![\"RobertFreedman\"](\"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/RobertFreedman.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWe were in the same kindergarten class at Brooklyn’s P.S. 238, and continued together in the same class through the 5th grade. We were inseparable, with a similar sense of humor, always competing for the title of class clown. We’d trade whatever jokes we’d heard from comedians the night before on TV, which meant we were often chastised by teachers for talking too much or laughing too loud. But that wasn’t going to stop either of us from getting to the punchline of whatever joke Henny Youngman had told on The Ed Sullivan Show<\/em> the night before!<\/p>\n After I’d completed the 5th grade, my family moved from Ocean Parkway to Canarsie, which to a kid of our ages at that time was like having moved to Mars. We didn’t see each other as often, but did keep in touch with phone calls that lasted for hours. We were still friends a decade later, when I married in 1976 and included him in my wedding party.<\/p>\n That’s Bob on the far right. (And my brother and friend Allan Grosman on either side of me.)<\/p>\n We remained in touch over the years, and would have deli from time to time as long as I continued to live in New York, but because I bounced around to Massachusetts then Maryland and now West Virginia, while he remained in Brooklyn, eventually our opportunities to physically occupy the same space became fewer. But we did manage to get together when I visited New York, such as in this picture from 2003. Sadly, these seem to be our only two joint photos.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n