Forever One Summer Paperback - 2007

It is a story filled with discovery, joy, and the innocence of teenage years back in the fifty's. It also shows how those years became the building blocks of a lifetime.

The motivation for writing this came from an extraordinary thing that happened to me in the Spring of 2006 that stirred my memory and caused me to recall with clarity what I had so long ago buried in my subconscious mind.

I met a person who became a good friend, but more importantly she reawakened everything I had discovered in that one magical summer back in 1954. Looking back as an adult fifty years later made me realize that there is symmetry in life, but many people never take the time to see it.

This all started for me when we returned from our Winter Condo in Boca Raton, Florida in April of 2006. As per my usual morning routine, I continued to awaken early and go over to Starbucks to sit and have my morning cup of Decaf Americano.

I'd sit there and read the Daily News, or the New York Times, and chat with some fascinating people I had met who'd become friends in the several years since I retired. One particular April morning I came in and they had a new person in charge of the morning shift working there.

From the moment I saw her I could not stop looking at her. There was something instantly so familiar about her, but I wasn't able to see exactly what it was initially. When I made the connection with what it was it hit me like a ton of bricks. After we were introduced we began chatting briefly, but the more we made small talk, the less I actually heard what she was saying as memories of my past flooded back. All of a sudden I was fifteen years old again. I knew then I had to sit down and somehow get this written. I also knew I would at some point; have to share this amazing story with her if or when I got to know her better.

It was interesting recalling my early childhood, and the events that brought me to that wonderful summer of discovery, and falling in love for what I believed then to be the first and last time in my life. That summer held some of the keys to the person I would become as I grew up, and dealt with life at all ages.

It was exciting to wake up every morning. Brooklyn back in the mid 40's was a magical place and for George and his twin brother Vic every day was a new adventure.

Betty, their mom quit having kids after they were born. She was a Teacher and felt that two were a handful especially at the same age. Everything was doubled, from clothing, to beds, to dinners and especially to games and toys. She was definitely the Alpha person and the Matriarch of the household. She taught them at a very young age the thirst for knowledge, love of music, and the love of life.

Frank, their dad spent much of his time working, but never was really successful. He took jobs in sales at local stores and as a result was out of the house a great deal. Theirs was an interesting marriage. Dad never went beyond the 8th grade in school while Mom was a college graduate, a rarity in those days. He was a kind warm man, but had nowhere near the same intellect as his wife.

George and Vic called themselves Pizza-Bagels because Dad was Italian while Mom was an American whose parents were born in Russia and Jewish. Dad's last name was Leonardo, but Mom wanted to "Americanize" it when they married, so she had it legally changed to Leon. Mom went back to work teaching when we were five years old and in Kindergarten.

I think we might have been five years old when mom started drumming in our heads the goal of going to C