Happy 75th Birthday William Holmes

On Sunday I was blessed to be able to attend two events that added to the quality of my life.  I started off the day with Shawn at a 480 East concert.  It was one of the last events of the 2017 Berks Jazz Festival.  It was a beautiful day in Reading, PA.  The day before I had participated in the Philly Spring Clean Up for the 7th time.  Steve Ferguson and I helped to pick up 25 bags of trash just from the intersection of 15th Street between Washington Avenue and Alter Street.  It was an area that had been long neglected.  That Saturday night, Shawn and I went to Appleby's and enjoyed a leisurely dinner together.  Thank God for the Blessing in my life.

We had missed the Berks Jazz Festival for about three years.  Financially tough times dictated a belt tightening that precluded many events that we were used to.  This made me appreciate my life long friendships even more.  William Holmes counts among those Friends.  When I worked at the Redevelopment Authority, some of the Homeys would go to Champions to blow off some steam.  We started off innocently and with a small group.Themainstays showed up Sunday night.  Anthony McIntosh, aka The Chairman, made sure that we all received our invitations.  Andy Donald, Clarence Jordan, Murray Spencer, David Thomas, David Stubbs and Caswel Curtis were there in force on Sunday night.  We were also accompanied by our wives.  We missed Tim Roundtree and Derek Green.  It was a great Sunday.



Bill is on the right.  Tony Mac is on the left.

Bill Holmes has serious South Philly roots.  He was born in 1942 in South Philly.  He graduated from Barratt Middle School which is right across the street from my house.  He had a stellar athletic career and was also know as Windy for his speed.  We have been to numerous parties at his place in Wyncote.  He is a cook and one of his claims to fame are the numerous years that his collard greens have been featured in Philly Men are Cooking.  His wife Betty is a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.  We have also partied at Tony Mac's house, McMenamins, the Mill Creek Tavern, my house on Wigard Avenue, Julius' house, Lou and Choo's and Scotty's. We have attended the funerals of some of our members Mother's and Sister's.  We are a tight group that will go to the end together.

I met Bill when I was working at the Office of Housing.  I gravitated to his office because I loved his jazz collection.  I borrowed numerous CD's and cultivated my love of jazz since then.  His home is a collection of his numerous travels.  I love his books from various nations and the pictures that they include.  He said very little on Sunday as is his style.  Tony Mac and Dave Thomas presented citations from the Commonwealth and the City.  He has lived an impeccable life.  I wish him many returns of the day, 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Life in Venezuela is Terrible Right Now!

Image
Under the leadership of Hugo Chavez, it seems like the citizens of Venezuela were living a pretty good life.  Mr. Chavez was the President of Venezuela from 1999 until 2013 when he died.  He was also the leader of the Fifth Republican Movement.  This party merged with several other parties to form the United Socialist Party of Venezuela.  He was the beneficiary of high oil revenues in the mid 2000's and focused on poverty, literacy and income inequality.  He was an outspoken leader and made alliances with Fidel and Raul Castro and other strong man leaders.  He symbolized a proud leader for his people and has many followers today. I was interested in Venezuela because it seemed like this leader had utilized the oil revenue to help his citizens.  He was an enemy of the United States because he leaned more towards a Marxist philosophy.  He supported Latin American and Caribbean cooperation and that was good for this area of islands that depend so much on tourism.  He died of cance
Read more

Charlottesville, VA is a Stain on Race Relations

Image
Many of us are trying to make sense of the events that occurred in Charlottesville, VA on Friday and Saturday.  It seems like the alt-right, neo-nazi, Ku Klux Klan supporters were upset that a statue of General Robert E. Lee, a Confederate hero, was to be removed from this area.  I guess it was one statue too many for these individuals.  The Confederates lost the civil war and should not have been able to continually erect statues to maintain slavery as a right and a way of life.  Dylan Roof's cold blooded murder nine church members at the Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, SC. At the time of this heinous crime, Mr. Roof wanted to incite a race riot.  I am so happy that people who think like him did not take the bait and cause more bloodshed.  This event was one of many acts of violence against people of color in this country.  African American males were being murdered by police officers and these murders led to the formation of the Black Lives Matter mo
Read more

Boardwalk Empire Season 4 Finale: Why Maybelle?

Image
The finale of Boardwalk Empire addressed a couple of story lines last night.  I wanted to see Dr. Narcisse meet his maker but it didn't happen.  He was holding Chalky's daughter Maybelle hostage after a chance meeting at the Club Onyx and she unfortunately did not make it out of the club alive.  Chalky's bargaining chip was that he knew where Daughter was hiding and Narcisse had to have her back.  This was a twisted relationship because he had killed her mother during an encounter for hire in the story line. Last night's episode was also the end for Richard Harrow.  He was a killer extraordinaire.  The scene where he rescued little Jimmy from the brothel will go down in cinematic lore for me.  He needed closure regarding the whereabouts of Jimmy Darmody's body.  The episode began with him testifying to the fact that the person Gillian claimed to be Jimmy was actually the soldier that she drugged and killed.  Harrow went to Nucky and volunteered to do whatever it
Read more