Saturday night, time for one of my free associations.... so let me tell you about Bob Slater.
There used to be a section in the Reader's Digest about people you met. I was going to write about Bob but never got around to do it.
Bob was in his late 40's when I met him. He was a practicing psychological consultant. No degree in counseling but it didn't matter. He was good at counseling. He was white and most of his clients were Black. He identified with black people and Blacks were the majority of his friends. And this is where it gets more interesting.
You see, he was somewheres around 5'3 and probably didn't weigh more than 110 pounds. He also had a severe case of spina bifida so he was nearly crippled.
He frequented Black bars in Newark (NJ). Everyone knew Bob and everyone liked Bob. On rare occasion, arguments would get heated, or were looking like they were going to lead to fights. There were times I heard about that someone would stop the argument and get Bob out of the bar and onto the sidewalk until the dispute was resolved. Then Bob would be escorted back in.
Why the fuss about Bob? One of his most interesting contributions was night camp. White kids got to go to day camp or sleep away camp. Bob started Night Camp for disadvantaged kids in Orange and East Orange. It began with basketball and a couple of checker sets and so forth. After a couple of months, he recruited people to volunteer to tutor dropouts or close to being dropouts. The goal was to get G.E.D.'s for some and keep others in school.
At Bob's 50th birthday party, there were several people who stood up and credited Bob with their getting college degrees.
Then there was the time he was mugged and put in hospital. Cops took a statement and Bob said he couldn't idescribe the person who mugged him at the Orange train station. In hospital, Bob sent word that he wanted his assailant brought to his hospital bed. When the kid was brought into Bob's room, Bob said he could point him out to the cops but what good would come of that. He made the kid promise to finish high school or the cops would be notified.
The kid finished high school. He didn't attend the above mentioned birthday party but he sent a letter by way of another attendee to be read at the party. The letter described what he did and Bob's response and thanked Bob.
Then Bob came down with terminal cancer. He didn't have relatives to attend to him at bedside but he had friends.... many friends. We divided the days into shifts of 3 hours each. 24 hours a day, day and night someone was at the room with him until he died. He was never alone.
The funeral parlor was packed to the point that people were on the sidewalk outside to wait to go in to say farewell.
I only knew Bob for four or five years but his memory remains with me.
Thirty years gone and I still miss him.
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