Because then he might want to come home with me!
No, not a stray dog, a stray old friend of mine, my best
friend, one who knows how to push buttons, make people crazy and then make them
laugh. His name is Phil, and he’s been crazy since I know him, from way back in
September of 1964.
He and I have been as close as brothers, and what the reason
is I don’t know, and won’t try to analyze it, because it is too good to be true
as friendships go. We met in college one day when he sat next to me in a design
class for the first time, started talking to each other and became instant
friends, just like that!
He once tried to get me involved with the strangest girl in
the class, a dark haired woman who wore sunglasses even on a dark rainy day.
She had a gothic air about her and a quiet temperance. Her body hardly moved: a
stark immobility and it all intrigued my good friend Phil enough to bust my
chops.
If I ever got drunk, you know who was behind it, as he
deftly formulated a plan, lined up the girls and off we went. I loved every
moment of it!
Later in life, when he eloped to get married, I stood up as
his best man, as the Rabbi placed the glass under a cloth and Phil, with an
eagerness of a dog on a leash, stepped with full force to break it into tiny
little pieces. He then invited me to his ‘real wedding’ as he put it, at Carl
Hopple’s in Baldwin.
One of the places we as students would frequent was a small
Italian restaurant, that legend has it was the inspiration to Billy Joel’s hit:
Italian Restaurant. Called Christiano’s Italian Restaurant. Located in Syosset
behind the Long Island Railroad, we would on Friday’s visit it for lunch. Phil
would empty the bread basket into to his winter coat and then have the nerve to
ask for more bread. We then went to Art History class, where in the dark of a
slide presentation or lecture, he ate his bread!
When he married I was his first best man, when I married he
was my best man. We both were godfathers to each of our daughters, and have
stayed friends almost 50 years calling and keeping in touch and on occasion,
visiting each other or having dinners and going to each other’s family
events. On every occasion,
religious, happy, whatever, we have always played a trick on one or the other.
Last night we had a reunion at Christiano’s with our wives.
To us this was a solemn event, requiring protocol to our past. Phil attempted
to once again empty the breadbasket, but his wife Lynda stopped him. I should
have known he would resort to something else!
As we paid for dinner and were ready to leave, Phil excused
himself to the men’s room, and as I was busy in conversation with my wife, he
returns and I am only slightly aware that he returned to the table. Suddenly
there is a loud sneeze and water spraying all over me, on my head and arms.
Mortified I realize it is Phil, a grin like a Cheshire cat and me starting to
revolt and become appalled that he sneezed on me. All the while hoping this is
some kind of sick scheme once again perpetrated by this crazy person!
It was, I really wish Lynda would have let him have his
bread.
1 comment:
Few things in life are as rare as a good friend. So glad you and Phil remain in touch after so many years.
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