Thursday, August 13, 2020
What does one say about one's older brother? From Jon as a kid I learned to obey the rules and not incur the wrath of our Dad With a 5 year age gap in the 1950;s we didn't have that much in common - I remember being jealous that his chore was to mow the lawn and I had to set the table, but age had it's privilege unless mowing the lawn isn't your thing. We grew up on the water on our 35' yawl BOUNTY, a John Alden designed boat built in 1928 that with the borrowing of one downwind sail beat the entire Sea Cliff Yacht Club fleet including the guy who lent us the Spinnaker (he took it back during the after race raftup). When Jon was serving in the Coast Guard in Manasquan New Jersey I rode my motorbike down there and got to play drums with Danny and the Juniors in some bar I'm sure I shouldn't have been in - I knew from a previous trip that it was Danny and the Cherries, a local band I had played with in another bar - and we had fun playing (can you guess?) At The Hop. After our parents were killed in an auto accident Jon and I started the Roy and Betty Ten Haagen Memorial Scholarship Fund, Inc., today the largest scholarship awarded at North Shore now in our 26th year. There were issues between us, and a goodly number of years were taken away, but a few years ago we began rebuilding what we could of our relationship, and with this stunning event couldn't be more grateful that I had my brother back for these past years. 3 years ago I stopped on Long Island on an East Coast trip in my RV and spent the day with Jon. We visited our parent's cemetery in Glen Head, went by our old homestead on Orchard Street, and happily caught up with our friend Tom Malloy who was in his workshop when we happened by creating found art, his full time retirement profession. A nice day to have as a memory now. Goodbye Jon - I'm not sure if I will ever absorb this event completely but rest in peace knowing what were able to retrieve together.
