“I used to ride in my father’s rumble seat,” Dad told me once 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… Read more »
In 1969, desperate to escape my crappy job at a Daitch Shopwell supermarket, I secured a better crappy job in my Yorkville neighborhood. Ben’s Meat O’Mat was a mom and pop butcher/grocery store, except there was no Mom and no Pop, just two oafs named Pete and Harry. They weren’t twins, but they could have… Read more »
Dad used to hunt. He didn’t golf, so hunting was his made-up reason for getting out of the house. He never struck me as the hunting type, but once or twice a year he’d take off for upstate for a long weekend. It was a Yorkville sort of man-thing in the 1950s and 60s. One… Read more »
I’m excited to announce that next Friday, April 13th, The Del-Satins are performing at St. Stephen of Hungary on 82nd Street. Original members Stan Zizka, Les Cauchi, and Tommy Ferrara and featured member Edie Van Buren will perform all their hits. Sadly, Fred Ferrara, one of the original Del-Satins, passed away last year but will be there… Read more »
Just past noon, Buddy McMahon and I jumped into the parade at 61st Street joining our classmates and teachers from LaSalle Academy marching up Fifth Avenue. This was non-regulation—starting the parade late and dressed as clowns (we paid the piper with a “knuck off the head” from Brother Brendan the next day at school). We broke off at the Met Museum to run east to… Read more »
I attended kindergarten, grammar school, high school, and college in Manhattan. It was natural. I only left the Yorkville neighborhood for high school—LaSalle Academy in the East Village. In September of 1972, I entered Hunter College with 16,000 other matriculating students. At orientation, I was way back in the line. When they gave me my first… Read more »
Though my family’s been on York Avenue since 1896, my mother’s roots started in East Harlem. She was born on 118th Street and Second Avenue in 1930. Her family left there for the St. Lucy’s parish on 104th Street between First and Second Avenues in the mid-1930s. Above is a photo of mom’s family in… Read more »
Like my fathers’ mother, like my father, I love my stuff. I’m no Collyer brother. My place is neat, in its own way. I still own my first two records, both by Dave Seville and the Chipmunks: “Witch Doctor,” in 1958, and 1959, “Alvin’s Harmonica.” The football is from 1969 and the main reason it’s still here:… 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? He said, “It was a seat that hinged out of the back of the car; it felt… Read more »
Feel like getting in the mood for Halloween? Growing up in Manhattan, I took every opportunity I could to scare myself. I loved being spooked. I ate up every horror movie as a kid and listened to countless tall tales and read every ghost story on the planet. After all these years, there is only… Read more »
