Friendship

I met Richard, above, in Germany in 1961 at Camp Muenchweiler. He was from Michigan. After we were discharged I had a job with Western Union, going around to various cities, mostly in Michigan, to fill in as a teletype operator or bookkeeper or manager when someone went on vacation or was sick. From several sites in Michigan, on free weekends, I would visit Richard in Lansing. Soon he introduced me to Jim (with me in top picture). Eventually Richard and Jim shared an apartment on Ionia Street; it was above a barber shop; there was a back deck (sort of) behind their apartment. One Sunday, exactly fifty years ago this past week, I was visiting Richard and Jim. We were sitting out on the sort-of-deck. We noticed some guys moving into an apartment across the alley. One was Rodney (with me in middle picture). He told us he was going to paint his new apartment the coming week and would be having a house-warming party the next weekend. We were invited. I returned to Lansing the next weekend and went to the party. Then I returned the following weekend and the party was still going on!

We four have remained friends all these years. Friday night we met at Fanizzi's Restaurant in Provincetown to have dinner and celebrate fifty years of friendship.