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- Apologia -
"This is not what happened. It is what is remembered.
Its sequence is the sequence of recollection"
John Rechy
This is a chronicle of my life.
I look back on the first 40 years of my life as a time of wandering in the desert trying to find the Promised Land. That sojourn was somewhat bleak and lonely and much I as I would wish it weren’t so, it was. Around 1982, the landscape changed, still with life’s sidetracks, but with a steady progression up to a peak of success that I so luckily enjoy today.
Without the locust and the plagues, I would have never found the oasis. So please bear with me through the stories of hardship, discovery, and woe. They are mostly sound and fury, a tale told by a now circumspect idiot. Of course, they are most interesting anyway!
These chronicles then will concentrate on the pre-1982 crucibles that have shaped my existential view of life that have brought me to mountaintop of hindsight enlightenment.
Perhaps someday, collected in a book, I will cover more of the good times where the milk and honey flows to journey’s end.
Meanwhile enjoy!
P.S.
You may find "Tony's Chronology" link above, a useful tool to place a story in its proper timeline.
- November 4, 2009 - Out, damned spot! Out I say! or Something Wicked this Way Comes. Part Two BINGO!
The Game Bingo was every Saturday night. It was held in Gallo Hall in the basement of Sacred Heart School (named after Father John Gallo, the pastor and founder of our Italian parish in 1912). It was a necessary evil for raising money for our elementary school. The Catholic tradition of Bingo goes back to the Gospel story of the Roman centurions throwing dice to win the robe of Jesus during his crucifixion. Of course gambling is a curse. Look what happened to Richard Burton in the movie, The Robe and of course in real life - he won and lost Elizabeth Taylor twice. He got his revenge though in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by killing off their imaginary son. Interestingly none of our parishioners attended Bingo. The puritanical Protestant non-denominational "white trash" of Newburgh made the Bingo rounds each week at the various Catholic Church basements. There were only a few Blacks in attendance sprinkled around the Whites like jimmies on a vanilla ice cream cone. It was a strange brew of witches in multi-colored kerchiefs hiding their toilet paper-sized pink hair curlers just put in at the beauty parlor in preparation for the next day Sunday services at their heathen places of worship. Each sorceress with a jungle red lipstick stained cigarette dangling from her lips set up altars of talismans and good luck charms. An impish troll-like demon was seemingly the god of the games. These devotees purchased multiple cards for each round; this is how the church made its money. Every lady had at least 20 cards spread out before them in precise military line up. Armed with a red ink pad, their eagle-like eyes ran up and down each card, like an Italian customs official stamping out with an authoritative thud the appropriate numeral, hoping to win and shout out - Bingo! Nicotine primordial, gray clouds hovered on the ceiling of Gallo Hall; eventually it got so bad, the parish had a special charcoal filter machine put in to suck the gaseous vapors out. The Bingo Caller was always a male, dressed in Eisenhower Era sack suit and narrow black rep tie. He presided like a high priest behind a long cafeteria lunch table set up on the stage which would be re-set the next morning for the overflow adult attendees from the 9 a.m. Sunday’s Children’s Mass held in our church across the street. The seventy five numbered ping pong-like balls would whirl and whoosh and careen around in a clear Lucite box propelled by hot air blast sounding like my mother’s Sunbeam hairdryer. After pressing a foot lever on the floor, one ball would be sucked out of the box, up a clear vacuum tube and placed in a tray that looked like a huge Tupperware deviled egg holder. The device lit up the number on a marquee for all to see the number called. You won by completing a line up or down, or across or diagonally. This was the basic play for the first cash prize. The second prize for a higher amount was the Round Robin filling the outside square all around the card. The third and last was Full Card. The Maenads of Dionysius would then rip up cards with a frenzy and buy a whole new set – more money for us indigent Italian poor orphan babies Groans of laughter, salacious mooing and hissing would accompany each pull of a bingo ball. They were a fanatical and superstitious bunch outdoing the Pentecostals in speaking in tongues. They would scream out the most vulgar comments at each bingo call. Each one had a ritualistic mantra: G-1 Baker’s Bun! I-23 Thee and me! N-4 Knock on the Door! G-28 Over weight! O-54 Clean the floor! Whenever 69 Either way up! was called the banshees would go wild. It wasn’t for a few years later that I knew what that particular salacious chant was all about. In between calls there was a code of silence, deadly serious stuff, more serious than the transubstantiation. Onan - According to the Old Testament, after Godhad killed Onan's older brother Er, Judah asked Onan to have sex with Tamar , Er's widow, so that the offspring could be declared Er's heir. Onan had sex with Tamar, but performed coitus interruptus each time, spilling his "seed" on the ground, so that there would not be any offspring which he could not claim as his own. The passage states that this displeased God, who killed him.
Jackpot! Joey’s mother was in charge of the kitchen at Bingo, selling food to the famished harridans which provided additional income. She arrived in late afternoon to start the making of the coffee in a huge industrial chrome coffee maker that looked like something out of The Bride of Frankenstein. She also hovered over boiling and steaming cauldrons of Pepto Bimsol-bright Hot Dogs. Joey helped his mother every Saturday night so I not too altruistically volunteered. We helped her unpack the frankfurter rolls, jelly doughnuts and cinnamon buns dropped off by Luna Bakery. We stocked the restaurant sized refrigerator with gallons of milk delivered by Crowley Dairy up the block. Once the games started, Joey and I would roam up and down the aisles of Gallo Hall pushing a metal hospital cart with a small urn of coffee on it, a metal bowl filled with tepid water where the frankfurters sloshed around, and a turquoise blue, Melamine tray of mixed baked goods. I wore a white apron with deep pockets containing lots of coins to make change for each transaction. It was like feeding red meat to hungry lions at the zoo and tossing fish at seals at the aquarium. They were a voracious lot. The women would accost me and grab me and make all sorts of remarks and predictions. It was all in good fun and I gave their sexual banter right back to them! Hey cutie, is the coffee hot as you? - “Hotter!” Put lots of cream in sugar. – “All you want, Maame!” Nice buns! - “Cream filled.” What ya hidin’ under that apron, sweetie? – “Me to know and you to find out!” Got any Italian sausage for Momma? - “Sweet or Hot?” Naughty boy, you need to be spanked. - “Don’t ya know it! You’re gonna be a star, someday baby.” – “The Greatest!” They loved tipping me and putting the money down into my pants pocket as I was sla thering their hot dog with neon bright looking yellow mustard. “This is for you honey, don’t tell your mother.”
Sacred Heart School Kitchen (not much has changed!)
