Remembering Arnold Beichman
Let me add a story to the reminiscences of the great Arnold Beichman. I last saw Arnold in October 2008 at the beautiful home he shared with his wife Carol in Naramata, British Columbia. The house hugs the water, overloomed by great cliffs and the massive trees that thrive on the BC rains.
We reminisced about many subjects, and at one point Arnold talked about his childhood on the Lower East Side. On hot days, he said, he and his friends would jump off the piers of the East River to swim.
Wasn't that dangerous, I asked, having some vague memory of treacherous eddies in the river.
No, he said, not dangerous - but disgusting, since in those days the streetsweepers dumped the horse manure directly into the river off those same piers. Lumps of it would bobble around the swimming children.
Carol said: "Arnold don't you think that's the secret of your longevity? If the manure didn't kill you outright - think of what it did for your immune system!"
Arnold kept his strength, humor, memory, and faculties to the very end. If swimming with horse manure is the secret, we should all sprinkle a little in our own bathtubs every day.
God bless a great, brave, and vibrant man.