Tag: childhood
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Chevys
There were a lot of Chevys in my life. Belair, Nova, Caprice, Chevette, and even, god help me, a Cavalier. Oh yes, and there were a couple of Corvettes that may pop up later. The Chevette should be forgiven, because it belonged to a girl, and in any world worth living in, girl trumps car.…
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Fading Summer
I’m remembering railroad tracks skirting the Hudson, a bridge crossing leading down to the river. We stand there in the summer dusk, watching the sleek streamliners pass under. Shades of gray and blue and white lightning stripes. They slip past quickly, silently, bringing up the markers for the end of an era. We’ll not see…
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Camp Life
Ten Years Old If he were to be believed, he saw an empty spot next to her during arts and crafts time, grabbed the opportunity, and sat down. If she were to be believed, she saw him wandering around with no one to sit with and squeezed over to make a space for him. The…
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Penn Station
Penn Station in New York had been cleared down to the business end. The grand edifice, grander some said than its uptown rival Grand Central Terminal, had been leveled. Actually, it was like something beautiful had been scraped off the earth, leaving the functional under bits. What was leveled was non functional, it was just…
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Summer Camps
One of the things about New York City, that many people probably don’t realize, is how many wild places there are. Tracts of land that house bird sanctuaries, giant sprawling wetlands and forested nature preserves. There is lots of ocean front as well, lined by beaches like Rockaway or Coney Island and little inlets and…
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Feels Like The First Time
It’s almost impossible for me to figure out the first book I ever really got lost in. Too long ago. I was a book-worm from a very very young age. I remember a teacher telling my mother I could read at the 12th grade level when I was in 3rd grade. It was a way…
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When I Was You
It was something we said to each other as children…our sense of time and place were malleable; we had not yet been indoctrinated into the order of things as dictated by our elders. Put it another way, our outlook was natural and probably closer to the truth than the artificial constructs human society has created.…
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George And The Postman
Uncle George pulled his black Dodge sedan into the garage, just like he did every other night. He closed the garage door and unlocked the side door to the house. Beauty was waiting patiently for him to arrive home, in the kitchen, right where she belonged. He walked to the front door and she walked…
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Uncle George’s House
The grownups visited in the basement That basement that George was so proud of He paneled it in that 1960’s style Cheap, but effective, like a boys clubhouse – Leonia and George hosted parties and dinners down there She cooked and he tended behind the bar he built Gossip and politics; One cousin was lazy…
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Island Memories
It was before most cars had air-conditioning; so even on the hottest days we drove with the windows rolled down. Always in that black ’63 Impala, or later on, the blue one. And finally the Nova. My grandparents were working class people with union jobs. They bought American. They bought Chevy. WMCA New York was…