Joey and I were done when we ran out of food. We counted up our tips to compare but I always lied to him since I got a lot more. It took his mother awhile to clean up the kitchen, so we had an hour or so to hang out… I suggested to Joey we go explore until it was time to leave. The back stairs led directly up to the main floor classrooms. All of the lights were turned off, it was exciting to see the school so dark and spooky, and the only sounds were the Bingo and catcalls echoing up from below. We went down the green and gray checkered linoleum tile hallway till we stumbled into the Kindergarten Room. The mercury vapor street light coming through the venetian blinds cast a weird bluish-green light that made us look like vampires and cast sharp shadows onto the black chalk board from the trees from the garden facing Route 9W outside. We prowled around the room like Zombies, flipping through a dog-eared Highlights magazine; squeezing a stray broken stuffed animal that yelped out a tiny cry and we silently tossed a red and blue ball back and forth till I finally sank it with a flourish into the toy chest. We looked through the drawers of the teacher’s desk hoping to find money but only to find crayons, colored tissue and construction paper. There was a set of alphabet blocks on the shelf under the blackboard so we put them on the desk and tried to make up words like automobile, vegetable and biology. I scrambled the blocks once more and I playfully spelled out: DICK and JANE. From the Gallo Hall below we heard cackling- B-62 Turn the Screw! I slid into one of the tiny child kindergarten desks, barely fitting in so my legs splayed out in front of me like Goldilocks in Baby Bear’s chair. I motioned Joey to sidle into the desk next to me. We both stared at the blocks watching the shadows play on the blackboard behind it. Slowly using my leg locked onto one of the feet of his desk, I pulled him closer to me. The desk made a dull moaning noise as the hard rubber coasters groaned across the floor, leaving a black trail on the linoleum. I reached over and undid his pants. I leaned over to the desk and re-arranged the blocks, making new words as we continued reciprocally in tandem: COME DICK. COME AND SEE. Our desks got closer, metal to metal; the cuff of my dungarees got stuck between the two wood writing desk tops. The orgasmic cries from the weird Bingo sisters of the Bacchus were getting closer now. I-43 Down on your knees!
The blocks seemed to move on their own like an Ouija Board spelling out our fate:. COME, COME. COME AND SEE. Even though breathing heavily and almost in unison, we made not a sound. N-54 Clean the floor! Our ears pricked up like nervous deer in the woods, alert to any hunter who may discoverer us. G-64 Red Raw!
COME AND SEE SPOT.
O-69 My God! From Gallo Hall, an orgasmic cry rose up… BINGO!
I could tell from the excited voice that one of my ladies that I waited on had won the final big cash jackpot of the night. Joey’s leg spasmodically hit the desk and the blocks fell off crashing loudly onto the hard linoleum floor as he shot out across the darkness onto the blackboard. “Hey Joey! You guys up there? It’s time to go home.” Startled, I got up, almost tripping on my pants legs, pulling the cuff from under the desk, ripping them, as I grabbed a handkerchief out of my back pocket, stumbling over to erase the stain off the chalk board. Being a gentleman, I offered my handkerchief to Joey. He ran downstairs and I quickly started to follow, putting the blocks away. As I was bending over, I noticed my black pocket comb had fallen out of my pants. I parted my hair and put it back in my pocket with my soiled handkerchief folded around it. Before leaving, I breathlessly ran over and congratulated Miss Lucy, the winner and she gave me a dollar tip out of her haul. Joey’s mother drove us home. I almost banged into the garbage cans as I made my way to the little patch of woods behind our backyard. The wind seemed to make the trees move towards me and reach out like an old Disney cartoon as I buried my handkerchief with the rest of my secret stash. I used the basement entrance and went up to the bathroom. I closed the door first and then turned on the light. As I was washing my hands I looked up into the mirror and saw a curious stiff cowlick that I must have gotten when I quickly combed my hair. I rubbed it out with a towel. I panicked. Had anyone seen it? I pulled my flannel pajamas off the hook on the back of the door and started to change. I went up to bed in shame but also with a strange feeling of elation, like the lady who won the final game of Bingo. I had a hard time falling asleep, but once I did I had terrible dreams of being torn apart by the Bingo Women, like Sebastian Venerable from the movie Suddenly Last Summer that I had just seen where Elisabeth Taylor wore a skin tight pure white bathing suit revealing her heaving chest as she screamed in abject horror as Katharine Hepburn cackled. I woke up the next morning. My brother and father had already gotten up and were downstairs. “Anthony, it’s time for mass, you better hurry up and get dressed and get your ass down here!” my mother lovingly yelled up. I tossed off my blanket. There down below was a white chalk stain I must have gotten after I cleaned off the blackboard and used my handkerchief to wipe off. It looked like K2 with a snowy peak. Suddenly I remembered a catechism lesson one of the nuns used to explain Original Sin. “Your soul is like a glass milk bottle. When you are pure you can see right through it - clean. But when you commit a mortal sin, the bottle clouds up, leaving a film that is hard to cleanse away like putrid rancid milk.” I was going to Hell. I spit on it and rubbed and rubbed till the stain came off - Absolvo Te. I ran to the closet, put on my Sunday suit, Chinese laundered starched white shirt, tie and shined shoes, skidded down the staircase, slammed the front door behind me and jumped into our pink and gray Rambler. My mother in a huff handed me my collection envelope and off we went to the 9am Children’s Mass. When they passed the basket, guiltily I also threw in the dollar that Miss Lucy had slowly stuck in my front pocket. I continued to volunteer for many more Saturday nights, got to know the Bingo Ladies very well and looked forward to seeing them. Joey and I graduated from Kindergarten to the 1st Grade classroom to 4th Grade, 6th Grade, right up to the 8th Grade! I always had a clean handkerchief…. BINGO!
- September 23, 2009 - Out, damned spot! Out I say! or Something Wicked this Way Comes.
