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This Thanksgiving I am reminded of a story that took place when I was 10 and Brian was 8 at a mall in South Jersey while visiting Nana and Bompa, Nana wanted to shop in one of the department stores so Bompa found a nice bench at the bottom of the escalator to rest. I asked if I could ride the escalator up and down knowing full well the answer would be no because this is not allowed, it is dangerous, and the clerks would simply not stand for it, or so I was told. Having been to the emergency room a dozen times by age 10 I am not surprised this was my Mother’s position. Imagine my joy when Bomp said sure. Up and down I went in absolute heaven racing Brian and walking up the down and down the up until I noticed a young black kid who was way too young to be alone in the store. Bompa said come here to the kid and I was sure the kid was in big trouble. Bomp said what is your name? He said Marvin. I thought oh man Marvin you are gonna get it. To my surprise Bomp said Marvin do you want to ride the escalator with our boys. He did and we had a three way race for a while until Marvin got distracted and was going to move on. Bompa wanted to keep him nearby till his Mom came to look for him so he said hey Marvin you see this rack of shopping bags? He said yes. Bomp asked do you guys want to play a game? We said sure. He said try and guess how many bags are on this rack and I’ve got a quarter for whoever is closest. Brian and I guessed 50 or 100 but Marvin said 1000. I laughed knowing I had won. Bompa counted the bags very slowly and carefully and said Marvin is the closest and promptly plopped a quarter in his hand. Marvin jumped for joy as my eyes began to bug out of my head but before I could say a word he slipped Brian and I both a quarter out of Marvin’s view. I learned a lot about life in that moment and as we begged and pleaded for more games Marvin’s Mom swooped in and thanked us for looking after the boy. Off we went to 7/11 for Slurpees.

I knew at that young age I was dealing with a rare commodity in Raymond L Mahony. A man who could make a day bright for 3 kids with an escalator and a rack of ordinary shopping bags. A man who could make a 2 dollar bill more exciting than a 100.

You will be receiving a rare commodity this Christmas that touched my children month in and month out for most of their child hood. I hope you cherish it as much as I do.

Love, David.