Auld lang syne

My dark month is over and with the passing of the winter solstice and the lengtheniing of daylight hours my mood improves. Yet I find myself returning to memories of happier days gone by.

Recently I re-read novelist Irwin Shaw's (1948) The Young Lions, a story of four young people enmeshed in the battles in Europe during WWII. Players change from decade to decade but the horrors of war anmd their impact upon us remain the same.

Last night while search for a TV movie I noticed the 1960 film "Never on Sunday" being shown. I re-watched the delightful fantasy of an intellectual and Greek tragedy scholar, played by Jules Dessin, trying unsuccessfully to reform a fun loving and free-living Greek prostitute (Melina Mercouri). My aunt, now deceased, traveled to Greece with her husband and learned to do the dance featured in the film

An e-mail from the alumni of my high school alma mata announces a sixtieth reunion. The first reunion was only ten years ago. I did not attend, having maintained few relationships from high school over the years. However when I read the list of those already registered, I recognized two of my friends from that time. I searched an old list of graduates and their addresses and called my closest buddy at the time, Burton, who lived in the same apartment house as I and cheered me with his humor all through my adolescent years. There were five of us from the old neighborhood in West Bronx. Two are now physicians--one a brain surgeon in New York City, the other a profesor of medicine at a prestigious New England university. The fourth became a lawyer attached to the State Attorney General's Office. When I searched his address I was shocked to see he had listed his office--the 45th floor of The World Trade Center. I Googled the list of 9/11 victims and was relieved when I did not find his name. The fifth, always an angry rebel, would never attend a reunion and was not listed in my directory. Burt and I lost touch except f0r an occasional phone call when I went off to Cornell and he stayed at New York's City College. He had become a writer for TV comedians after graduation but gave it up and went into the real estate business, where he prospered. He began writing poetry. His third book is about to be published and he has been nominated for a national honor. He was delighted to hear from me and we agreed to attend the meetings and re-kindle our friendship.

So, as we now enter a new decade, I continue to cling to old acquantances, not soon to be "forgot."