In a dimly lit 1958, I believe, my high school fraternity had elections. To those of you who question what is a high school fraternity, I can only say that in Baltimore (as in many other US cities) there existed for many years a complicated system of fraternities and sororities in some of the more affluent high schools. These were not sanctioned by any known officialdom, but they were real, highly organized, and based on the current University "Greek" systems.
They were all divided up into religions and colors, so there were Jewish ones, for want of a better term, non-Jewish ones and African American ones. It seemed to be more highly organized (with national conventions etc.) in the Jewish community, but what did I know about any other? It was a WASP appeal reach for a bunch of middle class kids who wanted to perpetuate a class system big time, and it was good from the inside, of course. I liked it!
The election that year, as I vaguely remember, was for President (I think although it could have been pledge master) and it was between me and I believe, Lenny Grossman. Len (as he is now called) was a born to be lawyer. He was entrepreneurial, well disciplined and intelligent and the best candidate for the job, I was a good time guy (and still am) and not too organized but a lot of laughs.
We each had someone speak for us, a campaign manager kind of guy who gave it his all to the assembled membership, right before the vote.
I have no idea who Len’s speaker was, but before I could choose, Edgar came up to me and asked to represent me. He said he’d do a great job!
Regular readers may remember Edgar was the guy we liberated from the hospital in the March 26, ” New Years Eve, 1959” story, followed the June 20, “New Years Eve 1959 – Corrected” update to include Ken Waissman.
Edgar Kaufman was a funny guy. Since he has passed away recently, I don’t want to lay blame on those unable to defend themselves, but one never quite knew what he would do in any given situation.
He did want to be my spokesman! He promised to do a good job!
Len and I were waiting outside of the meeting. At that time we didn’t have a regular meeting place, which we had most of the time, but we were meeting in someone’s club basement. Len and I had to wait out on the steps out back. We couldn’t hear the meeting but we did hear, after a while, screaming and shouting! Something was going wrong! Eventually the back door came flying open and Edgar was ejected! It seems his positive speech about my good qualities was more aimed at Len’s bad ones or something like that, and it was over!
Needless to say I didn’t win. The best man for the job won anyway, but I never had a chance.
They were all divided up into religions and colors, so there were Jewish ones, for want of a better term, non-Jewish ones and African American ones. It seemed to be more highly organized (with national conventions etc.) in the Jewish community, but what did I know about any other? It was a WASP appeal reach for a bunch of middle class kids who wanted to perpetuate a class system big time, and it was good from the inside, of course. I liked it!
The election that year, as I vaguely remember, was for President (I think although it could have been pledge master) and it was between me and I believe, Lenny Grossman. Len (as he is now called) was a born to be lawyer. He was entrepreneurial, well disciplined and intelligent and the best candidate for the job, I was a good time guy (and still am) and not too organized but a lot of laughs.
We each had someone speak for us, a campaign manager kind of guy who gave it his all to the assembled membership, right before the vote.
I have no idea who Len’s speaker was, but before I could choose, Edgar came up to me and asked to represent me. He said he’d do a great job!
Regular readers may remember Edgar was the guy we liberated from the hospital in the March 26, ” New Years Eve, 1959” story, followed the June 20, “New Years Eve 1959 – Corrected” update to include Ken Waissman.
Edgar Kaufman was a funny guy. Since he has passed away recently, I don’t want to lay blame on those unable to defend themselves, but one never quite knew what he would do in any given situation.
He did want to be my spokesman! He promised to do a good job!
Len and I were waiting outside of the meeting. At that time we didn’t have a regular meeting place, which we had most of the time, but we were meeting in someone’s club basement. Len and I had to wait out on the steps out back. We couldn’t hear the meeting but we did hear, after a while, screaming and shouting! Something was going wrong! Eventually the back door came flying open and Edgar was ejected! It seems his positive speech about my good qualities was more aimed at Len’s bad ones or something like that, and it was over!
Needless to say I didn’t win. The best man for the job won anyway, but I never had a chance.
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