Part One No Strings It was a stormy afternoon in late October “What are you two doing up there?” my mother yelled up from the bottom of the stairs as Joey was getting close. Too late! As I pulled off to answer her, Joey shot over and past my face and it all landed on my yellow chenille bedspread. I hurriedly yelled back, “Nothing Ma, we’re listening to records.” Whew! I wiped the mess up with my jockey shorts and quickly hoisted them back up. While buckling my jeans, I jumped on the bed, sat on the stain, and pretended to read the LP liner notes on the back of the cast album of No Strings, a musical about an illicit interracial romance. I turned up the volume on Diahann Carroll singing “Loads of Lovely Love.” Joey was my stocky Italian neighbor who lived around the corner and was a year behind me at Sacred Heart Grammar School. His sister, Celeste was in my class and we called her “Celeste the Chest,” because even in the 8th grade she had big bosoms that the school uniform only accentuated. They were so big that she self consciously walked with her arms folded under them to keep them hidden and aloft. However she was the brightest in the class, the teacher’s pet and was often asked to be the monitor when Sister Vincent left the room. She got back at my tauntings by ratting me out on my class clown shenanigans when Sister returned. Joey came from a typical large Italian family complete with an ancient toothless Sibyl-like grandmother living in the extra bedroom. They became my surrogate family and Joey’s mom often asked me to have supper with them - I always eagerly accepted. In time I became a pest. I would doggedly hang around, sort of sad sacked, begging to be invited over. No one was ever invited to eat at our house since my Dad had Parkinson’s disease and all visitors were forbidden. So as a typical child I sought love where I could find it at Joey’s dinner table and in Joey’s burly lap. So on that rainy afternoon, I had invited Joey up to my bedroom to listen to records. We sat on the bed next to each other as I commented on Richard Rodger’s clever idea not to use strings in the instrumentation of his show, No Strings. My hand lay idly next to his soccer thigh as my finger gently stroked the outer seam of his jeans. He did not pull away as we both stared ahead listening to Richard Kiley sing “The most entrancing sight of all is yet for me to see…” My finger tracked a path to his inner seam and traveled north to the bunched-up juncture where the seams gathered at his crouch. Slowly I maneuvered up and flicked the copper slider open on his zipper as I pulled it down over the shiny teeth while they made a nice metallic purr. Joey was wearing box shorts so the jack quickly jumped out of the box. “No Strings, No Strings…” It didn’t take long, but long enough for my mother to get suspicious of why we were being so quiet in my room. “What are you two doing up there?” Joey jumped up and ran down the stairs, saying good bye to my mother and slamming the screen door behind him as he ran out into the autumn storm. I was still shaking in fear of almost being caught. Side One was over and I flipped the black vinyl disc to Side Two. Diahann CarrolI sang softly to me, “And the dearest love in all the world is waiting somewhere for me…” I quickly took off my BVD’s and with some spittle cleaned up the chenille. But what to do? I put them back on and walked nonchalantly downstairs to the bathroom. Then I washed the drawers in the sink using the golden bar of Dial soap, and I wrung and wrung every drop I could to get them dry as possible. I put them back on. During dinner I could still feel the clammy bottom of my underwear wedging up and moistening up the green vinyl seats on dinette chair. Pretending to clean up some crumbs, I used my Marcel paper napkin to dry off the chair as I got up to clear the table and wash the dinner dishes. It wasn’t till Bonanza was over that they were fully dried. At 10 pm I went upstairs to bed. As I pulled down the covers on my side of our double bed I noticed a small translucent stain on the pillowcase. I quickly jumped, in, pulled the covers over my head and waited for midnight. Quietly I slipped out of my bed and silently removed the offending pillow case. The house was eerily still, with just the whirr of the fan blowing hot air up through the vent in the bedroom floor grate from the basement’s fiery furnace two floors below. I reached the top of the stairs and slowly descended step by step like a somnambulist, being careful not to slip on the carpeted treads. I was wearing my socks, so I almost skidded on the last one as I grabbed onto the varnished banister to keep from falling but still landing on my butt. I reached the bathroom and in the darkness turned on the faucets, trying to balance a warm flow of a slow steady stream so as not to make a splashing noise while the water hit the enameled basin. I held the pillow case in my hands, gingerly fingering from the outer edge until the tip of my forefinger reached the dry parchment-like spot. I moved the cloth back and forth under the cleansing stream, gently rubbing with my thumbs like a priest cleaning an ablution cloth after communion. Using a towel that hung on the rack jutting out from the Sears & Roebuck pink plastic bathroom tiles, I pressed out the stain and my afternoon sins.
As I was starting to return upstairs, from the dark cavern of the downstairs bedroom my mother moaned out, “Anthony, what’s all that noise? It’s after midnight.” I quickly replied: “I had to go the bathroom, Ma. Go back to sleep.” “Good, I warned you next time you’ll have to wash your own damn sheets if you pee in that bed again,” she sniped. I was so nervous, I tripped again on the steps going back up, knocking an arts and crafts picture I made of a Pixie that now appeared to be leering down on me in judgment. I cursed my mother underneath my breath for fouling up my afternoon plans with Joey. I put the pillow case on the grate and let the hot air blow through the thin worn out fabric. I waited for the next cycle of hot air to start blowing up again to warm up the chilly room and cover my footsteps as I put the case back on the pillow and flipped it over so the almost dry spot was on the bottom. My father was snoring lightly in the next bed and I had to push my brother Michael over in our bed to make room for me. I stared up at the attic ceiling and watched the shadows, menacingly dance made by the trees buffeted by the still continuing storm. It was past the witching hour as I drifted off to sleep, dreaming of demonic pixies, Sears & Roebuck catalogue men in their underwear, cackling witches, Celeste tethered like a balloon in the Macy*s Thanksgiving Day Parade and Joey sleeping across the woods… “waiting somewhere for me”. The storm subsided. I woke up the next morning with an angelic smile on my face as I hummed the song, “Joey - Joey Joey, - Joey - Joey Joe” from the Frank Loesser musical, The Most Happy Fella. I stretched my arms luxuriously back behind my head in bed and kicked off the covers. I figured out when we would meet again at Bingo! But oh, there was another damned spot on the sheets…
(to be continued) Click for Bingo! Part Two
- October 21, 2009 - BizBash Hall of Fame
Jackie Gold, Bizbash, NYPublisher and me
"Each year at the BiZBash M&C Meeting and Event Style Show, leaders and visionaries in the event industry are honored for their hard work and dedication." I was humbled to accept the award on Wednesday October 21, 2009 at the Bizbash Expo held at the Javits Center. The following is my acceptance speech and video link. What an honor! Thank you so much David and Richard AND BizBash! Wow! As the munchkins sang to Dorothy when she landed in OZ: “You'll be a bust - be a bust, be a bust - in The Hall of Fame!” And unlike Dorothy, I didn't land here by accident. My bust (so to speak) was molded by Jim McNabb who gave me my first job, refined by June Briggs who lifted me up higher than I ever thought imaginable and it’s polished every day by the incredible Briggs team. And of course, my dear partner Gary who keeps the pigeons off. You know, there is a Hall of Fame up in the Bronx that I always went to as a kid, who knew that one day I would be in one too! Thank you all, thank you New York, my OZ - “there is no place like home”
******** THe Hall of Fame up in the Bronx
"We welcome you to Munchkinland, Tra la la la la la la
- September 1, 2009 - Every Day Saints A sonnet for Joan
The maid was born up in Northampton, Mass City of lesbian and college fame. Of Polish and Pilgrim decent this lass, Baptized Joan for Frances’ dearest saint’s name. The first voice she heard was the devil’s call Who engaged her in a thirty years war. Raising three children, she gave them her all Till in the end, she struck down the brute boar. Years of peace, watching her family grow Till another called, England’s lion Mark. Channeling détente in life’s winter’s snow, Canonizing her Blessed Joan the Lark.
- July 20, 2009 - 2001 - 2009 A Roman Odyssey
2002 The Lotus Eaters The barbarians had reached the gate at home and the war on terrorism had begun. It was only a few months after the horrible events of 9/11 when my partner, Gary and I decided to journey to Rome - our favorite city in the world after New York. We were again drawn back to the Eternal City for solace, escaping the terrifying trauma of the collapse of the World Trade Towers. Intrepid travelers, we were coming back in style, our pockets now lined with the new Euro, equal to the dollar in value. No Pensione Suisse (which always smelled of Pine-Sol and Clorox) this time around. We were going to slum it at the new five-star stylish Hotel de Russie, unofficial home to celebrities, dignitaries and government officials. Our room was stark black and white like the cathedral of Siena, chic elegance in an Italian “W Hotel” kind of style. The smartly attired hotel staff looked liked they had stepped off the magazine cover of Italian Vogue. Off the lobby was a “secret garden” (everything in Italy is a secret!) for the post La Dolce Vita crowd to have lunch with a mistress before an afternoon tryst in the suites above. After checking in we went to their very “in” bar where we lethargically sipped on the then ,trendy addictive, Cosmo. Gary had to instruct the bartender on how to concoct the new American cocktail made famous by the gals in “Sex in the City.” After a couple of Cosmos we took an afternoon siesta drifting off into blissful apathy and narcotic like sleep leaving all the cares of home behind.
