Boyz to Men

Always they’ve been friends. Eighteen chums met in the Upper West Side of New York City in 1937. They formed a club and called themselves the Century Athletic Club. As youngsters they were a team which competed in baseball, football and roller hockey. Their clubhouse was the neighborhood candy store whose owner applied frozen malted milks to injuries. They met at each others houses. They had a reputation for “eating like animals” so one family put a gym lock on the refrigerator door when the boys met at their house.

Only one was 4-F. All the rest entered service at the outbreak of World War II. One didn’t make it back. One escaped from a prison camp. Six have since died. One has fallen out of touch.

Recently 11 celebrated their 60th anniversary for “nothing more than the fact that they are old friends still.”

shared by Meg Cox from the New York Times