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Part Three:Eddie died, then the party began!
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The neighborhood’s Eddie Cohen, was a big , (6’4) solid, good looking kid. Johnny LeVine says: He appeared Aryan; blond, blue eyed; could have been a Swede or Nordic.” He had been adopted into an Oak Park family
The area was predominantly a Jewish stronghold. (An impossibly young Al Kaplan, left, with Eddie, right, 1973!)
It’s still being said that Eddie was a unique character, and a legend too. He was always bigger, tougher. He had Bad-Ass pride. Still, he had this “aura’ about him.
He always had nice clothes, and later, a brand new Pontiac 2+2. Eddie was a self styled James Dean or Errol Flynn, mind you, without a shred of their sophistication. Nevertheless, he could be a magnetic force, .jpg)
casting spells on the womenfolk. (Look-a-like Gregg Allman, with Cher, pictured left.)
http://www.singsnap.com/snap/watchAndListen/play/c3cf831a "Midnight Rider" (By "MeManny') An excellent Gregg Allman song.
He wasn’t much for school. But he was very loyal. He took a liking to: dogs, photography, drums, rock bands. Let’s not forget girls.
Eddie also played a physical brand of hockey, but not as physical as the fights he lived for. Kids challenged, he accepted. The battle cry was:"Meet me behind the Shul". (Lower right.) Everyone knew that phrase. He pounded people. 
Nonetheless, Eddie Cohen’s life was one of unfulfillment; not much to write home about. That’s just it. He never left home. Since the early ‘60’s, he remained on Cloverlawn street, in Oak Park Michigan, at his parents house.
Day after day, year after year, during those crystal clear moments, Eddie could look out from that porch and see Oak Park graduates heading off to college. Before long, he saw them return as accountants, businessmen, architects, firemen; success stories. He'd made his own wrong choices.
http://www.singsnap.com/snap/watchAndListen/play/ca12164a7 "Day After Day" (By an incredible, incredible man!)
After this panoramic view, what did he really see? What did he think? What did he feel? (Boyz, Joe Gorman, Lee Ravitz, pictured L&R)
Furthermore, the neighborhood boys were being married off - 0ne at a time. Most had families. Eddie had wanted always both.
Late in life, thank God, he did get married, to a lady with one kid. That was his brief respite; that glimpse - or was it? He married the wrong woman! (Don’t ask. Please don’t)
Eddie eventually had a liver transplant. He truly “tried to try”. He got a G.E.D. He got an Associates degree. He became a drug counselor. But it was too late, very late - and he became very sick.
Two conversations, separate girlz, (wives of two Boyz) who said it right: "It's very sad". Hopeless resignation was in their voices. So was resounding feeling. 
Alone, in a hospital bed, with only his own thoughts and memories to comfort him, you wonder if Eddie remembered:
The time, in 7th grade, that Ted S playfully wiped a clean butter knife on him, in the cafeteria. It went across his nice new sweater. Eddie grabbed one with peanut butter on it and put it on Ted’s sleeve. In turn, Ted tossed a fruit cup at Eddie’s head.( Oak Park Hill, local pride, below left)
Like the ‘Two Stooges”, Eddie decided to throw a whole tray of food in Ted’s face. (Larry Wolfe, above)
Soon the whole room was in an uproar, with food and dishes everywhere. The boys soon felt the iron grip of a teacher on their shoulders.
They ended up cleaning the whole cafeteria. This meant mopping. Ted accidentally swabbed the toes of Eddie’s nice shoes, so Eddie slapped Ted’s shirt full of soggy mop head!
…Yes, of course, with days left in Eddie’s life, Ted S asked him: “Who won that food fight?”
They both smiled at each other. Neither answered the question, in their final conversation. (Both won!)
Eddie’s funeral attendance, of 100 people, were treated to a solemn hymn. It was “Born To Be Wild.”
As Al Kaplan says: “There are more ailments as we’ve gotten older. Greg Sikorski has been ill. Steve Burr had a quadruple bypass. So did Larry Wolf.”
The “party” also means the Boyz Club is in constant, sometimes feverish communication - By way of phone calls and e-mails, recommending health care, talking to spouses, keeping spirits up; maybe some physical labor help.
Anything and everything. 
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The “party” means obligation. “Eddie” lives on, doing everything he can to prevent the next Eddie, though there is inevitability here. Great friend, Seymour Cherny (second, left, in picture) died last January. There will be other vigils.
The fragility of it all; “too many guys” (and gals) and “too much affection”, that’s growing like a high percentage investment.
The Boyz Club has to love ‘em more, before it’s too late. The genie is out of the bottle. (L-R, Jim Mousel, Seymour Cherny, Steve Burr, Al Kaplan, Marc Levine, Larry Bliss, Cass Lake Marina, 2008)
http://www.singsnap.com/snap/watchAndListen/play/ac9f2fb8 "A Little Help From My Friends" (By "MellowTouch". This is class version! Can you say: Julio Iglesias?)
They honored Eddie, with three months of visitation. They didn’t have to do that. Eddie honored them, in being the dying symbol of their barely breathing fellowship, per all those decades - the brotherhood that could have been. But is now and will be forever!
And if you forget the name “Boyz Club”, can you please remember it as “Eddie’z Club”?
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End. Feel free to leave a comment at the VERY bottom of this article. Thanks.
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