Photo Credit: Black Detour
Friends forever!
A group of boys met in 1946 in Kindergarten at Garfield Elementary School in Washington D.C and have maintained their friendship years later. Now in their 70’s they make time to meet once a month.
3 members of the group passed away, however, Arrington Dixon, 77, Hudie Fleming, 79, Ronald Chase, 77, William Hutchins, 79, Orlando Lee, 78, James Strickland, 79, and Norman Thomas, 79 still keep in touch.
According to TheBlackDetour.com, in 1988, after the men who enlisted in the military returned home, they decided to meet together every month on the second Thursday. Now 31 years later the men still meet and have fellowship every second Thursday of each month. In a recent meeting, the men were surprised by the son of one of their members Bill Lee.
Bill Lee says:
“This day and age we’re more connected through social media but not as much through neighborhoods. Most of us don’t know our neighbors or the people around us. We’re connected but we’re not really connected. We have a lot of surface relationships. But I think it’s important for us to understand friends and the importance of the village. I’ve known these guys all my life. They’ve been at all the gatherings. They’re not just tight with my father they’re tight with my family.”
He adds:
“We wanted to have some cohesiveness as a group. See what things we could do together to help the community and each other. We started career days. We had doctors, policeman and nurses going back and trying to better that school.”
Love it!!