Page 203 - WhyAsInY

you Can taKe tHe Boy out of BrooKlyn
Selectric typewriter on his desk. The Selectric was so expensive and groundbreaking that, when it ran into trouble, Jeff would have a technician drive up from Springfield to fix it. IBM’s most advanced consumer product, to that point at least, was first marketed on July 31 of that year. The typing element replaced the normal carriage and was referred to as the “golf ball” because of its shape and size; it tilted and rotated and could be replaced by an element with italics or a different font. It was priced at about $400, which was approxi- mately equivalent to 15 percent of one year’s tuition, room, and board. I took the position that the assessed valuation of Jeff ’s room was $25,000, not counting the chiffonier. His home address was Red Roof Farm, Port Chester, New York. Somehow, the owner of BVD could not afford to have a number on his mailbox. Jeff did not join my fraternity.
• Mark Levy, who pronounced his name “Leh-vee,” not “Lee-vee,” was also Jewish. Mark, a swimmer whose father was a psychiatrist, grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, which might have just as easily been a million miles away from Brooklyn. He was very smart, graduated from Bronx Science, did not have a New York accent, and actually knew my friend Marcia Serlin from a camp that they had attended. She knew him as “Sparky,” but that name was never uttered by him. I hung out with him for a good part of our freshman year.
• Bruce Wolff, who was also Jewish but not excited to let anyone know that, was the son of a congressman. He had a beautiful, redheaded girlfriend who was a dancer and a student at Bennington. Bruce used to send her money. He seemed to pretty much keep to himself, but he went on to become class president. Many years later, my wife, Kathy, would deal with Bruce and his law firm. Then we would socialize. For the first time.
• Oliver Welsh was decidedly not Jewish. He was very blond, very handsome, very affable, and a famed hockey player from Minnesota.
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