By Louis A. Zona
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – A friend of mine with an older brother likes to relate what it was like growing up with a brother that she loved and who loved playing tricks on her.
I had a wonderful brother, but not every day was fun with Jerry in charge when mom and dad were away. I thought that I could find safety by crawling under the bed, but Jerry was able to reach me with a dust mop to the solar plexus!
But despite the occasional battle, my brother Jerry was the absolute greatest guy on God’s green Earth. He was so kind and generous that I could not even imagine anyone greater.
As a teacher, there was none better; just ask one of his hundreds of students. When Jerry died, hundreds of his former students took their days off from school or work to line the streets leading to the cemetery and chapel. If only Jerry could have seen that outpouring of love.
History and popular culture have given us many famous brothers.
The Bible gives us Cain and Abel, who ended their brotherhood with a shocking murder.
In Ohio, we have the Wright Brothers who gave us manned flight that would have amazed Leonardo DaVinci.
Frank and Jesse James fall into the bad guy category and George and Ira Gershwin are among the very best examples of great brother combinations.
Ira wrote the lyrics, and George came up with melodies that still thrill us. I’d have to say that the Gershwin brothers are my very favorite brother combo. The more I learn about them, the more I realize their amazing level of genius. Somehow, I can’t imagine the Gershwin boys chasing one another with a long handled dust mop.
I was too young to have seen Joe DiMaggio playing center field for the New York Yankees, and only got to see him when he was selling Mr. Coffee machines on television. To think that he also had an amazingly talented brother, Dom DiMaggio, makes you think that talent can be passed back and forth between families.
The topic of brothers becomes very special when twins enter the discussion. Two of my very best friends are twins, and both are extremely intelligent. One became a lawyer and the other became an artist of great reputation. Naturally, the lawyer drew the most attention from both family and friends, yet his desire was to someday join his artist brother and open his own studio as an artist.
The famous Marx Brothers were a group of talented brothers starting with Groucho, and followed by Harpo, Zeppo and others.
In more recent times we find the Hollywood duo of Randy and Dennis Quaid, two stars that can be hysterically funny or very serious in the same movie.
While we’re talking about artistic talent, we find the Everly Brothers, Phil and Don. These two extraordinarily talented brothers inspired many other great musicians of the early rock’n’roll era. They deserve all the accolades that they have garnered, including from such stars as Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Paul Simon, The Hollies, Emmylou Harris and the Beach Boys. Personally, I’ve always loved their greatest hit “Cathy’s Clown.”
And getting back to sports, what do you think of pro football brothers Travis and Jason Kelce, who play for the Chiefs and, before retiring, the Eagles, respectively? How rare it is to have brothers who are stars representing both Super Bowl teams.
And then there’s two of the greatest baseball players on earth who played for the Cardinals – Dizzy and Paul Dean, back in the day.
To add a fantasy brotherly duo, we go to the television series “Everybody Loves Raymond.” Raymond the sports writer (played by Ray Romano) and Robert (Brad Garrett) the police officer have a love-hate relationship. Of course, Raymond is mom’s favorite.
Most sports fans have never heard of Major League Baseball player Tommie Aaron, while the whole sports world reveres the memory of his big brother, the great Hank Aaron, who broke Babe Ruth’s “unbreakable” home run record. Both played for the Braves.
How could I possibly forget the talented Jackson 5 brothers? And who can forget the Smothers Brothers, who made us laugh through the 1960s when we needed a good laugh?