Tag growing up

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…

When I Was You

Man writing at a desk. Fire burning in the background.

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’s House

Man writing at a desk. Fire burning in the background.

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…

Island Memories

Man writing at a desk. Fire burning in the background.

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…

Castaway

Man writing at a desk. Fire burning in the background.

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…

The Island

Man writing at a desk. Fire burning in the background.

I remember old houses, weathered by wind and salt air and knocked sideways by hurricanes on their way to more newsworthy places. It was an island across the bay from Kennedy airport, surrounded by brackish water and interwoven by canals…fodder…

Where Everybody Knows Your Name

Man writing at a desk. Fire burning in the background.

Jamaica Avenue is a long stretch of two and three story buildings,  many with commercial enterprises on the first floor and living quarters on the second and sometimes third floors.  It cuts clear across Queens from  West to East,  continues…

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