factoids:  I am the only one I knew who had no car; the only one I knew whose parents were divorced; the only one I knew whose mother worked; and the only one I knew who lived in an apartment.  As I visited the places I used to live I was struck by their smallness and now their squalor.  For god's sake, my mother slept on a couch in the "florida" room.

I want to thank Abe and Esther for helping me get through a very rough time and thank their children for getting me through this reunion.  Them's the trees and the apples.

A FEW ITEMS OF NOTE
--This guy Crosby has totally fucked up our casino process.  I am now convinced I will be driving to Springfield if I want to gamble.
--A female Texas judge sentenced a rapist to 45 days in jail.
--Our Child Welfare agency has a new Commissioner.  A person with a background in transporataion--go figure.
--Colbert (on SI.Com) had a terrific piece on Michael Sam kissing his partner after getting drafted.
--What to do about those Nigerian girls--how do I wrap my mind around it?  I am thinking I never want to visit Africa.
--A shout out to Tess and Jake.  Bon voyage and Shalom.  Have a great trip and be nice to each other.

SPORTS TALK
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All I have to say is Seguin and Kessel--they actually put pucks in the net.

See you in a month.
Sayonara