Rachel Lincoln English

Ms. Gokturk

It was the night of the first fallen snow; the white seemed to blanket the entire world. As a small child, barely reaching the height of four feet, I stood on my toes to try and look out the window. I was amazed because I had remembered, that morning, the ground was green, the trees were bare with some leaves struggling to hold on to every last inch of life they had. Then all of a sudden, all of that disappeared with the color white. I saw my mother�s reflection in the window. She had noticed I was struggling to see what was going on outside the small cozy apartment my grandmother owned on the upper West Side in the city. She came and picked me up. I had full view of the nature on the other side of the windows. I was in awe. This continued for a few something minutes. I saw a familiar old man staggering in the fresh snow, sporting a long beige trench coat that reached to his calves and leather tan work shoes. I could not see his face; it was covered by his western style hat. Although he was showing no identity, he was walking too familiarly into my apartment building. It was like I knew him. I almost felt the urge to call out to the stranger and let him acknowledge that I was watching him from the twelfth floor of the nicely kept building, equipped with friendly doormen and kind neighbors.

"Who is that man, mommy?" I asked my mother, intrigued. The questions were lining up in my head but I figured I'd let her answer the one I had just asked, first.

"That�s your Uncle Sol, sweetheart." My mother replied. All the questions I had were answered. The concealed man that esteemed so familiar had turned out to be family.

As those words were spoken, the sounds of the doorbell rang throughout the apartment. I saw my grandmother hurriedly get up and rush to answer the door. The door opens and there stood the man I had seen a few seconds earlier, battling the snow. The snow seemed to have won the battle for he was covered with white flurries. My grandmother warmly invited him inside, he stepped onto the welcome mat that sat outside the door leading into the apartment, to get rid of the excess snow that was attached to his work shoes and stepped inside. He gave a lingering hug to both his sister and niece. He glanced over to where I was standing and winked. I was terribly shy.

"I didn�t forget about you, kiddo." He said to me. I just looked back at him. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small wooden box and gave it to me. It was shaped as an oval, and on the top left side of the box were two Israeli letters. It stood for something I guessed.

"I bought that on my recent trip to Israel, I wanted to bring something back for you." I took the present and just smiled. It was a finely crafted blue necklace.

"Thank him for the gift!" my mother demanded.

"Thank you Uncle Sol." I said shyly. He knew I did not mean to be rude and smiled. He opened the burgundy knapsack that hung loosely around his shoulders and took out a thin covered book. The title printed across the cover of the book was "When living hurts." and he proceeded to tell the family what the literature was about.

"I wanted to write a book on what a person should do when a loved one is discouraged, sad, lonely, hopeless, angry, frustrated, unhappy, bored, depressed or suicidal. I just want people to be happier."

Sol's parents, poor Russian and Polish immigrants, gave birth to him on June 12th, 1923. His home life was simple, poor and very uncultured. From childhood to adolescence he was raised in a very conservative, Jewish manner. Liberality was considered controversial. In 1953, he received his B.A. and M.S. from the University of Illinois and his Ph. D. in Psychology from the University of London. He served as Chief Psychologist at the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic and the Middlesex County Mental Health Clinic during 1965 to 1969. Between 1970 to 1985, Dr. Gordon, at Syracuse University, became a Professor of Child and Family Studies and founding Director of the Institute for Family Research and Education. The 60�s were a social-sexual revolution. Many people revolted against the conservative ideas of the 50�s. In 1969, the gay rights movement began in New York with the Stonewall Inn riot, in protest of a police raid of a dance club and bar in Greenwich Village. During that same year, the Woodstock music festival occurred. It reigned for four days in the Catskill Mountains. At that time, recreational drugs were becoming widespread. And people were becoming much more liberal. They were more accepting towards Sol's teachings. Sesame Street was created by the Children�s Television Workshop Network, and it debuted on public television and it changed what people thought of children�s learning capabilities. This started Uncle Sol's teachings of sexuality towards the younger crowd. The events of the 60�s affected the rest of Gordon�s life to come because it changed people�s views on things drastically. Gordon, a democrat, decided to go to a territory that had not been ventured into very frequently. He authored numerous books and written over one hundred articles for professional publications on the touchy subject of sex. He felt that it was necessary to get his psychology degree because he saw a very big need for it. He saw kids getting pregnant and much more activity among kids and no guidance or anyone to help them. Abortion was illegal and sex was tabooed so he decided to write about it and get the word across about the uncomfortable subject that a lot of people didn�t speak of. He opened up doors and became very influential in the subject. He helped out millions of people with his lectures all over the world. He made sure that people knew that love and friendship were on top of the list of importance.

Every time my great uncle had left the premises after staying for the holidays, I was always filled with questions about him that I was too shy to ask. There was something about this man, that strikes so interesting, something about him that is quite thought provoking.

"He is such a nice man," my grandmother would rave on about him.

"Did you know that he was involved in World War II? Did you know he was also active in the Civil Rights movement for African Americans? He marched with Martin Luther King. He was also involved in an upward bound for kids. How fantastic is that?" I just sat there and listened with such an interest. You�d think Sol Gordon was her hero by how she talked about him. Maybe he was.

"You know something?" my grandmother had asked me.

"What?" I answered, curiously.

"Your great uncle is a self-made man. He was never swayed by other people�s opinions. He did it all alone, of course with some support from co-workers and friends, but he is quite amazing to have gone out of his way to help others during a daring time in life."

After this conversation I had with my grandmother, I had a great deal of respect for him, not that I didn�t before, but the more I knew about this man, the more I felt like putting him on a pedestal.

"Wow he really did do what he could to help others," I realized as I thought to myself. And that�s why this man, is an impressive role model in my life. There should be more people like him. Great Uncle Sol, a great psychologist, lecturer, author and sexuality educator, and quite an amazing man.