Last week in Step 85 I introduced the two organizations having the greatest influence on Jewish youth in Milwaukee during my high school years. Even though my first experience was with Young Judaea my affiliation was short lived and it did not have nearly the impact on my life as my involvement with the Bnai Brith Youth Organization. The BBYO, the acronym by which the organization is known is split into two groups, Bnai Brith Girls or BBG and Bnai Brith Boys or AZA.
Having formed my closest initial relationship at John Marshall High with M it was natural I would follow him into Witt AZA. Following along with me was my cousin Jim. It didn’t take us long to become fast friends with Lennie, Tyler, Sandy, Brad, Steve S, Mike K, the brothers Steve and Tom P, and the veterans of Witt: Barry, Joel and Elliott, better known as Pidge.
Pidge was the president of the chapter when I became a member, and his enthusiasm was contagious. Whether organizing a newspaper collection, thinking up lines for a skit, or pulling down a rebound in a basketball game Pidge was the original Tony Robbins live with passion guy. He would get so excited his eyes would literally flash on and off as he talked.
While we were busy learning about our Jewish heritage, gaining leadership experience, and building moral character through community service, our main interest, which pulled us all together, was planning our next activity with a BBG chapter. Most of us knew the many girls who attended Marshall and nearby Washington high schools that populated Gilead, Kander, Menorah, and the other westside BBG chapters. The real challenge was getting an eastside BBG chapter to pair up with us for some charitable or social activity. For such a task you had to have a go-to guy, and at that time our go-to guy was Pidge.
Meanwhile, our good friends Jeff M and Jeff P were bragging to us about how their chapter, Solomon, had already planned an activity with one of the eastside chapters, either Shalom or Tzion if memory serves, because one of their own members, Dennis K., became their go-to guy when he moved to the eastside. Let’s face it some things in life just aren’t fair.
In the meantime, Jim, M, I, and other members of Witt planned carpools to the open dances different chapters would sponsor. These dances served two purposes, an opportunity to raise money for the sponsoring chapter or chapters, and a chance for kids from all over the city to have a good time dancing to one of the local bands. Westside dances usually took place at Beth El synagogue and eastside dances were at the Jewish Community Center. Both venues had large auditoriums with seats removed to form a dance floor with the bands playing on their stages.
At one of the dances at Beth El where the Seven Wonders were playing some of the best rhythm and blues west of Motown I spotted Jan separated from Debbie D who was probably busy batting her eyelashes and shoving her overdeveloped assets in the face of some senior. So, I wiggled my way through the crowd to where Jan stood just waiting for the chance to move her miniskirt onto the dance floor. We did the frug, hully gully, monkey and swim. I even had a chance to wrap my arms around her and feel her head on my shoulder as the Wonders slowed down the sound, only to have Debbie D return to snatch her away.
Oh well, it was really just something to do until we were able to get together with those exotic ladies of the eastside.
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