An Old Friend Shows Up On Facebook

We saw the top groups of that era perform in an old, tired, worn, former Yiddish theater in a seedy neighborhood in Lower Manhattan. The Joshua Light Show performed on the wall behind the acts.

I heard from Larry Lubetsky yesterday. Larry was my friend in high school. Over the years we lost touch. He’s in Baltimore now where he’s lived most of his adult life.

“Its hard to know what to say in an email to someone I’ve only seen once in 30 + years, though I’m glad that we’ve once again established contact.”

He’s right, though we shared so many strange and amazing times while growing up.

Larry was among the more deep thinking of my friends. In that era there was lots to ponder. We were in the middle of the Vietnam War and all of us were worried we’d have to go. We worried just as much about how poorly we were suited for the military.

Larry is a year older than me. A few times during my senior year in high school I caught the bus to Albany and hung out on campus with him and his friends. That was a major deal for me.

We used to joke about the inappropriate Edward Durrell Stone designed campus. It was originally planned for a California college, then used in New York without consideration for its practicality in a location with all four seasons! It was good to be the governor’s friend–as Stone was.

The scariest movie I ever saw was seen while at SUNY Albany visiting Larry. It was a filmed stage play, “The Brig,” about a sadistically brutally USMC brig in Japan. I was so shaken by the experience it disturbs me to this day! I can still close my eyes and see it. Creepy.

Larry was also in the group of friends who used to go to the Village Theater/Fillmore East in the late 60s. We saw the top groups of that era perform in an old, tired, worn, former Yiddish theater in a seedy neighborhood in Lower Manhattan. The Joshua Light Show performed on the wall behind the acts.

No need to bring pot. The place reeked of it. Just inhale and enjoy the music.

Larry wrote me on Facebook and I wrote back with a line from Dobie Gillis, a late 50s TV show we often quoted. He responded in kind.

They had this huge steel ball on the end of an iron chain and it went boom, boom, boom. (To which Dobie asked Maynard if there were any more and Mayard said “two more, Dobie”).

I’ve thought about Larry many times over the years. Now, through Facebook, I know where he is and what he’s doing.

4 thoughts on “An Old Friend Shows Up On Facebook”

  1. Any suggestions speaking of lost. I was on Delta flight yesterday Phx -Detroit – Hartford. Left my Kindle on Detroit flight, yea I know stupid and more mad at myself. By the time I realized it was when I boarded Detroit to Hartford. If you can believe this .. after I spoke with flight attendant they actually let me get off flight (while people still boarding and speak to attendant who was boarding people and she even let me go to the gate where I got off flight. There was no one around.
    I filed a report with Delta – everything is done online. I checked again when I got to Hartford last night, they told me anything lost – other than luggage – file online report.
    I can only hope??? Any other suggestions.??

  2. Geoff,

    I thought that was a myth (about UA being designed for Arizona, and being moved to Albany). It is really windy there, I have only been there a few times but my girlfriend went to school there and there was always a “wind storm” by those buildings. You know how stuff like that grows as an urban legend, is there actual confirmation of this?

    1. Jeff –

      It’s possible you’re right. I’ve looked for confirmation of my story and can’t find any.

      It was such a good story.

  3. People swear by it up there. I would like to think that engineers/architects are smart enough to think about that kind of stuff. Ya know, since they get paid to do that.

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