10/20/19 22:35 Bethlehem, PA
I called Freddy yesterday morning. He was upset that I forgot to call him the
night before. I apologized. He was starting to tell me stories of some of
his conspiracy theories, the Catholic church, the Masons and I was listening
till I realized he needed to know I am not interested in the theories. What time should we meet? “I don’t know,” he
said. Let’s say 1 PM. Down at the movie theatre at the Steel
Stacks. “Sounds like a plan, wait. How will I know it’s you?” I will wear a grey blue hat, there’s an N on
it for North Eastern. I drove to the
Steel Stacks, parked the car and arrived a little early. There was a race for kids going on as I
approached the theatre. I saw this
older, tan guy walk up to me. “I was telling those guys all about seeing you
and how we haven’t seen each other close to forty years.” It was Freddy and I reached out to hug
him. “No, shake hands. Put it there.” I shook his hand. “You said you wanted coffee, I have to go to
do, pee pee.” Pee Pee? He was a child in an old man’s body. First, he locked his used bike, the rear tire
looked worn. We went inside. “Graham Nash played here a few years ago.” I
saw his performance on Long Island a few years ago. Actually, he just played here. And he went
off to the bathroom and was out of sight.
I bought a coffee and he came back within a minute, he must have assumed
I was leaving him. I thought, we’d sit
down at a table or a bench and have a good chat. That didn’t happen. We went back outside. He unlocked his bike. He was very concerned that someone would want
to steal his bike. He must have lost
many things through the years. Our visit
was a listening session. For over an
hour, Freddy talked about a wide variety of subjects. But he was locked in a world from 1982. The Karate Kid, Steven Segal, the church,
Connie from Bellecrest Avenue, witches, the masons, the devil, Ted Nugent, he
was sex crazed Freddy said. Led Zeppelin,
AC/DC, Evil in the world. The Northport
incident. Working for agencies, tearing
down stages and Gurney’s Inn. But while
I was with him, he had this child like energy that would not quit, he wanted to
cram everything in this time we had together.
After an hour of walking back and forth around the parking lot and
keeping an eye on his bike, I said I needed to leave. “I’m sorry to tell you this,” he said and
would spout some controversy. Why do you
apologize for saying something you want to share? “I don’t want to offend you.” Hey Fred, I have about 10 minutes. He reminded me of my mother when he said, OK. I will time you. This watch has a timer. And it was time for us to part. It may be the last time I see him. I will call him tomorrow and hope I can get
his email address. Fred may move back to
Florida. He carried a couple of bags,
one contained books I should read. I
took pictures of the titles. The other
bag contained a jug of water and another jug of milk. May God look out and protect Freddy.
Thank you for reading this.
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