Its Hard Losing childhood friends I was in Cub Scouts with in 60's

Hard to believe back in 67 I joined Cub Scouts  Pack 224  in Carrick  29th ward of city of Pittsburgh
and now 2 of them are dead. We lost Johnny Drevitch last year and Patrick Halligan   this June

I lost all track of them after grade school and neither joined Boy Scouts with me. In fact only 3 of us 6  in the picture   below of Den 1 which I was in went in to Boy Scouts .  Don L. and Jim R.  and me .  John and Pat came into scouts a year after we made the plaque
I lost contact with many of them after attending St Basils Grade school never to hear from them again  or knowing where they ended up.
You see Pittsburgh is the Buckle in whats known as the Rust Belt one of the many east coast city's that saw almost all of its steel mill and other manufacturing jobs disappear.

Plaque we made at a den meeting that's me 2nd from right 

So almost half the population moved all over the country in an effort to get jobs and raise family's
I however decided to stay and fight and try to keep the city going  and moved to the suburbs out of disgust with way city is run .  I took the shit ass jobs and bad working conditions I did not want to leave the area  and I was lucky enough to start my own business and travel the tri state for work I was willing to do what it takes to make it like some of those in my cub pack  instead of running away like many others did. Brian was working as a Coal miner got laid off not heard from him since . Ken was working for MSA  Dave  now lives in Ohio works for a refractory division  Jim is a building inspector  owns his own agency and Don do not know what he is doing but he was in military for a while  and jack runs his late fathers business.
But at age 54 to loose 2 of my cub scout friends it is hard to believe of course I almost joined them having been diagnosed with stage IV colon Cancer myself  but thru the good lord and great doctors I am still here.
hard to believe  almost 45+ years have passed us by.