It’s one thing to have a friend but it’s another to have a friend for over 60 years. And, it’s yet another thing to have a group of them that have come to together to celebrate life.
As you will see from the video my childhood friends are supporting Walk With Frank. Since our school days our individual journeys have taken us in many different directions yet when push comes to shove the Bay Shore comes out in all of us.
When the war escalated in the mid sixties and the draft was instituted the students of Bay Shore began to take a stand. Some of us went to war while others actually helped draft doggers escape to Canada. The war forced neighborhoods, families, and friends to draw a line in the sand. We as the offspring of a war generation were now faced with the stark reality of our own war.
Stevie, like many of our childhood friends, escaped the draft and set out on lifes journey while others of us put our lives on hold. From that moment on our journeys couldn’t have been farther apart and it seemed like we would never ever come together.
Stevie and I walked five miles alone just talking and sharing views, ideas, and life’s struggles. Alone just two old men, two old friends sharing an incredible moment together that neither of us could have imagined. One thing we agreed on and that was from an old man perspective. We in the later part of our lives see things as being less right and wrong but rather we see things as just being different.
Different from a time when life was out of control and barbaric. Different from a time when life and death were commonplace. Just different, War does that!