Tom was a year younger than me but we all grew up together in our neighborhood along 5th Street in Saddle Brook, NJ. I probably have about 1,000 memories of him of all the fun things we did as kids and I'll high light a few of them.
Of course there was all the football games on the Desplat's front lawn and all the baseball games behind Thermo Electric. Tom was a very good athlete in both sports but was probably a better football player. I think he was a defensive captain on the HS team his senior year. He had issues with his knees because he was growing too fast(I think that is what he told us) I can remember going with his mother to watch him play football when he was in 7th or 8th grade for the town team & the game was in Weehawkin, NJ. The field was located within the circular entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel which was unique setting to watch a football game.
He had a round circular built in pool behind his garage which we swam in all the time. When he asked his parents if all the kids could swim in pool, if it was a "yes" he would pull the shade down in his room as the signal and we would all run home to get our bathing suits.
We used to sleep in tents in his back yard and to this day he is the only person I ever knew that ate mustard with a spoon(which he did when we slept out). We also built a tree fort in his back yard and for some crazy reason his father built a "shooting range" in his basement where we shot BB guns through a foundation wall into the crawl space under the house addition. We had targets just like the carnival.
The fastest I ever was in a car was with Tom. I think he had a bright orange Road Runner hot rod and once he took me on Route 80 to show me how fast it could go. We landed up racing another car and I think we went 115 MPH. It was super loud and I was pretty scared.
I could go on and on describing the many memories I have of Tom. He was a good friend to grow up with. We lost touch once he moved to Florida. I last spoke to him about 2 years ago when I was informed of his illness and there was a request for his childhood friends to contact him. When he spoke he sounded just like I remembered. I don't like it that I'll never have the opportunity to see or talk to him again but i'll always have the great memories of a good guy and childhood friend.
Brian Shortino, Saddle Brook, NJ
PS: The picture of him posted on the funeral website is just like I remembered.