Long flight, short visit, great friendship

Two years had passed since they were last together, so Bill Denk and his four buddies had a lot to talk about.

What they didn’t have a lot of was time. His buddies had a plane to catch.

Normally at this time of year they would have all been back in Rochester, N.Y. where they all grew up..

But Lewy body dementia, a progressive brain disease, made it impossible for Denk, 79, to travel.

It was the first time in decades he and his wife, Dolores, missed the annual clambake back in Rochester, and it made him sad.

His buddies, too. Last year they passed the cellphone around the room for half an hour taking turns visiting with Denk.

“Bill cried. I cried. We all cried,” remembered Larry Allen, who at 80 is the oldest of the five.

If Bill couldn’t come to the clambake, they decided after hanging up, they’d have to the take the clambake or some reasonable facsimilie to him.

Fran Wesley volunteered to make the arrangements and sometime in September sent an e-mail to Dolores. It was set. Their flight was scheduled to arrive in Atlanta at 8:30 a.m., Oct. 15.

Bill and Dolores were beside themselves with excitement.

“The geezers are coming,” Dolores Denk announced to her children in an e-mail. “The geezers are coming.”

And so at the crack of dawn, Larry, Fran, Jim Laragy and Jack Heimrich left their homes in Rochester and boarded a 6: 30 a.m. flight to Atlanta.

“They finally got here after much gnashing of teeth,” said Bill, his eyes dancing like a little boy on Christmas morning.

As Bill’s nurse served them cups of coffee and cinnamon rolls, they talked about their friendship, about Bill and Larry hitchhiking to California and dancing on Catalina Island; about all of them chowing down on clams at a place called Skinny’s.

They go back more than seven decades, best friends who lived to double and triple date, who were all drafted at one time or another into the armed forces, served their time and came back home.

Although they lived in the same neighborhood, they didn’t meet until their first year at St. Andrews Catholic School in Rochester when World War II was at its peak, and became instant friends.

Each brought something different to the relationship. Jack had a great sense of humor. Bill had the wanderlust, which he passed on to Larry, and Fran was just the guy everybody loved.

They don’t remember the precise moment they got the idea for the clambake but they suspect they held the first one, oh, back in 1968 at Jack’s place.

The clambake was basically a “big eating” day always in September, October or November.

Bill soon tired of shoveling snow during those awful months and in 1985, the year he retired from Kodak, he and Dolores moved to Roswell.

Every year, they returned to Rochester for the annual clambake —- a feast featuring two to five dozen clams, corn on the cob, Italian sausage, potatoes and lots of beer.

By 2006, Denk’s health had deteriorated so much he needed a walker to get around. Travel was not an option. Not only did he miss his class reunion for the first time that year, he missed his grandson’s graduation, too.

Last year, when they couldn’t make it to the clambake, the gang decided to come here for lunch, catching up and talking about the good old days, when a cup of coffee was a nickel and Skinny’s —- since renamed Pudgie’s pizzeria —- was their place.

They laughed about it all. At their ages, they know how life’s forever changing, that time never stands still and so they couldn’t either.

As the clocked ticked closer to noon, they sat down for lunch.

There were no clams this year, just hot bowls of corn chowder and a cake welcoming the geezers to Roswell.

Sometime around 2 p.m. , their stomachs satisfied and hearts happy, Bill Denk’s buddies headed back to the airport. They had enjoyed their few hours together. Now it was time to go home.

To suggest a story, write Real Living, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 6455 Best Friend Road, Norcross, Ga. 30071; e-mail gstaples@ajc.com; or call 770-263-3621.