A Sobering Thought Without Being Drunk

After writing the piece about Tony Brunton, I began to think about all the people I worked with at WICC.

Morning dj Bill Coddaire; afternoon dj Harry Downie; evening dj’s Reed Upton and Al Turk: all passed on. News Director Tony Brunton, reporter John Martin, same. I think our Chief Engineer, Pat Uliano, is gone as well.

They are frozen in my mind as people of a certain age, mostly in their 20’s. But that was fifty years ago and, as they pass on in their 70’s, I probably would never recognize them. Nor would they be able to pick me out of a crowd. When I look at my high school senior year photo, taken when I was already in radio a year, then look in a mirror now, there has been quite a change over the years.

The younger set doesn’t realize why the obituary reading is such an important part of the program I do for the visually impaired and elderly. You get to a certain age and you know a lot of people. You know them, or their spouses; you know them through your church, your work, your social organizations or their children.

In my case, so many of my friends are frozen at some time in the past. When I worked in a high school, there wasn’t much of an age difference between me and the students. They are now 57, 58 years old -- and I still see them as 17 or 18. They’re looking toward retirement and I see them cutting lawns for movie money.