LAST MAN STANDING

I know this title is reminescent of a gangster movie or some other media but in this case it really takes on a serious meaning for me. Because I am IT! Yes, the last of my peer group has passed on and I want to tell you of the several men that were classified as my best friends. Oh I have had many good friends through the years and they date back to high school days. But my best friends were special and memorable and as I now sit and think of them I can't help but shed a tear and remember what they meant to me, for they all meant a lot. My first best friend was uniquely called Moon. I don't know why and never asked when I should have. We were cheerleaders but more than that, we hung out together for several years until he went into the Air Force and a few months later, I went into the Navy. Yeah you guessed it, there was a war on and most of the guys I knew were enlisting or were being drafted. The funny thing about Ernie (Moon) was that although we kept in touch for 60 years, we rarely saw each other. He had stayed in the military while I had opted out but I still thought of him as my best friend.

I had chosen to be a retailer and had a pretty good career going when I met Jim. He arrived at the store in which I was working and was hired as a housewares buyer. He was a tall, good humored guy and we struck it off at once. We traveled together, partied together and our wives became very good friends--which incidentally is the only way you can have a best friend. The wives have to like each other and fortunately they did. As the years passed, Jim and I were separated, each of us following our own chosen paths but somehow we continued to see each other in New York, New Jersey or Pennsylvania. We managed to continue our friendship all over the country.

Bud and John were Navy buddies. Somehow, inspite of the Navy moving us around, we managed to get into the same group and managed to maintain our friendship through most of the time we were flying together. John and I were navigator/copilots in the same plane. Bud was in the same group but a different aircraft. However Bud and I, along with our wives had lived in the same home at one of the bases and had developed a wonderful relationship amongst the four of us. Didn't I tell you the wives also had to become friends? Those two friendships lasted over 60 years also with Bud passing about 3 years ago and John more recently. And now I have saved two friends until the end of this writing. One was Moynsie who was the first to go. He and I had known each other in High School but only casually. The real friendship began when we met at a bus stop in front of the University of Buffalo. For some reason everything clicked and we began a friendship-along with our spouses that lasted for years. Moynsie was the first to die and I was in Japan when my secretary called and told me she had bad news. Moynsie had passed away at 56 and I remember leaning against a wall with tears running down my cheeks. He was the one I had spent the most time with and whom I had come to love the most. I tear up now recalling how much laughter we got and gave each other.

But I now come to the last to go. Dick and I had met at the department store at which we were both employed. He was a basement buyer at the time and we found out we had both been at the same high school although Dick was a couple of years younger. But we hit it off and it built into a great relationship. We were both buyers. We golfed together, often traveled together and even when I left to go to Wisconsin we would meet in N.Y. The thing that bonded us, was the yearly store party and we found that he and I would write the script, plan the events to take place on the stage of a nearby hotel and work things so the party was a complete success for several years. We had a blast entertaining all the other employees.

Well, there you have it. A record of my closest, best friends. I have much to remember about them all. They brought joy into my life and helped to make my years part of the wonder that has been mine. As I think of them and what they meant to me, I can't help but recognize that it is friendships that make our lives what they are. What kind of a life would it be if we didn't have those relationships that go beyond our love of family- that enriches the tapestry into which is embroidered those many friendships. I am so grateful for the fulness that my life has been and for the men that have made it so. It is my hope that yours will be the equal.