Marino Fleisher

The final and last portrait session from back east: The Fleisher's. I could easily write a book about my friendship with Michelle. I remember vividly sitting in the cafeteria at a bench table packed with kids on our first day of 4th grade, my first day at a new school. Michelle was seated at the table behind me threatening another kid to shut up. I made a very clear decision to stay far away from her which wouldn't be easy in a small classroom like ours. Unfortunately, she didn't like me either. After a long year of keeping our distance from one another came to an end, we found ourselves at the same family picnic for the 4th of July. Her Uncle's wife is my father's cousin. (Yes, I know, more cousins....) Anyway, as I whined of boredom my mother encouraged me to play with Michelle. I reminded her that we weren't the best of friends, but she nudged me along anyway. Before I knew it, we're running down the peer that jetted into the ocean jumping fearlessly into the water and lighting as many bottle rockets and smoke bombs as we could find (stealing them from my cousin's bedroom, of course.) From that day forward we would become the best of friends. We would get into countless amounts of trouble, see the Principal's office more than once, be told to sit out in the hall until we could behave, steal our parents cars (before we had our licenses,) go to dances with boys sporting mohawks, perform Sonny and Cher routines for our school and department stores alike, and eventually dance until dawn in New York City. She's been my comic relief, the wind beneath my wings (wink wink) and my partner in crime. Oceans couldn't keep us apart. Thank heavens for BFF's.