Tag: Youth
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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…
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Mr. Knorra
One of the major male role models in my life was Hugh Knorra. Mr. Knorra, as I called him was my mothers boyfriend for a number of years. He was president of the NYC area local of the Tool and Die Makers Union. His office was a storefront beneath our apartment. I remember having my…
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Camp Girls
A lot can happen over the course of an entire summer, it seems like a short time now, as an adult, but to an adolescent it seems like it will go on forever…until it doesn’t. You know that any relationships are transitory, but somehow that makes them more vivid, more intense. It’s why you remember…
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The Pub Around The Corner
It was a small place, right off campus in an area they called the University Village. “Off campus” but the school surrounded it on all sides. All the usual stuff was here; the pizza joints, the combo undergraduate/biker bars and the unofficial book stores with the “Ball U” shirts. This place was dimly lit, quiet…
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Hollis
“It’s Christmas time in Hollis QueensMom’s cooking chicken and collard greensRice and stuffing, macaroni and cheeseAnd Santa put gifts under Christmas trees” Run DMC The song came from what seems like a different world, different culture, but those were my streets. I can feel what they’re singing about, I can see the snow on…
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The Flag
“Kessler does not raise flags. Kessler burns flags!!!!!” And so that was that. There would be no flag-raising today, and the flag pole stood unadorned all day. No one batted an eyelash. Such was life at Camp Da-Ro, a summer camp, populated by about 400 Jewish campers and counselors…and me. Before you get all up…