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Donald's Blog
January 15, 2015 Johnny Sobott
I've been forgetting to mention that I've been reunited with another old pal. On October 1st I posted a picture with Bill Perry, who I hadn't seen in 50 years; my reunion with Johnny Sobott, another Kenosha kid, is perhaps less dramatic, because we have been in touch over the years, but he lives near Denver and now we have got together for only the second time in decades. We had a marvelous lunch at Rock Bottom in Colorado Springs on 3 January: there were six of us, including Ethne, John's lovely Dottie, and our son David and his wife Saream. Johnny having been in the Army a long time ago, he and David found plenty to talk about. Johnny played tenor sax in the high school band; I remember listening to him practice in his basement. Another dear friend, the late Louis Costanzo, played clarinet; John Brintnall played trombone; and of course I knew them all because we all loved music. Johnny later picked up the reeds again, and now serenades folks around Denver, playing and even singing standards. When he joined the Army 50 years ago, strangely enough he was sent here to Colorado Springs for his basic training, rather than Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. Dottie graduated from high school in 1958, like the rest of us, but in Mississippi; then moved to Kenosha to go to work for her uncle, who ran gas stations. (I used to trade at Pierce's at 22nd Avenue and 60th Street; I seem to remember a cute gal there who used to take my money and give me a receipt: I wonder if it was Dottie!) Her first husband was Brintnall; he played trombone in an Army band here in Colorado Springs, and their daughter was born here 50 years ago. And here we all are in the same place. And recently I exchanged a few emails with the beautiful Sue Ensfield, who I have known since first grade. I wonder how many more dear old friends will resurface before I kick off my clogs! January 15, 2015 Oh, by the way...
Here is the whole fam damly at Christmas 2014: Left to right are Louis the black-and-tan Cavalier, David the son and heir, Ethne the boss and the inspiration for the rest of us, Betty the Blenheim, Saream the lovely daughter-in-law, and the old pooperoo.
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