LARRY WAS A CHARACTER

I was waiting in line to register for classes at a local college I was about to attend. While waiting in line I began a conversation with the person standing behind me. This was the beginning of my friendship with Larry.

We were in some of the same classes. We often ate lunch together. Sometimes we organized touch football games on Sunday mornings or watched the Detroit Lions on Sunday afternoons. Try to meet girls and get dates for Saturday nights. We would often double date. That's a term that probably went out of style many years ago. Larry would always say try to set up a date for Saturday early in the week because you will feel better all week if you know you are going out with a girl on Saturday night.

I remember the following summer driving with Larry to a night game on a Tuesday night at Tiger Stadium. Larry says to me do you have a date for Saturday night? I respond no but I had planned to call someone the next night. Larry says don't wait make the call from a pay phone as soon as we get to the stadium once you have a date, we will buy Hot Dogs and other junk and watch the game. Larry said the game will be much more fun knowing you have a date for Saturday. Larry was right.

Larry was a character

The following year Larry started dating Shirley who lived on his block. We bought season tickets for the Detroit Lions games still being played at Tiger Stadium. Six home games at $7.00 a game. We were season ticket holders for $42.00 dollars a year.

We took up golf. We played at Palmer Park in Detroit and Rackham in Oak Park. We would get to the courses as early as 5:30 a.m. Play eighteen holes walking and carrying our clubs. It would take a good part of the day. We were never any good but had a lot of laughs.

We would sometimes go downtown late on a Friday night and eat Lafayette Coney Island hot dogs and buy candy at the all-night drug store to eat on the way home.

Once we sat next to each other in an English class. One Friday the teacher gives a topic and wants us to write an essay in class using the topic she had chosen. I liked what I wrote and slipped the paper to Larry to read quickly. He also liked it. We talked over the weekend and were convinced this would be my first "A". Monday the teacher returns the paper "D-". She wrote on the paper you did not understand the topic. Larry would bring it up almost every time I saw him for the next 50 plus years.

Larry was a character

Larry pushed for all our buddies to get dates for New Years Eve by Thanksgiving. This time it was December will be more fun if New Years Eve is set by Thanksgiving.

A few years later Larry married Shirley. I was in the wedding party. A couple of years later when I got married Larry was my best man.

Time moved on and we got busy with families, careers, and with whatever else. We went in different directions and drifted apart and about forty years slipped away.

Suddenly the year was 2019. I bump into Larry at a theatre. We make plans for dinner the following Saturday night still the best night of the week.

We keep in touch and get together a few times. The year 2020 arrives and before long there is something called Covid. We talk on the phone and send texts.

Larry starts telling me he is not feeling well, He says he is seeing doctors. I hear from Shirley Larry is in the hospital. When he is out of the hospital, he will need treatments. He comes home for a short time.

Larry returns to the hospital. Again, I hear from Shirley. Larry is not doing well.

A week later my cell phone rings. The caller I.D. tells me it is Larry's son.

Larry and Shirley were married 54 years they had two sons.

The Rabbi stands to deliver his comments at Larry's funeral. He apparently knew Larry well. His first words were "Larry was a character."

I laughed.

I was sad.

WRITTEN BY

RON TURETT