The Human Spirit….


Who would have guessed…

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen many of my old chums from the old neighborhood.

That was a long time ago.

At the time, I recall that we were all poor as church mice. We didn’t even have two nickels to rub together.

We had no connections, nobody to open doors and most of us were on our own pretty much from morning til night.

We were most likely the most ordinary of kids, I guess…. We weren’t the handsomest. We weren’t the brightest. We weren’t the children of the rich. And the majority of us had strict parents…

One of my favorite guys, Dave, who dropped out of high school, and decided on a music career well, we didn’t have too much hope for him.

More than a few of us, the adults had pegged for juvenile courts and eventually jail.

There were guys in the neighborhood packing “heat.” And there were great opportunities to get into big trouble.

My dad wanted me to get a good job at the local supermarket and someday, I might grow up to be the manager. That sounded okay to me. What did I know.

Most of the rest, we’ll, there wasn’t much hope.

But surprise after surprise….some of us really managed to move above our station in life and become something in life.

One of my friends, Fred, became bankable as a comedian and even had his own show on ABC; my friend, Dave, the one I mentioned, became one of the leaders of the folk revolution, a mentor to Dylan and the Mayor of Greenwich Village. One of the local toughs, Rudy, became the head of Dreyfus’ Marketing operation. Another one, a leading world publisher (I have to admit, that he was a little different). One of the guys I went to art school with became a Director in Hollywood; another, who I was sure would crash and burn, a medical illustrator and quite good. I never listened to my dad and struck out on my own, joining the Army as a correspondent. Later, starting a few businesses of my own and allowed me to raise kids who had opportunities I never had. Today, they each have three lovely kids, and great husbands.. The sad part was some of us did go to jail. But, overall, most managed to pull themselves up by the bootstraps and make something of themselves. As I look back at our backgrounds, histories, home lives, there was little to indicate that we would make it or survive at all. But the lesson here is that you can never underestimate the human spirit. Something for all of us to take heart about.

Les Aaron
The Armchair Curmudgeon