Cyclops I woke up first and decided to explore the hotel and descended the stairs to the basement still drugged and feeling invisible to the world. I stumbled down upon a modern Roman grotto like gymnasium and spa. It was cool and quiet except for bad Italian pop rock music playing in the background. All of a sudden there was a grunt and a groan. I peered around a corner to spy a hairy giant of a creature hidden among the steel and wires of the exercise machines. As he got up, he wiped his face with a luxuriant white cotton towel so I could only see half his face, and one red eye strained from his lift. Bang! The metal weight bars clanged down sounding like Vulcan working his smithy and accompanied by an even louder bellow of expended energy as a droplet of his sweat catapulted across the room and landed on my nose. I quickly stepped back into the shadows wiping off the smelly bead as he staggered out of the grotto to plunge into the hot and cold baths in the next area.
Telemachus Thinking there was no one but me in the gym, I gingerly made my way into the tiny workout area to do a few sets. Designer cologne hung in the humid air as I crept my way around. I stopped. Crouched in the corner, replacing some wayward weights in a rack was a Pan-like fawn of a man looking up into my eyes. I froze like Perseus shielding himself not from Medusa’s horrible visage but from the bright sun of Apollo. The wonderful creature looked up at me and smiled. I held my breath as I stuttered, “Buona sera, my name is T-T-Tony.” It’s eyes caught mine. “Piacere Tony, my name is Danilo; I’m the trainer here at the hotel.” As he stooped over tidying up the machines he reminded me of the famous Greek statue of the discus thrower, lithe, tight and graceful, sprung to toss the disc across the sky. Everything in its place, the dazzling creature jumped up, dressed in silky blue workout pants, tight, white muscle T and bicycle cap. He noticed I was wearing a NYFD cap and quickly expressed his empathy at the recent events in my home town. The conversation flowed slowly at first but then cascaded into delightful spurts of broken Italian and English. I was intrigued and allured realizing he was not a god but a mortal like me. He was impressed with my knowledge of the local political scene, art and history and I was impressed by his sincerity, sensitivity, Mediterranean hospitality and of course his physique. Danilo was a quintessential Roman, stylish, savvy, cultured and opinionated. It wasn’t long before I engaged him for a session early the following morning. I woke up in nervous anticipation and went downstairs early to warm up as instructed by Danilo. He arrived very un-Italian like, promptly at 7am for our session. After a quick assessment of me on the treadmill, he remarked in what great shape I was in - for my age! - Ah the charm of the Italians. We quickly bonded as he put me through my paces advising me how to improve even further when I returned to my NYC trainer. Once again we talked about the horrors of 9/11 and shared our mutual love for both our homes, Rome and New York. Like all Italians and unlike the ungrateful French, he was thankful of all the help the U.S. gave them during the WW II. The hour was up before we knew it and we planned to see each other again the next day. He was an excellent trainer who knew how to motivate his clients, and he was a world class athlete, winning many bicycle races and international triathlons – a true athlete and sports ambassador for Italy. He was also an Iron Man and I soon discovered inveterate Ladies Man!
Circe The next day Gary and I hit Armani’s and helped keep the economy of Italy afloat for that year. We made quick friends with a particular handsome salesman with a "culo" that was the glory of Rome. Sipping espresso brought over by a cute, young waiter from the café next door, he enticed us into trying on elegant shirts, slacks and suits that were just too reasonably priced to pass up; especially since the post-Christmas sales were on and the VAT would be returned at the airport on our way home. Like Marco Polo returning from the Orient we carried our treasures from Armani parading in triumph down the Via Condotti with our newly bought spoils, back to the Hotel de Russie for Cosmos Encore! The sun was setting as we strolled down the “secret” Via Margutta on our evening passagiatta. Shutters clanged down on little antique and art shops. Well dressed couples, young Romans dressed like stylish American counterparts, promenaded like peacocks in a bishop’s garden. It was near dusk as we entered the great expanse of the Piazza del Popolo. Bambini were running with dripping gelato cones topped with puffs of crema and ignoring a lonesome mime. Lovers walked hand in hand or casual arm around a waist passing an old lady in black, carrying a sack of blood red oranges. Sitting in the shadow of the towering Egyptian obelisk that jutted up into the night sky, a guitarist played for money singing a traditional folk song of unrequited love. We circled the fountain in the center of the square like a small craft rounding a buoy. Off in the dim distance on the steps of the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo, sat a fellow who had once temporarily dashed me on the rocks of swinish instability. I tried to change direction but the circle of curiosity and surprise tightened as I hazardously hovered close enough to exchange a few words. “What a coincidence! What are you doing here? What am I doing here?” But I knew my Homer and had already stopped my ears with wax from the previously perilous shipwreck after hearing the siren’s song and cut short our exchange. Listing a bit too close, I quickly steered us away from the piazza down the Corso, past the Pantheon to the Piazza Navona with its great Bernini Fountain. We dined on Spaghetti Carbonara and drank our fill of Frascati at a hidden osteria behind the Farnese Palace. Afterwards, Gary and I stumbled our way home through the night town of Campo di Fiore where drunken half human/half animal revelers danced around the statue of Giordano Bruno who was burnt alive at the stake for heresy. On our last day, Danilo invited us for lunch at his friend Daniele’s hotel which was only a few steps from de Russie. The Hotel Valadier was once a convent turned brothel and now a hip boutique hotel that Daniele had lovingly restored. Daniele was the consummate hotelier and extended an invitation to stay there the next time we came to Rome. The hotel’s casual restaurant was in the basement of the convent/brothel/hotel and had a great pizza oven - good pizza, good wine and good conversation at the aptly named Il Brillo Parlante. Danilo and I were simpatico from the very first hesitant hello at the gym to the last teary eyed ciao salting my Pizza Margarita. We exchanged emails and both swore to keep in touch. At the airport Gary and I collected our VAT refunds and it wasn’t long before we were in the arms of Morpheus as we flew over the Middle Sea across the Atlantic to the New World. Arriving home, we navigated through the Scylla and Charybdis of immigration and customs escaping with impunity with our undeclared booty.
