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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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