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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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 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…
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…
Sometimes I don’t know what my mother was thinking. She would send me to summer camps; Jewish, Catholic, Protestant…wherever she could get the best deal. She had help: kind relatives, boyfriends and even kindly camp administrators would give her a…
You’re never too old to cry for that which is lost The pieces of my life are woven together with the thinnest of thread. I don’t think there is anyone that even remembers Cambria Heights. Especially Cambria Heights. I have…