2003 – 2008 Hades The milky way of the tangled internet held us together via email and instant messages. Gary and I returned to Rome the following year taking our entire office on an incentive trip. Danilo, our Virgi, arranged accommodations at Daniele’s hotel. Our first tour was a very Angels and Demons private visit to the subterranean tomb of St. Peter’s buried deep under the main altar of the basilica on the site of Nero’s Circus where Peter was crucified upside down. In one of the dark catacombs, our British red-headed satyr of a guide gave me a pat on my butt and tried to steal a kiss. Fortunately unattractive sirens are easy to fend off - no wax needed. I trained a few times with Danilo at the nearby Hotel de Russie before our early mornings excursions. We quickly caught up, discussing Mussolini and Bush and Danilo telling me of his Casanovian escapades. On final night, he showed up on his Vespa with his latest amante sitting behind him, terribly close. Dolce far niente
Calypso In 2004 Danilo met Saulia, an exotic beauty from Near East, Kazakhstan. They had met as his club and it took a year to go from buon giorno to baciame. Looking like a Mongolian princess or consort of Genghis Khan, she threw her spider’s net over the Roman gladiator and ensnared him with a kiss on Valentine’s Day; the vanquished conquering the conqueror. At last Danilo came to New York City in 2006 with Saulia and their new born son, Alexandro (Danilo is a champion in every department!). We trained together at Reebok Sports Club and toured the town. One evening, I introduced him at a Mexican Restaurant to our NYC trainers to talk shop and compare notes. The margaritas went down very easy and so did Danilo when he had too many drinks. Italians do not have a cocktail culture! Saulia sat silently, not knowing much English, her thoughts weaving in and out, observing and taking care of baby Alexander the Great. Our office in February, 2007 went back to Italy, this time to Florence. But our final night dinner was in Rome. Danilo, Saulia, and Alexandro joined us. There was an unknown guest in attendance that night, for nine months later Leonardo, their second son was born. After a splendid meal in Trastevere, I wandered back to the hotel alone via Campo di Fiore veering perilously close to the nighttime demons. The following July, Danilo trekked to New York City again to jump into the Hudson, bike to the Bronx and sprint to the finishing line in Central Park. Hail the conquering hero!
In the winter of 2008 Gary and I celebrated our 25th anniversary as happy as any couple in Ithaca. The big bash was celebrated up in the Bronx at Roberto’s, our good friend who owns our favorite restaurant in NYC. The guest of honor was Danilo who flew in from Rome for the weekend festivities. A few months later, Danilo jumped into the Hudson River after a good night’s sleep at our house sans margaritas and placed fifth in the triathlon!
2009 Tiresias Good stories always end in weddings. Danilo and Saulia after years of bureaucratic, byzantine religious, political entanglement were able to be married. Finally the stars aligned up and the nuptials were to be held in April at the magnificent Roman Basilica of Mary of the Angels and Martyrs built inside the frigidarium the Bathes of Diocletian. At the beginning of the 18th century, Pope Clement XI commissioned the astronomer, Francesco Bianchinii to build a meridian line, a sort of sundial, within the basilica to check the accuracy of the Gregorian reformatin of the calendar, to produce a tool to exactly predict Easter, and, to give Rome a meridian line. It was a perfect place for East to be joined to the West. On a bright sunlit morning, a small group of Danilo’s extended family gathered around the main altar of the church. The sound of the great organ swirled around the baroque putti as a tenor sang Schubert’s Ave Maria. Little Alexander, the ring bearer, led the procession followed by the ever faithful, Saulia dressed in a beautiful gown that Danilo had personally picked out for his bride. The priest gave a lengthy, impassioned sermon in Italian on love and family. Meanwhile little Leonardo cried as his paternal grandfather tried to distract him by lighting matches and a distinguished guest completed a big art deal on her Blackberry; the thick marble walls not being able to withstand the onslaught of the 21th century. Rays of sunlight radiated down from the dome blessing the couple exiting the church as clouds of rice rained down upon them, gaily tossed by the guests, seeds of love. The wedding feast was held at Di Rienzo, a restaurant owned by Gabriele, a close friend of the couple. It is beautifully sited on the Piazza della Rotonda in the shadow of Emperor Hadrian’s Pantheon. Flocks of birds hovered over the square, searching, swooping down on a tourist’s’ ort. circled It was our turn to be the guests of honor from America as we drank prosecco, grazed on elaborate antipasti and met many of his Danilo’s dear friends at the reception in the ristorante’s private room. Luncheon was held outside under huge umbrellas on the square. Danilo designed a light, health conscious, delicious menu of Roman springtime vegetables, pasta and frutti di mare. It seemed I had returned home for the wedding of my brother, a prodigal returning to Italy after the emigrant exodus of the 1900’s. Danilo had taken special care to seat us with his most interesting and illustrious English-speaking friends: antiquarians, intelligentsia and entertainment personalities. A small sparrow tried to peck at Antonio’s bread, a lawyer sitting next to us, who practiced in the crazy legal system of Italy. I shooed it away as he was revealing horror stories of the Roman courts. We had a great conversation sometimes turning deep and philosophical, the good life. It wasn’t until Gary asked him to write down his mobile number that we realized he was totally blind. As onlookers on the piazza gathered around, the same tenor from the church serenaded the wedding party to operatic arias and we all cried when he sang: “Con te partirò -Time to Say Goodbye” made famous by the singer, Andrea Bocelli. Danilo dedicated the last song to me, “O Sole Mio” in honor of my Neapolitan heritage. The happy couple cut the wedding cake and Saulia passed out the traditional almond wedding bomboniere as guests began to leave with kisses on both cheeks, and intimate hugs. Tears welled up as I said goodbye to our new friend Antonio as I helped him into a taxi.
Penelope But the festivities were not over since Gary and I were to continue with Danilo and Saulia on their “honeymoon” to island of Ischia. At party’s end, we hopped into the wedding van and off we went to change at their house before rushing off to Stazione Termini to catch the express train to Naples. We arrived in the madness of a Neapolitan holiday rush hour, and kidnapped a wild taxi ride to the dock. We boarded the hydrofoil; pushed and jostled by the crazy Italians who acted like it was the ark before the great flood. Danilo had arranged our stay on Ischia at Albergo Il Monastero, a hotel that was once a monastery and fortress. It was perched high atop a volcanic rock, a castle in the sky overlooking the sea. We arrived late at night so the gate keeper has to escort us up to the summit on one of those tiny European elevators. We had a drink before going to our monk’s room that had a balcony overlooking the island sea. It was a long day of festival, fun and family. A late night gull swooped down onto its cliff side nest. Sleep. Friday was May Day, a major holiday in Italy. I guess Danilo was hanging around me too much, the event planner, he reserved an excursion to Capri for the four of us. When we got to the dock to catch the pre-booked ferry, Danilo realized he left our boat tickets back at the castle not a few kilometers away. In a mad dash he flagged down a cab, raced across the fortress causeway, jostled himself to the head of the elevator line to the summit of the rock, retrieved our tickets, and sprinted back to the taxi and coolly arrived almost as the ferry was lifting its planks to depart for Capri - a mini triathlon.
