Writings and Reflections

When Uncle Eddie Became a Hero

by Lloyd B. Abrams

June 21, 1957 was graduation day in Islip. My inauspicious sixth grade graduation from Winganhauppauge Elementary in the late morning was followed by cookies and miniature cartons of milk, but my brother Steve’s was in the evening in the huge Islip High School auditorium decorated with purple and gold crepe paper and balloons.

The graduating boys wore white tuxedos and the girls, cocktail dresses. After the speeches and after the awards presentations and after they each received their actual diplomas on stage, they were all going to a gala party at a fancy seafood restaurant in Bay Shore right along the Great South Bay.

But as the graduates filed out to meet up with their parents and family on the front lawn of the school, a rumor was going around that the money for the party was missing, and had probably been stolen.

Eddie Abrams, my father’s younger brother, had traveled from Bayside to be with us for Steve’s graduation. Uncle Eddie, who was boisterous and garrulous, had a commanding presence. I figured he had to, in order to be a successful salesman. He was a lot different from my father, who owned a pharmacy in town with his two partners. Dad was usually much more quiet and reserved.

When Uncle Eddie realized what the missing money meant to the sobbing and angry graduates, and unrelated to anyone but Steve, he took it upon himself to approach each of the families to ask for donations – “C’mon … any amount … it’s for your own kids” – so that the graduates could go to their party.

I grew up with the mantra, “Don’t ever impose on other people,” and I thought that what Uncle Eddie was doing took a whole lot of guts – guts I thought I could never have. After he was well on his way around, he was joined by several other parents. In my ten-year-old eyes, I thought what Uncle Eddie was doing was so far from the world I had grown up in, and that it was so magical that they successfully raised all the money that was needed.

Sixty-two years later, I still look back with awe at that sticky Friday evening in June when my Uncle Eddie became a hero.

Rev 8 / October 20, 2019

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October, 2019…Copyright © 2019, Lloyd B. Abrams
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