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I have never met Donald Trump, but I did know his older brother when I was a kid. (We weren’t kids together; Fred Jr. was an adult when I knew him.)

We called him Captain Fred, and he was a very nice man. He used to hand out Mets tickets to us, and when we got to Shea Stadium, we’d find ourselves sitting in the Trump box seats. To tell the truth, we didn’t know who he was until years later, when Donald Trump became a household name. Anyway, I also remember that if Captain Fred saw a kid with not enough money for an ice cream from Mr. Softee, he’d pay for it. Sometimes, he told the Mr. Softee man he’d pay for EVERYONE’S ice cream. We kids loved him.

Sadly, he was a raging alcoholic (which we didn’t realize until much later), and it killed him. I think he was like 42-43 when he died.

As for Donald Trump himself, one of my earliest memories of him was when he took over the renovation of the old Wollman Ice Skating Rink in Central Park. The City had been trying to renovate it for like 6 years, with poor results. Trump took over the renovation, paid for it himself, finished it in 3 MONTHS, and made a deal to operate it and a snack bar in order to recover his costs.

Anyway...that’s all I have to say about him for now. I’ll be interested to see what happens next.

Regards,