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STERLING HEIGHTS — Several times a week, Jerry Boekhout and Art Siebert join a group of people who walk at the Sterling Heights Community Center.
The two had been walking together for about a year, but it wasn’t until recently, after a bit of back-and-forth conversation, they realized they shared a connection.
It started with them asking where they grew up — both responded that they lived on Fisher Street in Detroit. Eventually, they realized they grew up together in the same neighborhood and went to school together, Boekhout said.
“We just started talking out here, and then it just clicked,” he said.
When they were in second grade — about 66 or 67 years ago, according to Boekhout — Siebert moved away and the men lost touch with each other.
Boekhout went on to work for Warren-based Cold Heading Co., which makes fasteners for automotive products, and moved to Sterling Heights in 1974. He started walking at the community center about four years ago, he said.
“I’m retired but I keep exercising,” he said. “I’m a diabetic, and I like to exercise, and it keeps my sugar numbers down.”
Siebert went on to work for and eventually retired from Bud Wheel, a stamping plant in Detroit, where he was a press operator.
Siebert moved to Sterling Heights in 1989, but only started walking at the community center about a year ago to keep himself healthy.
While he isn’t aware of any other long-lost friends reuniting, Parks and Recreation Director Kyle Langlois said the Sterling Heights Community Center is meant to be a place for people to gather and connect with one another.
“What’s great about everything we do is, you set your differences aside. You find your commonalities,” Langlois said. “It doesn’t matter what your background is. Everybody’s coming together for a common purpose, whether it’s to walk, whether it’s to come to a concert in the park or participate in some other activity or program. The commonality is whatever you’re coming for.”
Since their reunion, Siebert and Boekhout have continued to walk together and have gone to breakfast several times, they said.
“I think it’s great. I think it’s fantastic,” Siebert said.
