Another birthday is here, a day to mark my being. It is a time for me to be grateful for life, good health, and the love of my wife, children, and grand children. The litany could go on and on and still fail to cover all I am and should be thankful for. That part of the birthday celebration is easy; the tough part is believing it is the sixty-seventh celebration. I have reevaluated my definition of the word “old”. It is no longer “decrepit”,” worn-out”, “one foot in the grave” for me it is a time to enjoy new things, learn new ones, and improve on the old. I enjoyed a recent E-Mail from my daughter, Sue, to the new GOL (Gang on Line) member, Rev. Richard T. McS. SJ, in which she exclaims she can’t believe I am 67. She confesses that to her I am still young. I thought: “Wonder what my 80-year old-plus brother, thinks of having a “younger” brother 67?” It is, as we all know, relative. It is “time”, that dimension that only measures years or its passage and not much else.
May brought the loss of two friends One older, Judge Blake and one younger Frank Mangini. Ed was 69 and Frank 50. Ed and I graduated from Law school together. He had attended St. Joseph’s but graduated a year earlier (1950). He entered the service for a year and then came back to Penn Law. He was a very good student and member of the law review. When I returned to the area in 1958 he was serving as a law clerk to the famous Judge Vincent A Carroll. Judge Carroll was one of the movers and shakers in the Philadelphia Judiciary. He began then what is today called a unified court system. In the 60’s there were nine or ten common pleas courts, a family court, an orphans court, and a municipal court. All with separate President Judges and administrations. Judge Carroll began with the help of the Pa. Supreme Court to unify the system. His first administrator was his law clerk, Edward J. Blake, Esq. However, before that post was created and Ed was installed, he had become a partner to Paul L. McS, and John FX Purcell in the firm know as McSorley, Purcell, & McSorley. Ed’s position as a judicial law clerk prevented him from having his name appear in the partnership title. Around that time he introduced me to Avalon. We purchased two or three properties at auctions and at prices that today would seem ridiculous. We carried them in the corporate name of JEP, Inc. The “J” was John, “E” was Ed, and “P” yours truly. When Ed became court administrator we had to dissolve the corporation and take titles in our own names. I became the owner of 27th and First Ave. Ed and I owned two duplexes built on 21st Street. The numbers were 536 and 636. We split them when Ed went on the Bench as a Judge in early 1970-71. Suffice it to say, we were friends, classmates, partners, and parents over 40 years.
In 1970, while I was serving as Commissioner of Records for the city, the Governor named some thirty lawyers to the bench. In that capacity, as record keeper, it was my job to accept and record the Warrants of their Appointment. It was normally carried out without any formality. I however thought it would be more appropriate to deliver to those who wished their Recorded Warrants in person (just another way to meet 30 new judges). Among those I had the pleasure of presenting, was that of Edward J. Blake’s. It was an interesting crossing of career paths. Ed then moved in a different circle and moved on up to Court Administrator under Judge Bradley as President Judge, and eventually as President Judge. The law clerk finished the circle he started under the first mover of unification, Judge Carroll. He, Carroll, would have been proud of his protégé’s success in the unification of the court system. Ed was also one of the prime movers of the new Criminal Justice Center. The building now occupied by the former Quarter Sessions and present Municipal Court.
As the years rushed by we, Ed and I, traveled in different orbits and only crossed paths at St. Joseph’s Law Alumni and Penn Law reunions. I think the last St. Joseph’s Law Alumni Reunion I attended was the one honoring him for his outstanding contributions to the judicial and legal community. His whole family was in attendance, his two lawyer sons, and his daughter lawyer with her children. He also had a retarded child, Christopher who must be in his 20’s by now. He lost one of those sons to the waters of Avalon just a few years ago. His leaving us has had me reexamining my continued practice of the law even in the modest and limited way I now do. I am leaning more and more to bringing the obligations that such practice require to a close.
