Tell us about an interesting friend of yours

Way back, when I was still single, I took a 6 months contract to work for an airline at Schipol Airport in Amsterdam. I loved my job and made great friendships there. One person was a pilot working at the control tower. He got his dream job two years later working as a pilot for a big airline in the far East. His skills and perseverance paid off.
I also had three other friends. Each of them were very different from one another but each lady had big dreams, loads of hobbies, and were super interesting to listen to. Through them I also discovered the city and surroundings. I ate Indonesian food and Indian food for the first time and loved it. We spent so much time talking about music, travel, politics, and inner feelings that young women have. These connections were the deepest I ever had with friends. I still cherish these to this day!
 

My buddy, Dave and I shared an apartment for a while. When Dave thought he was alone, he'd talk to himself. But the funny part was he'd have fights with himself . He had a girl, Barbie, who lived in Benton-( yup Barbie "Benton" :) ). Benton was a hour away, and it was all on back, winding roads. It was a hassle driving there. But he wanted to see her. Yet, it would have been an hours visit with her family.. I'm watching TV, and listening to him to argue with himself about seeing her. Yes, he did, no he didn't. He's getting angry with himself. He starts calling himself names. I'm rolling on the floor.
He used to do that a lot, and it would crack me up.
 
I grew up in a small town. As kids in the town all the guys had a collection of marbles. We had a couple of games we played that involved betting some of your marbles that you would win. It was winner take all, so if the bet to play in a game was 3 marbles and 4 guys played, the winner got all 12 marbles. I only share this so that you understand how valuable these marbles were to the kids in our school yard.

I had a friend his name was Rodney. Now Rodney was a really creative kid, that is what I like about him. He always came up with fun crazy things to do, like building a walk-through spook house in his garage. Or making magic tricks for a magic show, we did, and they worked...etc. etc.

One day he came up with a new after school entertainment. The game was not new to most of us, but the new 'chips' we bet with changed the nature of the game completely. Even at 11 or 12 years old we all new how to play poker and 21, but, after you did it a while it was boring. What Rodney came up with was to start using marbles as chips, winner takes all, every hand. Wow, this changed the game, and it was fun and costly to some.

Every day after school we would meet at someone's house with our marble bags in hand. At times we would bring new people in just to get a change in the game and of course bring some different marbles. We played these after school games for a few weeks every year until the weather got better. As we got older, marbles became of little value as we were not playing marble games anymore. But the memories are still strong, and I remember all those kids who were with us. Good memories...for sure!
 
Have had a lot of interesting friends, had being the key word. Still a few left but the most I'll say memorable was way back when I was in the Navy. His name is Don Stieffel.

A 1st. class mechanic that wouldn't hesitate to help with any problem that others were not familiar with. Finding out his wife was blind & that they had 6 kids surprised me. Mostly because his attitude was always upbeat. How he met his wife I don't know, what I do know she was from Germany. I also know he learned to speak the German language & they were teaching their children the German language.

He was the one I called on a Sunday when I was on duty as a tour guide at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station. The mother & father of a German lieutenant that died on the Hindenburg when it burned wanted to see the spot where the Hindenburg went down. They spoke no English, they had what they wanted written on a piece of paper. I managed to get them to understand I wanted to be of more help.

I called Don to explain what was happening. He was more than happy to come out to the base to be an interpreter. Rather than load them on the tour bus I asked the duty officer if we could use his car. We drove out to the exact spot where the Hindenburg went down. Don explained to them we were where their son died. I don't think I'll ever forget their tears & thanks. As for Don he thanked me for asking him to come out to help. That's the kind of guy he was.
 
I was just thinking about a guy I met when I was about 20 and in New Jersey at a new job. He was a supervisor of an organization called "Shiloh". They were a 501-c3 with religious, social work, remedial education, and community development in their charter. He had had acne bad as a kid, and his face showed it. He had the most beautiful wife, I could barely keep my eyes off her. :) We had a big summer camp to bring inner city kids to in the summer months. Then we split up into a couple teams and moved into the ghetto. This guys name was "Phil".

Phil directed the two groups, and helped with planning our schedules both in the community and our own schedules. We took turn cooking the meals, and often times the two areas ( about 10 people in each group ) into one feast. We had lots of activities for the community. I had a remedial reading student and math student, and had a special friend that was an eight year old girl named Elaine ( who I loved dearly ), and we would go on field trips together...sometimes take the subway uptown to somewhere like Coney Island.

Basketball was a biggy there also. Phil was a good player. We actually had a few very good players...and we would go down to the local courts to join half court games. Sometimes we would get into scuffles with the locals but they did the same with each other, so no big deal. Until Phil had a run in with some guy who beat the pulp out of Phil's face. He had to have surgery and almost lost his eye. It was gruesome.

We had a rule. we were to accompany any female when it turned dark outside. If they needed to visit someone or take a kid home we went with them. Phil was taking a student home and had left her off sand was leaving when someone approached him, all we know is that Phil died at that spot by a gun shot to the head. He was 32. He left a wife and infant child.

