Tuesday, October 4, 2022
/public-file/7204/Ultra/429a7bbe-5813-4726-be5b-0920a39023d2.jpg
/public-file/7205/Ultra/557de4d4-9114-4f15-9cbb-16f304f587d8.jpg
We grew up near each other—a bunch of guys from Bellmore. Timmy was the most resourceful one, he had a car and in High School, it was a luxury to have a ride. I’d walk over to Kenny’s house then to Timmy’s and we’d get George. George usually rode shotgun. We knew our pecking order and he always rode up front. Kenny and I were crammed in the back of his Karman Gia. We were a crew. We lived between Wilson Ave. and Beltaugh that’s where the boundary changed for Kennedy and Mepham. Along with Don Chaffee and Billy Cagiano, we went to Grand Ave. Junior High and knew few people from Jerusalem, so we would hang out together. Especially when Timmy got a bigger car. George was quite the asset to our gang. He was tough and he was good looking. Very admirable traits, but he was also funny. Extremely funny! George had this demenor of the cat that ate the canary. Like he knew something you didn’t. He was not one to be too elaborate with his speech, but when he had something to say, it was like he couldn’t hold it in and he’d come out with some profound observation or some hilarious insult, mostly at our own expense. We would rank on each other mercilessly. I can’t count the times we would fight each other, in the car, while driving. Yelling out “not in the face” “not in the face”. George was kind though and me being the skinny guy, he never hit me as hard as the other guys. I guess we were considered rough guys but we often would end up at George’s house and we’d all sit around playing cribbage and have tea. Sometimes even with his Mom. He would also carry a brush in his back pocket. This was to keep his blonde shag always looking on point. When I grew mine out he told me to stop going to Benny the Barber and go to this place called Cannabis in Wantagh. Not only did I go but I decided to make it my career. It seemed like a cool thing to do and we were definitely cool guys. After many years and a couple of salons I’m now retired, it was a good choice. After George met Rose his days of hanging with the guys were over and as life has it, we all went our own way. I saw a call from Timmy. When I heard his voice I knew it had to be someone close, you couldn’t get much closer than George.
