Jo Jo and me reunited! And revisiting “Against Prejudging in Pittsford at Lock 62”

Jo Jo and me reunited! And revisiting “Against Prejudging in Pittsford at Lock 62”

Jo Jo and myself in front of his car

One of favorite posts over the summer was “Against Prejudging in Pittsford at Lock 62.”  It was the story of two young men, Jo Jo and Josh, I met at Lock 62 in Pittsford. A similar version was reprinted as a Guest Essay in the D & C , “Chance meeting leads to learning,” and was well received.

Against prejudging in Pittsford at Lock 62 includes scan of print version

In the digital version I wrote:

I had wanted to take a picture of them [Jo Jo and Josh] on the granite ledge with graffiti on the wall, but didn’t have my camera. They took my email address and would get me cell phone photos. Jo Jo had more to say.

I have not heard back (that’s ok). There is a good chance I will never see Josh and Jo Jo again. But Lock 62 in Pittsford will always feel a little different.

But fate felt differently.

At Nazareth on this beautiful day taking a walk about an hour ago, I went into a Monroe Avenue convenience store.  A young man brightened, “I saw the story about us in the paper!”  It was Jo Jo.

The mother (god bless her, a loyal print reader) of his manager at Applebys had seen the article and told her son. The manager then gave the piece to Jo Jo who shared it with his co-workers and his own mother. To my gratification, Jo Jo said we got the story right.

Jo Jo said neither he nor his friends saw the online version. I promised to re-post as soon as I could so Jo Jo’s friends could see the story themselves.  And here it is.

This time I only spoke with Jo Jo for a moment.  Applebys was calling.  I wrote down the blog name and told him, talkerofthetown.com, just one word. He smiled; “talker of the town, that’s me.”

This time I had my camera. So I finally got my picture.

Against prejudging in Pittsford at Lock 62 includes scan of print version

About The Author

dkramer3@naz.edu

Welcome to Talker of the Town! My name is David Kramer. I have a Ph.D in English and teach at Keuka College. I am a former and still active Fellow at the Nazareth College Center for Public History and a Storyteller in Residence at the SmallMatters Institute. Over the years, I have taught at Monroe Community College, the Rochester Institute of Technology and St. John Fisher College. I have published numerous Guest Essays, Letters, Book Reviews and Opinion pieces in The New York Times, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, the Buffalo News, the Rochester Patriot, the Providence Journal, the Providence Business News, the Brown Alumni Magazine, the New London Day, the Boston Herald, the Messenger Post Newspapers, the Wedge, the Empty Closet, the CITY, Lake Affect Magazine and Brighton Connections. My poetry appears in The Criterion: An International Journal in English and Rundenalia and my academic writing in War, Literature and the Arts and Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. Starting in February 2013, I wrote for three Democratic and Chronicle  blogs, "Make City Schools Better," "Unite Rochester," and the "Editorial Board." When my tenure at the D & C  ended, I wanted to continue conversations first begun there. And start new ones.  So we created this new space, Talker of the Town, where all are invited to join. I don’t like to say these posts are “mine.” Very few of them are the sole product of my sometimes overheated imagination. Instead, I call them partnerships and collaborations. Or as they say in education, “peer group work.” Talker of the Town might better be Talkers of the Town. The blog won’t thrive without your leads, text, pictures, ideas, facebook shares, tweets, comments and criticisms.

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