An Early Morning Surprise

When I was in my freshman year at Oberlin College, a number of my friends decided to have our left ears pierced.   My accessories of choice were a purple lightning bolt and a single red die, the latter of which I wore in honour of my father's long-time interest in the detection of crooked gambling.   I was a bit nervous about doing so, but rather than risk giving my parents (especially my mother, Norma) a heart attack from the shock of unexpectedly encountering my newly acquired ear jewellery when I arrived home for Fall Break, I decided to be merciful and tell my father in advance what to expect,  

Some weeks later, I drove home from Ohio to New York with a group of friends.   It was a long and gruelling overnight drive - more than nine hours on Route 80, along the dark and winding mountain roads of Pennsylvania.   Throughout the first leg of the drive, we munched on "specially seasoned" brownies, so that we were both exhausted and suffering from mildly altered consciousness when we arrived at my parents' house at around 5:00 a.m.  

As usual, my father, George, a rather light sleeper, heard me pull into the driveway, and so he was ready to open the front door to greet me at the moment I began to insert the key into the lock.   Given that it was still rather dark, with only a glimmer of daylight just beginning to emerge, and given my quasi-awake state, I didn't notice at first that he was wearing his own special piece of modern fashion - one of my mother's most dangly clip-on earings, which he proudly attached to the septum of his nose!   I had to finally do a serious double-take when I looked up at him and found myself becoming mesmerized by the quickly swaying ball of my mother's earing.

But that's not the end of this story.....

Of course, when one has just come in from a long car ride, where's the first place one would head?   Why, of course, the bathroom!   After stopping briefly in the kitchen to temporarily deposit my leftover snacks from the trip onto the kitchen counter, I headed straight in to answer Nature's call.  

When I emerged a few moments later, I discovered my father blissfully nibbling on the remnants of my mind-altering brownie, which he had discovered lying on the counter, wrapped in tin-foil.   And being a notorious and unabashed chocolate lover, he just couldn't resist sampling my baking.  

Needless to say, my father being a bit of an anti-drug fanatic, I could not (and never did) reveal to him what he had just eaten.   Instead, I just watched him begin to giggle over the next hour or so, while thinking, I suppose, that his nose ring prank was the funniest thing since Jackie Mason's first night on the Borscht Belt stage.

Story provided by Howard Fredrics

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Smiles and Laughter

Cousin George was always smiling and laughing.  When he met me for the first time, you could have assumed I was this long lost missing relation!  He welcomed us into his family with an open heart.  He also seemed like a very chipper fellow, always making other people comfortable.  I will miss him.  Our family seems so "chopped up".  We need to be more like Cousin George in finding and rejoicing in relatives we have yet to meet.  Or, to spend more time with those already known. 

Story provided by Naomi Reich

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Watch, Watch...

Mr. Fredrics, as I always addressed him, was an amazing, talented individual.  From fixing televisions as a hobby, to performing magic, and even playing piano by ear, his talents were amazing.  He sang beautifully.  He became a friend immediately when someone met him for the first time. 
 
Little to many people's knowledge, he was an orphan and grew up in an orphan home.  Mr. Fredrics was self-taught.  He appeared on television and gave many lectures on surveillance and catching professional cheats.
 
He probably could have worked for the C.I.A.  But, I think the internal politics would have disturbed him.  So...he took his own route and became self-employed as a successful professional recruiter (head hunter).  I often remember Howard telling me to "keep it down" as his father had a client in his bedroom's adjourning office.
 
George always had a good joke or pun up his sleeve.  One that stands out in my memory is that he used to ask me if "I want to see a magic trick?"  I would say "sure."  He would then point to his wrist watch and state emphatically; "Watch, Watch." 
 
I really will miss Mr. Fredrics.  I wish I knew him better than I did over the thirty plus years my family and the Fredrics' were friends.
 
Until this day, I am dear friends with Howard and his lovely wife Lori (whose mother, by the way, is hysterical).  I wish we lived closer together so we could reminisce more about Mr. Fredrics.

Story provided by Scott Sims

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Last updated on:
August 14, 2007
by Howard Fredrics