22 | NOVEMBER 28 • 2024
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n the midst of a busy day, some
five years ago, Linda Epstein
Lenchner got an unexpected
phone call.
“Are you the woman who grew up
in an apartment on Richton Street
in Detroit about 70 or 75 years
ago?” Lenchner remembers the
caller asking. “This is Stuart Rubens,
who used to live there. If it’s you, I
was your neighbor, and I saw your
contact information on the web.”
Lenchner quickly replied.
“By all means, that’s who I am,”
she let him know and recalled
the Richton Gang of seven boys
and one girl hanging out together
between the ages of about 4 to 13.
They walked to and from Roosevelt
Elementary School, knocked on
doors after school to find out who
could come out to play and sneaked
rides on the elevator when children
were not supposed to ride without
adults.
The two, remembering nicknames
and the fact that they were all
Jewish, talked about their baseball,
football and roofball games in the
alley. The conclusion was that it
would be nice to have a reunion,
and Lenchner said she would see if
she could organize that.
With phone calls and web
searches, she tracked down the
group, and they had their third
reunion this past September — with
some still employed past age 80.
The young pals were together until
families started moving north.
“We’ve had such good reunion
times,” said Lenchner, married and
the mother of two. “I never felt
out of place because I was the only
female. When we were choosing
teams in those early years, I got
picked before some of the boys
because I was a good player. I
later built a career in commercial
real estate and was among the few
women at first.”
Lenchner, who has been president
of B’nai B’rith Women in Detroit,
happily remembered being the only
member of the group to be invited

to watch Howdy Doody in the
apartment of Larry Lowenthal, then
being the first of the gang to get a
television and now living most of
the year in Israel.
Although it has been easy for
Lenchner to join the reunion
because she lives in Bloomfield
Hills, Rubens did not mind flying
in from Virginia. Mark Pittman
gladly flew in from Salt Lake City.
Lowenthal happened to be in the
country to see family at reunion
time.
Bernard Goodstein came
from Farmington Hills, Arnold
Weintraub from West Bloomfield,
Richard Edwards from Novi and
Stephen Epstein, Lenchner’s brother,
from West Bloomfield.
“I didn’t take charge of all of this
year’s reunion because the gang
knew the month held 80th birthdays
for Mark and me and wanted a
separate party for each of us,”
Lenchner said.
This year, the gathering places

included Beau’s Grillery and
Roadside B & G, both in Bloomfield
Township. The usual format is one
event for the eight and another to
include spouses and significant
others.
Although Lenchner has enjoyed
reunions as a graduate of Henry
Ford High School in Detroit, the
reunions from Richton have more
depth because there are the lives of
family members to recall in a more
personal way. Grandparents and
aunts and uncles also lived in the
building.
When Rubens and Pittman come
in, she will have them for a separate
dinner. When Rubens wants to go
to the cemetery to visit the graves
of his family, a visit has meaning
for her as well because she knew his
family.
Each Richton alum has a black
T-shirt with a picture of the
building on the pocket. Lenchner
and Rubens made them in 2019, and
the shirts almost make them feel

like a team.
Bernard Goodstein, who works
part-time from home as a sales
engineer representing backup
power systems, said it’s a blessing
to be back in each other’s lives and
appreciates what it meant to live
on Richton Street and make the
friendship connections that have
been reinvigorated.
“The alley was our sports dome,”
said Goodstein, married with three
children and six grandchildren
and listing membership in Temple
Israel. “When the memories spilled
out at the reunions, there were
tremendous feelings. As we get
older, there are times of reflection.”
Arnold Weintraub, an intellectual
property attorney belonging to
Temple Israel, said that he’s glad
the group feels comfortable talking
about the present as easily as the
past. Divorced with a daughter
and two grandchildren, he feels
fortunate that members of the
group turned out to be people of

70-Year Friendships

The gang from Richton Street in Detroit gets together for reunions.

SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

OUR COMMUNITY

Steven Epstein, Richard Edwards, Stuart Rubens, Bernard Goodstein, Linda Epstein Lenchner, Arnold Weintraub, Larry Lowenthal
and Mark Pittman