(Originally Cont’d Oct. 3, 2009, Angels Part V, Angels Appear as Earthly Messengers)

     Career Paths Change Here and There

I also got involved with the Newspaper Guild and our local at the newspaper level. I took part in union negotiations, usually being one of the lone holdouts to ensure that some clerk or underpaid dispatcher could get a few extra dollars in their paycheck. I enjoyed the give and take and the high drama that developed at contract time. Will there be a strike? How much is the company willing to contribute to the pension? Will there be “givebacks” this time? How secure will I be with a new contract?

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College Major Guided By a Little Mistake

(Originally Cont’d Oct. 3, 2009, as Angels Part IV, Angels Appear as Earthly Messengers)

     What happened in the Vietnam War is another story, but my next Angel appeared as a burly Scottish neighbor of my parents, who had moved from the inner city of Philadelphia to one of its suburbs, Wayne, Pa. “What will you major in at college, Laddy?” the neighbor asked when I visited my folks advising them that I would be using their address to attend the Delaware County Community College. (I lived outside the county and would have had to pay double the amount if I didn’t fudge the location of my domicile.)

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(Originally Cont’d from Oct. 3, 2009, as Angels Part III, Angels Appear as Earthly Messengers)

     ‘Oldies‘ Pave Way for My Singing Rock Group

That’s when I started to recruit guys my age, none of whom had been exposed to the Black neighborhoods where Jackie and I met others to sing. I introduced them to “oldies” they had never heard of, particularly from their mostly Lilly White AM Radio Stations like WIBG or WIP.

     I was raised on WDAS with “Georgie Woods, the man with the Goods,” and Jocko Henderson, who played what, I later learned, was “race‘ music in the industry. Well, it was this “race” music that was crossing over from Blacks to Whites that caused Rock & Roll to skyrocket and carve a musical niche for teenagers where there was none before.

     Billy Kane, and Carl Disler — both friends from more White neighborhoods — got into the music as I met up with the most talented of our future group, Joe Cleary, who would later go on to make records and appear at music shows. But it was the legacy of Jackie Toy that helped to bring this group together, a group that would eventually perform on television and be offered a minor record contract.

     Jackie Toy touched me with the music and helped to direct me into a full appreciation of not only music but the cross-racial harmony we found with our Black friends, those who would sing their hearts out to passersby near old Columbia Avenue or at 29th and Girard. That appreciation of each other had broadened into other fields and has survived a lifetime, and I thank Jackie Toy for “being there” and helping me cross the color line.

Thanks for Being One of My Angels Jack

     The whirlwind created through my meditation blew from one angel to another in my life. Next came my brother George, forced to join the army when caught burglarizing the Big Moose Bar in North Philly and carting away several cases of beer and soda. The blind lawyer retained by my father pleaded with an assistant district attorney and got a judge to render an alternative sentence: either join the army or go to jail. George went straight… to boot camp.

     My brother, the high school dropout, ended up making a career in the army, obtaining his GED, and a full Army scholarship to complete college, and then he earned a master’s degree shortly before his retirement following 20 years of service.

     But it was in 1968, shortly after the “Summer of Love,” that brother George donned his wings and an angelic ally whispered into my ears: “Go to OCS.”

Brother George Guided Me in the Military

     OCS? What the hell is that I wondered. Officers Candidate School. A six-month program that groomed young men to be leaders of soldiers in battle. I was 19 at the time. No college, having barely gotten through trade school — Dobbins Tech — learning the printers’ trade.  No background in athletics, hunting, or even one of the advanced levels of the Boy Scouts of America.

     Yet, he helped direct me to the military school, where I became the second youngest to graduate in my class and found myself leading a combat infantry platoon in the Vietnam War shortly afterward. Thanks a lot, brother!

See Part IV at Angels 4

(See Beginning at: Angels Appear as Earthly Messengers)

Opening to Philosophy in a Bombed-Out Bunker

(Originally Cont’d Oct. 3, 2009, as Angels Part VII, Angels Appear as Earthly Messengers)

     In a few days, my subconscious worked over my dream of Socrates. I can remember and once again say the name of the second gentleman as none other than Plato, the Greek teacher who dealt with reality, with the spirit, and with life beyond what our senses simply pick up.

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Originally Cont’d Oct. 3, 2009, as Angels Part VI, Angels Appear as Earthly Messengers)

   Experience Begins in the Courtroom

 But by then, I had my first taste of courtroom advocacy and man did I become energized! Trial work involved cross-examination, closing arguments, and the ability to “argue” in front of a captive audience. Paul Messing, my advocacy instructor, became my next Angel when he directed me into becoming a “litigator,” presenting me with the award of “Barrister” for the best advocate and providing an “in” for an interview with the Philadelphia Defender Association, which had just been named the best in the country.

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Angels II (Originally continued on Oct.3, 2009, from Angels, Appear as Earthly Messengers)

   Being In the Moment is Healthy for Everyone

 I had suffered from a cold when I closed my eyes and settled into my seat for meditation. I was hurting and aching from the illness, perhaps even having a slight fever, when I rapidly descended into a deep zone. My thoughts came to a stop, my shoulders, neck, and other parts of a tense body grew limp and thoroughly relaxed. I slowly felt the mind and the body joining in a “slow down,” where I would find that state of nothingness that allows me to simply Be in The Moment.

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