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In Memory

Thomas H. Ries - Class Of 1961 VIEW PROFILE

Thomas H. Ries

Tom was my first friend, my best friend in my early years, and a good friend after that.  He lived across the alley, and, as youngsters, we spent most of our waking hours together.  We swung on his swing set dropping acorn bombs on pretend enemies, formed a secret 2-person club, dug trenches in the vacant lot next to his house, rode our bikes around the block to “San Fran,” and played basketball for long hours at a time.  His parents were “Uncle Milt” and “Aunt Betty” to me and his younger brother and sister were special because of Tom.

For some reason, I often recall when Tom got a crystal radio set which we put together, and we spent a lot of time pretending to be local radio talk show host Tommy Dee.  Dee would call people and give them a free dinner if they answered their phone by saying “Jello.”  If, instead, they said “Hello,” Dee would say, “You said ‘hello’ and your chances go; this is Tommy Dee on the Dinner Winner Show.”  And Tom and I, imitating Dee, repeated that phrase into a small microphone over and over.  Later, Tom and I mowed yards and put our earnings in a bank account named “San Fran.”

It’s been quite a few years, but I still think about Tom a lot and miss him a great deal.  Wish he could have been around for our 50th.

Paul Levy



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