Now before you go telling me that I spelled the word “Caesar” incorrectly, let me explain. I woke up this morning to a ringing telephone. The wife and kids had gone to Easter service with my mom so I was actually able to sleep in late for a change. And as much as I love my mom, not even she can make me step inside of a church. But that is a story for another time. Anyway, the ringing phone woke me up. I hate waking up to the phone. Needless to say I was pissed. I was all set to flip out on whatever telemarketer had the balls to wake me up this early in the morning when all of a sudden I hear……
“Rock……what’s up my brother? It’s your boy Ceasor!”
Immediately my emotions at being woken up early went from anger to shock. Then from shock to giddy amusement. Of all of the people that I could have expected to contact me on Easter morning, Ceasor was the last person that would have come to mind. I hadn’t spoken to him since maybe a year or two after we graduated from Oberlin. It was a pleasant surprise though. Ceasor is one of the nicest people that I know. There is not a mean or spiteful bone in his body. I can honestly say that without most hyperbole or exaggeration. He is just…..Ceasor.
We talked for awhile about what we had done since college, as well as discussed which of our mutual friends we had kept in contact with over the years. Ceasor had moved to Texas, and oddly enough, had become a teacher as well. After we laughed about the path that takes a poor black kid from streets of Cleveland and transforms him into San Antonio educator, we laughed about the path that takes a poor black kid from Harlem and turns him into a college professor.
As our talk progressed Ceasor mentioned that an old friend of ours, Phil, had gone on to become a professor at MIT. We spoke about my recent visits with Mike Sorrell and Jeff Ice (we had all played together on the Oberlin Basketball team), as well some of the Oberlin heads like Marie-Elizabeth, Milton, Fat Lieber (don’t ask), and Freddie Kruger (again…don’t ask) that I had run into. It is funny but when I look back at the people we talked about, nearly all of them had gone into education. I say it is funny because we all graduated in the late 80’s and during the height of the Wall Street “greed is good” mentality. It is very doubtful that any of us had ideas on becoming lifelong educators.
Anyway it was good to talk to my boy Ceasor. When I get a chance I gotta post that video from the Lip sync contest that he and I entered. I still think I can fit into that outfit.