Ithaca It was a glorious sunny day with teeming crowds of Neapolitans on a Ponte weekend, sipping espresso in the little piazzas, lining up for gelato and shopping at all the “ucci” stores. We explored the island of Emperor Tiberius and today’s rich and famous from bottom to top - “Funiculi Fanicula”. Our long day concluded on the veranda of the Grand Hotel Quisisana , home to the Capri’s jet set. Like F. Scott and Zelda we toasted each other on Cosmos. I think it was Saulia’s first Cosmo, well actually she had two as we did we all except for the health conscious athlete. She had been holding out on us and could hold her liquor unlike her husband! We chit chatted with our fellow upstarts and parvenus and discussed what was the correct temperature to serve a chocolate martini. We talked about how lucky we all were to be here together, sipping cocktails, laughing as the passing onlookers thought were celebrities. Danilo taught me when to use the Italian phrase, Ti Vgolio Bene, “I wish you well” meaning deep affection between friends and family. We were exhausted by the heat, the crowds, the shopping and the Cosmos as we slowly plopped down on the hydrofoil back home to Ischia. We were aglow with the warmth of the sun and deep affection for each other - Ti Voglio Bene. I never could stand the heat so I got up from our stall and left them inside the boat in their seats. As I looked back I smiled seeing Saulia’s head resting on her beloved Danilo while Gary’s head bobbed up and down trying unsuccessfully to fight off sleep. I went to the back deck for some cool air and a final look at magical, mythical Capri. The droning of the motors and the rocking of the boat lulled me into a state of sweet reverie. A young Italian couple wrangled close by.
That evening, our last at the hotel, we shared a bottle of local wine on the veranda before our final intimate dinner together in the refectory in our aerie in the sky. Saulia wore a white cotton chemise and a lovely turquoise necklace that Danilo had purchased that afternoon. She seemed lit from within, a happy bride, laughing and joking in her new found English attended by her Italian husband and her two dear amusing friends from America. We had a leisurely, lovely dinner and drank another bottle of wine listening to Ella Fitzgerald and Ray Charles playing in the background. A round of limoncello’s made the perfect aphrodisiac; citrus elixir that lifted you up and gently laid you down to a tranquil sleep. It was time to retire and end this fantastic journey. Gary and I had to catch an early flight to Rome the next morning so we said our good nights and goodbyes since we would not see the honeymoon couple in the morning. Saulia gave us hugs and kisses. We weren’t sad; we knew there would be more tomorrows. We turned off the lights as we went down the long austere hallway to our rooms; Danilo took Saulia to his bed and Gary and I went to ours. The linen curtains billowed blithely in from the balcony on a lemon breeze, a gull cooed softly resting on a nest below us, mothering her brood, some ragazzi revved their scooters below on the causeway to impress their girls; two lovers laughed from an open window, a dog barked. Soon we would all be home in Rome and New York City. Time is not measured in distance or distance in time. Ti volgio bene *******
(click to see video)
Sogno alorizzonte Si lo so che non c’e luce Time to say goodbye
When I’m alone Saw ad shared with you, When you are far away
- May 26, 2009 - "What's in a Name?" A Graudation Roast
Henry Maddocks May 23, 2009 Roger Williams University, RI
Whats in a name? Oh Henry, oh Henry What a beautiful name! Name of a bar of candy Name of literary fame. There are so many Henrys England’s Kings One thru Eight- One Anne Boylyn’s husband Another Thomas a Beckets mate. There’s Henry Clay who spoke so well Listening to the Trumpet Voluntary of Henry Purcell. Henry Heimlick, oh please don’t choke On H L Mencken acid newspaper quotes. Henry Hudson, the Dutchman who cruised up a Bay While reading Henry James who had way too much to say. Mr. Ford of Detroit riding in his turn crank Model T Sitting next to Dr. Kissinger spouting theories of diplomacy. Henry Thoreau who sits and contemplates Walden Pond As Henry Winkler wears a leather jacket as the Fonz. Henry Hank Aaron, hits it out way of the park While Doctor Jekyll lurks in London’s foggy dark. Henry Miller wrote his torrid Tropic of Cancer Watching Henry Fonda, his favorite silver screen actor. Henri Bendel sets up his Fifth Avenue shop across from Tiffany Listening to “Moon River” and the songs of Henry Mancini. Henry Higgins gives Eliza his elocution lesson “Very interesting “jokes, Laugh In’s, Henry Gibson. Harry Ward Beecher stirs up an abolitionist clamor As John Henry races against a steam powered hammer. There are so many Henrys Patrick Henry, Prince Harry and Potter- That we better move this along And with the rest not bother. Since the most famous of all is Henry of Maddocks- Who some have said has not too much in the attic! But today he has proved them all so wrong Graduating with esteem to be an entrepreneur ere long. And thus we end our paean with no surprise O’Henry conclusion Just friends and family in happy, merry reunion. So Henry, dear nephew, sincerest congrats and adulation Much love from Uncles Tony and Gary on your college graduation!
- May 11, 2009 - Mass Article excerpted from the Leonard Bernstein Newsletter:
Today’s Mass- I believe in God. But does God believe in me? As a seminarian, I was shaken to the core by these words and the all enveloping theatrical experience of seeing Bernstein’s Mass in 1973 at the Metropolitan Opera House. Ironically, critics then and now cite these lines when castigating the piece. Maybe times have caught up with Mass with today’s sense of apprehension and insecurity, in government and finance as well as in matters of the spirit. As a seminarian I thought I could utilize my love of theatre as a tool in preaching the Gospel. However I soon realized this was not going to happen. And although I can’t say attending Mass made me give up my vocation and pursue a career in the theatre, it was certainly an expression of what I and many were feeling during those dark days of the 1970’s. It was an era of questioning the establishment, anti war protests, gas rationing, sexual freedom, and re-examining one’s values. Sound familiar? It was also the time of guerilla theatre, Off –Broadway, “be-ins” and “love ins.” It is no coincidence that Bernstein’s Mass has sparked renewed interest and has recently received numerous productions. People are still questioning their faith as atheism is becoming less and less a dirty word. Society is still leery of gay marriage and acceptance of non-traditional life styles -- even if President Obama did include “non-believers” and gays in his inaugural speech. And of course, the war rages on in the Middle East. When I was struggling with my faith and sexuality, I found solace in Mass. The whole Credo sequence mirrored the turmoil I was going through that I could not express out loud or confide to any priest in a confessional. Lord, I could go confess
Mass is not a passive event. Bernstein did not write a reflective requiem but a theatrical tour de force that envelops the audience, confronting them with the disintegration of the Celebrant and his journey back to find solace and love. And of course this being Lenny, it culminates musically and dramatically with the community finding hope and salvation in each other. It is a mass for believers and non-believers, fulfilling all of our human need for ritual and connectedness. Even the “outsider,” the Celebrant, is included and given a place at the table. Mass speaks to us today as eloquently as it spoke to me in 1973 when I left the priesthood and became an Off Broadway theatre director. His music gave my soul a voice. I still sit in the darkened theatre at the end of the piece with tears in my eyes, imagining Leonard Bernstein as the Celebrant speaking those comforting final words directly to me, “The Mass is ended, go in peace.”
