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Mr. Al Cohen
A Great Family Friend

No story about Nichols Industries could rest on its laurels without mentioning our great family friend, Mr. Al Cohen.

Al Cohen was the man behind the caps that were labeled with our family name. He was also a great supporter and personal friend to my dad Lewis and my Uncle Talley and to be fair, anybody else who ever knew him. He was a great man.

In the old days, not only did he make our caps, but he also was in the fireworks business and had a large warehouse in Houston. That is, until one day somebody was hammering where they shouldn't be or something and a spark caught something on fire and the next thing you know...well, except for the loss, I sure wish I could have been there to film the whole thing. It must have been spectacular. Of course this prompted the city of Houston to pass an ordinance banning fireworks in the city limits! Later on when I worked for Mr. Bill Simpson, who sold fireworks he bought from Mr. Cohen, one of his stands down the street from mine caught fire and I did observe it. Talk about the Fourth of July!!!

But back to the story. My dad had a special fondness for Mr. Al Cohen and later, when I was a little older, I found out that this man was Jewish. My dad, a Methodist minister, told me that the Jewish people were the most generous people in the world and had taught the rest of us about generosity and kindness and for that matter, even about God Himself. He held the Jewish People in high regard and especially Mr. Al Cohen. Daddy told me about Mr. Sol F. Leff and I knew him, as he had a men's store in old downtown Pasadena.

Daddy said that Mr. Leff acted "gruff" but had a heart of gold, as exhibited during one cold December. Daddy was in the store and Mr. Leff didn't know it, and Mr. Leff happened to see a kid walking outside his store with no shoes on. Mr. Leff grabbed him, pulled him into the store and said something like, "What do you mean by walking out there in this cold weather? Don't you know you're going to catch your death of cold? You ought to be ashamed of yourself. Come over here." And Mr. Leff got a pair of socks and a pair of shoes and put them on this little boy and ran him off and said, "Don't you ever let me catch you running around without any shoes again!" And my dad shed a tear when he told this story.

I mention Mr. Leff in Mr. Cohen's story because my dad told me that they were two of a kind and very typical of Jewish People. He said that most of the great charities of the world were started or run by Jewish People. Look at Jerry Lewis for an example.

I remember one Christmas that we visited Mr. Cohen in his newer fireworks business on the Gulf Freeway in Houston that was now called Alpha Enterprises. He warmly greeted us like lost brothers and loaded us up with fireworks, which we promptly went out and blew up.

For the rest of my life my folks always spoke warmly about Mr. Cohen and later, when he died a bunch of the Nichols family were at his funeral.

It's great men like this that make the world a nicer place in which to live. —MN




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