The other friend we lost was Frank Mangini, at the age of 50 years. He died of a very malignant cancer. We knew from a Christmas card from his wife, Terry that it was coming. He and I crossed paths as client and lawyer. I am supposed to have introduced him to Terry who was a mother of two children whom I helped out of an abusive marriage. I have no recollection of that being the case but I was a close friend of both of them for many years. I represented Frank in his purchase and operation of several bars. The last was at 12th and Samson Sts. It was called the “Ugly Pub”. He left there maybe 10 years ago to purchase a liquor store in Voorhees, N.J. He also moved from the neighborhood to live nearby his place of business. We crossed paths now and again when he needed some help in matters here. I also represented him when he adopted Terry’s two children. The last legal contact I had was with his son, George, when he and his wife purchased a home in the city.
June and I were unable to attend the funeral but this week we had dinner with Terry and learned of her long ordeal of the nearly a year and half illness. She has weathered the loss well, as she has so many others in her life. I had the opportunity on several occasions to be of help when relatives of hers were in trouble or cause of trouble. One of them was a mentally ill brother who committed suicide. She has borne her crosses well.
Frank’s dying along with Ed’s certainly makes you acutely aware, once again, of your own mortality. Carpe Diem!
Even as we endure these sad memories present events keep reminding us how good life is. A visit to Stuart Day School to watch Kate and Meggie (McSorley-Baker) perform for Grandparent’s day is an excellent example. The wonder of a child easily replaces memories of lost friends. We even had a grand luncheon with “Large” (Kate) and “Medium” (Meggie). Colleen (“Small”) was waiting anxiously at home. The experience reminded me of my Dad’s saying as the years and the law began to pall. Just before he would leave the office he would often remark: “I’m going home to look into the face of child – the world’s best relief from ‘the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune’”. To see the countenance of innocence and love-in-action by one’s who have no idea that there is even a word for it, namely, “love”.
Speaking, or writing about time and life, brought to mind another reflection on its qualities. For example, I am reading biography of Abe Lincoln and realized that he, Lincoln, was alive (b. 1809) before Thomas Jefferson died in l826, and Lincoln died a mere 21 years before my father was born in 1886.Nothing new there except we tend to assume that historic figure must be “old”, out of our time. Yet it is all so obviously relative when viewed in this manner. Put another way, the so-called “historical” figures don’t seem to have lived “long, long ago”. Nor does 67 years now seem to be such a “long” time. As the man said, “It’s all relative!”
I would like to digress from my own memories to pass on some interesting items I learned from my reading. I am into biographies and the original papers of some famous Americans. In fact, I must have told some one since Jim gave me the book, “A Biography of God”. I haven’t read it yet but I am sure it will be one book where they can’t say, “The Movie was better!”
One of the facts I learned in the autobiography of Jefferson is that Pennsylvania, or really Philadelphians were reluctant and almost last signers of the Declaration of Independence. The royalty connections were strong here in the City of Brotherly love. One of the more active communities as we all know was Virginia, with Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Madison, and others. So it was an interesting contrast to read in Lincoln’s writings in his Special address to Congress after Fort Sumter was fired upon, of Virginia’s secession. It was done in a rather sleazy manner. They made it appear that the legislature was giving the people an opportunity to decide sometime in the near future. In the meantime the leaders ordered the take over of the Federal property, at Harpers Ferry, and other places, as if they had already had the people’s approval to secede. In that same address Lincoln refers to the famous Virginian who wrote the Declaration of Independence. He notes, sarcastically “Our adversaries have adopted some Declarations of Independence; in which, unlike the good old one, penned by Jefferson they omit the words ‘all men are created equal’. Why?”
Tempus fugits. It is now the 1st day of June. The day Tommy was born 12 years ago. We celebrate now as we did then. I will not make the party so penned a small verse which will take my place.
Speaking of birthdays, I want to thank you all for your remembrances, phone calls, etc. etc. It makes one happy to know that others care that he is still around. I am happy! In that vein I wish to announce on this “rare day in June”, that come December 31, 1996 I will give up the formal practice of law. I will have spent 38 years as a licensed practitioner in Penna. I had four more years’ prior thereto in the USMC as a member of the DC Bar and legal officer. So Tempus has fugitted. I feel great having finally made the decision and am joined in this feeling by June. We both look forward to seeing the world, our grandchildren, and reaping the benefits of having stuck around this long.
A thought for you: “Children are natural Zen Masters, their world is brand new in each and every moment.” (J. Bradshaw)