I met Phil and then talked with him and planned stuff and hung out for about a year. We got to be good friends. We could talk about hard stuff too. We watched Pro Basketball religiously back then,1972 I guess.

Here is to the memory of Phil. :)
 
How can Coney Island be UPtown when it is almost the most Southern Part of the City? @Paco Dennis. Only Rockaways more south, I think.

Phil. Sad & shocking.

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seems Staten Island most south. I have four people there. In a cemetery. Staten Island has a ton of graveyards.
 
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Pepper said:
How can Coney Island be UPtown when it is almost the most Southern Part of the City? @Paco Dennis. Only Rockaways more south, I think.

Phil. Sad & shocking.

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seems Staten Island most south. I have four people there. In a cemetery. Staten Island has a ton of graveyards.
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Well we talk about how mean the poor city streets are now. It was real bad back then also.

I think these was only one or two stops on the subway left. We always went uptown from east new York. Then again I cold have the whole thing mixed up. Maybe it was the farthest east? We did go to Flatbush, and other places like the Bronx zoo. Main park in Manhattan. I would have to get a map to figure out where we lived. I think it was Williams Ave? Pitkin? :)
 
@Pepper of course you are right. Coney Island can't get further south. Here is where we lived ( East New York Brooklyn the red outlined section top right. I guess it was so far "east" the subway ended near our apt. There is Coney Island way down south!

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The two currant friends who come to mind have such specific stories that I hesitate to identify them. One began in an orphanage and charmed her way up to become an educated, amazing woman. The other has a band and teaches history at the university. What they have in common is similar to many of those mentioned by others. They both have deep interests in art and music. Creativity seems to make for interesting folks.
 
I have at least three very interesting friends. They are all musicians. I'll start with my BFF. She has never had a 9 to 5. She has always earned her living soley as a pianist. We met when she became my new music teacher and hit it off instantly. We quickly became best friends. She has played for several famous recording artists and entertainers. Besides doing a three month tour with Tiny Tim and Ms Vicki, she has toured the country as musical director and pianist for several theater productions and wrote a score for an off Broadway play.

My BFF has played for churches and synagogues. She also played the electric piano tracks on two of my songs after an impromptu invitation. She had never heard the songs, had no sheet music to refer to and nailed it each time. She is close friends with and has played for Queen Esther Marrow, who I first saw as Auntie Em in the Broadway production of The Wiz. I never dreamed I would actually get to hang out with her one day. My BFF is as humble as she is talented and knowing famous people doesn't faze her at all.

More about my other friends later.
 
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JBR said:
Thanks, Diva. I look forward to learning about the other two friends you allude to.View attachment 377383
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You're welcome of course JBR. My next interesting friend:
He's a musician, singer and composer who won seven Emmys (not Grammys) for a song he wrote for a T.V. show. He's performed on the same venues as some famous artists over the years. He has a loyal following, we who will attend his gigs over and over. The first time I heard his voice, I was so enchanted that I interrupted my conversation with family members (it was at a reunion banquet) to ask the deejay who it was. I had never heard of him before and couldn't find his music anywhere.

A very serendipitous set of circumstances led me and my husband to be able to see him live, several months later. I bought two of his CDs that night (he has subsequently given me several others). The rest is history, as they say. That was 23 years ago and we now refer to each other as "very dear friends" and sometimes "Sister" and "Brother". We have an obviously spiritual and psychic connection and are fans of each other's music. This is something I couldn't have imagined in my wildest dreams!

What's interesting....no amazing about Hunter is that he has had a heart attack, a stroke and suffered through renal failure and self dialysis until he got a transplant. I feel I can mention it here because he talks openly about these things during his performances, mentioning how blessed he feels to have survived them by the grace of God. He's in his 70's and to see him perform now, you'd never know he was sick a day in his life!

Hunter can change his vocal tonality to suit the standards as well as Pop and R & B. He's a multi instrumentalist but mostly plays saxophone(s) during his gigs. At least once he played more than one at the same time! Hunter graciously consented to let me use his image in one of my videos.

His family history is interesting too. His great grandfather, depicted in the statue below, provided a school for disenfranchised slaves to learn to read and write, including Ota Benga, who was once held in a cage in the Bronx Zoo!

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Here is one of my favorite songs by Hunter (shown with his Emmys). Another very serendipitous set of circumstances led to him co-writing this song with Chris Sarrubo.


And here he is singing an old standard.

 
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john19485 said:
I have a friend I met a while back, she is in a different town every night, she's a music promoter, CEO of her company, has recording studio's in Nashville Tenn , NY, professor for a couple of months at a University, she is also 77, still going. Met this real nice guy with his family ,at Lowes last month, he has a movie that just came out, he loaded a toliet on a cart for me and carried it out to my van, and loaded it for me, strange who you meet, was on the set of Jericho got to help direct a sceen, met some nice people, my cousin Randy About | Randy Travis | Official Website
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