The appearance of the new movie “42,” which tells the story of Jackie Robinson’s historic arrival in Major League Baseball, back in 1947, reminded me of a conversation I had with a friend in the 1980’s.

We were both Members of the New York State Assembly, I as a Democrat, he as a Republican. Despite our disagreement on many public issues, we were good friends. I asked him, on this occasion if he had read “The Boys Of Summer,” which I considered an excellent book. It was about the Brooklyn Dodgers of the 1940’s and 50’s, written by Roger Kahn, a sports reporter who had covered the exploits of the Dodgers back in the day.

My friend said he had not read the book, so I recounted one of the stories told in the book, that I thought he would find interesting.

Former New York State Assemblyman Edward C Sullivan grew up in New England before migrating to New York City in 1957. Two years earlier he was in Hartford, Connecticut with family when a natural disaster struck. In the following weeks he was able to witness the response of a dedicated government official which helped instill in him the desire to serve the public and emulate the compassionate leadership he saw during that period.

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Watching Governors Christie, Cuomo and Malloy, and Mayor Bloomberg, struggle with the devastation of Hurricane Sandy recalls for me a time 57 years ago, 1955, when twin hurricanes hit the northeastern United States, especially Connecticut, and Governor Abraham Ribicoff was the man of the moment.