- April 28, 2009 - The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company A&P ““Something Good” 1966 – 1968 Part Two
As in most supermarkets, customers entered through the Produce Department to help generate sales. This was not unlike the major department stores having the jewelry and perfume on the main floor so the ladies hit that area first. Since the wives bought their husband’s clothes the men’s department was always on the upper less trafficked floors; unconsciously being drawn up the escalators through two or three floors of enticing women's wear. In our store, the Produce Department led right to the Deli Department. So as you pushed your cart casually picking up some lettuce and tomatoes, you soon found yourself facing the appetizing display of the Delicatessen Department. Harry Burns was the gruff manager of the Deli who reminded me of the character actor, Harry Morgan, the cigar chomping colonel on M*A*S*H. Nobody got along with Harry and he could never keep his help. Exacerbated, Mr. Smith, our store manager, would have to sometime relieve Mr. Burns for his mandatory union breaks and lunch hours. So after the latest clerk walkout, Mr. Smith asked me if I would do him a favor and transfer over to the Deli Department. It meant I had to join the Local Butchers Union, and pay dues but I would get a higher salary. It also meant not working with Dominic but the Produce Department was right next door, sharing the same swinging doors to the back area and I could relieve him for his breaks. I would do anything for Mr. Smith so I said yes. The A&P delicatessen (from the German for delicacies) featured traditional items found in the old German, Jewish and Italian Delicatessens and Appetizing stores in the immigrant neighborhoods of New York City. The modern design was inspired by the old storefronts which all had a certain look. They were immaculately clean with black mirrored panels with mosaic tiles giving it a pristine antiseptic spa feel. The refrigerator cases were the most important; long gleaming polished aluminum cases looking like windows on the art deco ocean liner, SS Normandie. From the German came all the classic cold cuts of hams, liverwurst and bologna; chains of bratwurst; white and yellow American cheese; cardboard tasting Swiss and drywall Muenster; golden skinned roasted turkeys, lustrously glazed baked hams, Neolithic Fred Flintstone sized roast beef rounds, toasted salmon croquettes, La Brea tar pits of baked beans and baked macaroni in foil cups; crab cakes with homemade tartar sauce only on Fridays. In long shiny trays were mounded two versions of potato salad – mayonnaise or German style; macaroni, tuna, chicken, egg, health, carrot &r raisin salads, Cole Slaw and for dessert creamy rice pudding, Nesselrode pie, tapioca and Jell-O mold filled with canned fruit. From the Italian came baked spaghetti in a thick Franco-American style sauce; Spaldine sized meatballs; sweet and hot Italian sausages with glistening green peppers with onions in olive oil; peppery red capicola; leathery Mortadella with inset diamonds of green pistachios; white moldy skinned tubes of Genoa salami and sopresatta; hot and sweet pepperoni; onyx black and briny emerald green olives; - cracked, pitted or whole; marinated mushrooms buttons and dynamite proof nougat Torrone. From the classic Jewish Deli came almost rust colored slabs of lox both belly and Nova Scotia, saffron chunks of Sable, whole golden white fish with Eddie Cantor eyes; cold smoked chubs, kippers, sturgeon and herring roll mops either pickled or creamy sauce; hockey puck sized potato or kasha knishes; sour and half sour green flecked pickles, bursting redolent of garlic; flakey corned beef and black spice encrusted, pastrami; kosher franks – cocktail and foot long; cream cheese with pimento and chives; pot cheese aka farmers cheese; iconic tawny chopped liver; boxes of Joya chocolate covered jelly rings and Turkish halvah, dried fruits & nuts and slabs of Jewish cheesecake – plain or pineapple.
On the back wall hung bins holding Kaiser Rolls flecked with poppy seeds that got all over you when you picked one up; obdurate bagels – plain, sesame seed, onion, poppy and salted; sad little bialys; small Italian subs and long slender French; sour rye bread with seeds or plain and egg laden challah on Fridays for the Sabbath. Below the Deli case was a ledge of densely pre-packaged breads from Germany; six packs of Anne Page frankfurter and hamburger rolls; bags of pistachio nuts; Polish Chrusciki dusted in powdered sugar; assorted Stella Dora cookies baked in the Bronx; cans filled with international foods - sour cherries, hearts of palm and anchovies; and varieties of mustards and horseradish. In the middle of the working counter were two magnificent slicers with one dedicated just for slicing the Kosher-style items. At the far end stood a noisy rattling bread slicing machine while the other end held a rack of variously sized sharp knives. Underneath the ledge were racks holding different sized white bags to put the purchases in after wrapping them in brown butcher paper hanging on huge rolls. And a flip-up wooden counter shelf ran the length of the case. A swinging nautical portal door separated the public area from the back kitchen where food preparation and cleaning took place out of the customers view. Well it didn’t take me long to figure out Harry Burns was as sweet as lobster meat with a hard shell exterior like Captain Von Trapp as played by Christopher Plummer. He had the attitude of a curmudgeon not suffering fools lightly including customers. Once he figured out that I knew what I was doing and was doing it well, he let his guard down and would trust me and made me his protégé. He would tell me ribald dirty jokes like a Borscht Belt comic. Mr. Burns taught me how to roast 2/3 lb. chickens on the rotisserie, baking just enough to last through the day with no left-overs. I would take the birds out of the packaging and wash them in the prep sink in the back room. I gaily tossed kosher salt over them after patting down the wrinkly old lady like skins with paper towels. I pierced the gaping cavities through on a long black rod and fastened them in place like a Spanish Inquisition torturer with big iron medieval looking clips. I set the rods containing 4 or 5 chickens each in position in the oven and they revolved and revolved dripping on each other to a golden baste. When done I set them in white paper cardboard boats kept warm by an amber heat lamp so they resembled some alte cocker tanning on Miami Beach. When purchased they were put in aluminum lined bags to keep them warm like marathon runner finishers. I had to bake huge galleons of roast beef. First I would take the 15 lb piece of meat out of its vacuum pack and wipe all the congealed blood off with my hands massaging the meat with kosher and onion salts; my palms stinging from any cuts I may have had. Sticking a thermometer in just right was an art so it would come out a perfect medium rare. It took constant watching. Once I was waiting so long on a trying customer that it came out well done. The store employees got to enjoy free dry roast beef sandwiches slathered with mayonnaise and horseradish to keep it moist! Hams were easy. Well the hardest part was opening the tins of Krakus Polish Hams with a key that was affixed on the bottom of the can. You inserted the eye of the key on one end and carefully rolled all the way around the lid. They often broke and I used to cut my hand on the long thin strip of sharp tin that I now had to pull off with my fingers. Harry smartly invested in pliers which did the trick as I now could cleanly lift the ham out of the sharp edged tin and take it out of its plastic condom like encasing. I scored the surface with a paring knife in a nice diamond pattern putting a clove in each intersection, sprinkled on powered cloves, covered the entire masterwork in dark brown sugar, swirls of Gulden’s mustard and a jar of Hawaiian glaze oozing over all; crowned with beautifully decorated canned Dole pineapple rings and garnished with toxic maraschino cherries - done in about 45 minutes to an hour.
