*This is part II of my thoughts and memories regarding my high school years leading up to my 30 year class reunion.

I really liked Glenn Grodin.  He was one of my group of friends that got  together on weekends. We were the ones who for the most part did not have the invites to the hot house parties. I don’t know if the others wanted those party invites but I sure did. To feel like one of the chosen if  even for an evening.  After that who knows.   Maybe a date to the prom?  I would settle for a girl even asking me what my name was.  As neither ever came I played poker and got drunk instead.   My preferred method of the pre-puke was Southern Comfort.  At that time, the drinking age in Pennsylvania was 21. We therefore had to make booze runs into West Virginia where the drinking age was 18 and where our phony driver’s licenses would pass scrutiny.  We would cut class to do it during the week as the cops were out in force on weekends pulling over every out-of-state license plate that pulled away from the liquor store.   I would also  go through my parent’s liquor pouring a little from each bottle in a large mason jar.  Not quite VIP bottle service but it did the trick.  This is when it was fashionable to play in our parent’s living rooms as compared to rented condo penthouse suites.  Before every back door card game was a training room for ESPN Worlds Series Of Poker dreams.  We only  had our fast food paychecks(I was flipping burgers at Hardee’s) and allowances to wager but to us we had it all.

Glenn Grodin was often a part of those games.  Glen’s uncle was the well known actor and talk show host Charles Grodin.  I got to meet Charles at Glen’s house a few times.  I thought that was cool. Glens parents knew my parents. We lived just around the block from each other.  We were huge Pittsburgh Pirates fans.  We attended many games together in that magical 1979 “We Are Family” season ending in the Pirates last World Series championship.  I lost touch with Glenn and many of the poker group when I went on to Penn State.  I know the games went on without me. They eventually went on without Glenn as well.   Glenn died on  Oct 12, 1995.  I remember watching his uncle  speak emotionally of his nephew during one of his talk show segments. I cried for Glenn that night.  Only then did I find out that Glenn had become a nationally known animal rights activist.  He was the co-founder of Animal Passion, a Pittsburgh based animal rights organization.

When we walked out the doors of Mt. Lebanon High School for the final time in 1979  we thought our futures infinite. Glen is one of  17 members of the Mt. Lebanon High School class of 1979 that  have passed away since then. We all at times in our lives set our own self-serving standards to make us feel good that we have made a difference in this world.  Glenn made a  difference by any standard.  I wish I had stayed in touch.  Don’t we all.

“When we allow the celebration of cruelty to animals, each of us is diminished.” -Glenn Grodin