The Feldmans

Gary and I went to the same high school — Half Hollow Hills, in Dix Hills, NY — but, since he's a year of two older than me and I was only at 4HS for my senior year, not at the same time. I met him because he and his buddy Doug Star were friends with my girlfriend, Gail.

This photo shows him in 2001 with his wife Pam, son Aidan and daughter Brenna. (He also has two daughters I've never met from an earlier marriage.) Gary is one of the funniest people I've ever met, and Pam is one of the warmest and sweetest. And Brenna and Aidan are great kids, tons of fun to be around. The Feldmen live a little north of San Francisco, and Becca and I visit with them whenever we're out that way. Last time we saw them was Spring Break of 2003.

The company Gary'd worked for for over 20 years had just closed up shop, and he was enjoying some down time before heading back into the work world. Pam's a nurse, and while we were out there she won a prestigious award at her hospital.

Fond memories? Lots of them. Calzones at Gary's father's Long Island pizzeria. A single-frame animated cartoon made with Scrabble tiles spelling out words on the front of a toilet tank. Watching Marcus Welby, MD, with Gary and his former girlfriend Elyse and her next boyfriend, George Grantham, the drummer from Poco. Gary and his first wife and another couple visiting Lydia and I in Amsterdam, and the six of us renting a big yellow van and driving out to Muiderslot to see the castle. Borrowing a 16mm projector from the San Francisco Public Library to show Gary a film I made in grad school and bumping into Beth Hayes, the woman who'd played the murder victim, on my way out of the library, then taking Beth over to Gary's for the screening but not explaining that she was in the movie and waiting for him to recognize her, which he never quite did. Lazing in Gary and Pam's hot tub five or six years ago and watching Becca squeeze into five or six inflated donuts and jump over and over again into their pool. Taking Brenna for a ride in my brother's Bertone, her completely thrilled to be in a convertible for the very first time. A lot of good memories ... and, hopefully, lots more to come!

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