So I walk into the house, I’m 10, and the first thing I see is a pair of bare legs on the inside of a closed window and the rest of the body isn’t in the apartment. I’m praying to God whoever it is doesn’t fall, the soapy glass prevents a clean identification of the… Read more »
On Friday, November 22, 1963, after lunch the St. Stephen of Hungary’s student body assembled in the auditorium for our once in a blue moon movie. That day our feature was “The Yearling.” A kid adopts a baby deer and his father played by Gregory Peck gives him the business. I was happy and not… Read more »
Only good part to getting older is how I pop up in the early morning like a Reverse Vampire. Makes it easy to get outside when the light’s right. This past Saturday, I rode my bicycle to Central Park and arrived at Bow Bridge on The Lake at 6:45. The colors in the park slowly… Read more »
I used to ride in my father’s rumble seat,” Dad told me while we sat at the bar in Loftus Tavern. As Dad drank a short beer and I sipped a coke, I wondered what’s a rumble seat? I asked. He said, “It was a seat that hinged out of the back of the car, it felt like you… Read more »
Got into a sparkling new cab this morning. The seats, dashboard and windows shined. Riding my finger along the metal detail on the passenger door, I thought, the only time Rory and I were ever this clean was for one lone hour at a photography studio on 3rd Avenue in spring 1960. I repel wool…. Read more »
Mr. Bellers Neighborhood published my story “January 25, 1987.” It concerns my trip to the New York Giants first Super Bowl 25 years ago. Winning Sunday will warm my winter by ten degrees; if the Giants are defeated it’s been an amazing close to a dramatic New York football season. This is the only sport I leave… Read more »
The New York Times published my indoor tackle story “When The Fire Hydrant Was The End Zone.” In 1962, the New York football Giants played fourteen games each season. Seven games at home and seven games away. Away games were televised. Twenty one hours of heaven. The League blacked out home games to discourage a drop… Read more »
Last night, walking through Rockefeller Center a memory struck me like a brick. In 1970 the best bang for the buck in New York City was Radio City Music Hall. My sixteenth year was a very good one. After my last class at LaSalle Academy around 2pm, I’d take the # 6 subway at Bleecker… Read more »
My Uncle Jack and Aunt Anna were having marital problems in the early 1940s. Their fighting hit a new high in their East Harlem neighborhood when Aunt Anna found half her house money missing from the flour tin. She chased Uncle Jack with a ladle full of dog crap up First Avenue to the entrance of the 138th Street Bridge. Jack ran into… Read more »
My first coffin was metal. It measured six feet long, three feet wide, and three feet deep. It rested on a wood base that lifted its height up by one foot. It sat in near darkness at the rear of the parlor. Everyone paid their respects. Upon close examination, you saw it bled sweat and… Read more »