Slicing the meat was tricky. As Harry’s apprentice he instructed me very seriously and sternly on the use and safety procedures of the slicing machines. You flicked a little toggle switch to turn on the whirring blade as you adjusted it for the proper slicing thickness. Harry warned me dramatically like the Sorcerer in Disney’s Fantasia to always, always use the safety guard plate to hold the top of the meat in place with one hand as you pressed down on it as you caught escaping slices with the other; ladling them in a neat pile on white waxen paper. Concentrate on the task or the consequences may be a slice of thumb in Mrs. Schwartz’s chicken roll. Of course as the wicked young apprentice, I didn’t always listen as I waited on Andrew, one of Ralph’s roguishly handsome but arrogant friends. I kept looking over my shoulder to stare at his pecs under his NFA Tee shirt and engage him in foolish flirtatious conversation as I was slicing roast beef for his sandwich when - WHISH! - the top of my thumb caught the blade quickly. More blood than harm, Mr. Burns magically stopped the bleeding and helped me bandage it up. Andrew’s roast beef sandwich was moist that day! I made myself tasty sandwiches at a discount for my lunch break experimenting with exotic combinations like ham and lox on a bialy or tuna and chive cream cheese on challah. I particularly liked the Braunschweiger liverwurst, very soft and was almost spreadable on bread with a soupcon of Dijon mustard. I sometimes had my break in the tiny lunch room behind the Produce case with Joe the Butcher but sometimes I would make an extra sandwich and bring it over to Ralphs’ who lived behind the store. I only took a half hour for lunch which gave me plenty of time to wolf down a sandwich and enjoy some of Ralph’s appetizing non-Kosher frank. Of course, lunch was only an excuse to visit him and sometimes I would wrap up my lunch and take it back for my afternoon break if I hadn’t had time to eat it and had already had my fill. Ralph enjoyed our tryst in a sadistic way; always threatening to tell his friend Andrew that I was a queer. I used to live in fear till I figured out that if he told him; he would have to own up to our being “pigs in the blanket.” Waiting on customers was fun, engaging and also challenging. There were the regulars who came in every day and bought their bagel with smear or knish sliced in half with mustard. Then there was the pain in the asses who watched every move you made so you sliced everything to their precise order or to ensure I was not cheating them on weight or giving them the first slice before cutting their order. Even thought they protested that the first slice was dry and stale; they made me give it to them to taste. As I put the package on the scale to weigh they would peer up like Talmudic Scholars making sure the weight matched the price. “God Forbid!’ I made a mistake. Slicing lox is a craft. I used a special knife that was long and thin that I dipped in hot water before I started my exquisite carvings. With voices sounding like Eve Arden or Molly Picon, I was always commanded to slice the lox on the bias as thin, thin, thin as possible. I think they thought they got more if I sliced it thinner! “Slice it thin!” shouted out Our Miss Brooks. I used to save the lox skins and wings for my favorite old Jewish lady, Mrs. Finkelstein who did Yahweh knows what with them. She carried off the little white bag holding it close as it if contained s the jewels of King Solomon’s Mines. Mrs. Gold always gave me a hard time, making me open up new pieces since she didn’t want the “stumps! or asking for the biggest rye which was sold by the piece, or making me go through the whole pile of sable for the perfect jewel. I was always polite to her as I packed the cold cuts, pressing down on them, mushing them a bit in passive aggressive glee. This was very successful with the braunschweiger! Once again on Saturday night I had to clean the cases. This meant wrapping all the meats tightly in cellophane then putting all the now stale bread in big brown paper bags for the bakery return pickup on Monday. I ladled all the salads back into their big rotund metal tubs and stored them in the locker. Finally I would hose the case down with hot water so it was sparking clean for Monday. Cleanliness is next to godliness in a Deli. On Monday mornings, if Harry had off, I would take inventory having to weigh all the items, checking them off a huge master sheet. Then I had to tally it all up against last week’s totals, ask Mr. Smith for the gross Deli sales for the week and figure out the profit made. Good training for an unsuspecting future entrepreneur. Within a month, the brand new Squire Village Cinema opened with the area exclusive premiere of Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines. For the gala opening, they had old-fashioned aeroplane up on the marquee which only lasted a week when a snow storm crushed it paper wings. I could now go to the movies right after work and walk home sometimes stopping for a “nightcap” at Ralph's. When The Sound of Music finally came to Squire Cinema, I took Ralph to see it and share it with him. In the darkened theatre, taking a cue from Maria D’Auito at the gazebo scene where the Baron and Maria sang and kissed, I tried to sidle my leg next to his. I kept it hovering at such a humming bird hair breath width away he never felt it as I held my coat over my lap. Ralph fidgeted in his seat whenever a song came on (which only moved his leg closer to mine) and only became interested at the last scene when the Nazis arrived at the cemetary. I ingeniously grabbed his arm when Rolf blew the whistle on the escaping Trapp family. The following month, I tried to get him to go see Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by lying to him telling him there was nudity and lots of cursing, condemned by the Legion of Decency, but I ended up going alone. Most of it was over my head, but sitting in the empty matinee day theatre, I laughed out loud at some of acerbic lines tossed out by Elizabeth Taylor in a fright wig: “What a dump!’ What's it from, for Christ's sake?...some damn Bette Davis picture, some god-damned Warner Bros epic." - “You make me puke!” and “You married me for it!”
Once in a while Ralph and Andrew would come to the store and stand behind my customers, sniggle and make lewd gestures. When it was Ralph’s turn to order, he leaned over the counter and slyly intimated that if I didn’t mark the price down he was going to tell his buddy Andrew - EVERYTHING. I made him two dry roast beef sandwiches at a good discount and threw in a container of stale potato salad from the back room at no cost just to get rid of them both. One afternoon Ralph asked me over for “lunch.” I brought over some liverwurst sandwiches for us. I carefully opened up the sandwiches on his bedroom dresser and set out napkins and two bottles of Stewart’s Root Beer. He silently gestured me like the Gestapo to his bed. Jeopardy was playing on his black and white TV set as I unzipped his metallic fly on his dungarees. He pretended to watch the game show as he put his hands behind his head, flexing his muscles, sniggling as was his wont but now interspersed with stifled moans. Among his moans I thought I heard another snicker, I paused but was gruffly put back in place. I continued our luncheon until I heard a thither again. At that moment, the white slatted wooden closet doors whipped open and Andrew sprang out yelling, “Surprise! You’re on Candid Camera!” He had been watching all along through the interstices. Like a front runner he leapt onto the bed and gestured to me that I was to sit between the two boys. We were silent. “Today’s Jeopardy’s Final Question is in the category Theatre. He wrote The Importance of Being Earnest…” before I could open my mouth to answer Rolfe pushed my down on Andrew. They both grunted in tandem during the seven minutes of commercials. When Jeopardy’s MC, Art Fleming came back on, I took it as my cue to get the hell out of there since I completed my duties quickly. I jumped over Ralph, tripping on the rug, grabbing the dresser for balance as my hand smashed down the braunschweiger sandwich. I took a swig of Root Beer to wash my lunches down. Slamming the door, I yelled out “Oscar Wilde” as I ran back through the loading dock to the A&P.
Harry gave me a glare since I was late returning from lunch. Still breathless, I waited on the next customer trying to cover up my excitement with my apron. “Slice it thin! Make sure you slice it thin!” I sliced it as thin as I could so you could read the NY Times through it. I calmed down during the afternoon but still felt used and exposed but strangely excited at the same time - feeling like a nun who had stolen a kiss like Julie Andrews looking up at Christopher Plummer in the gazebo except that it was not the Baron I who was kissing me but the Hitler Youth Rolf/Ralph.
Perhaps I had a wicked childhood Perhaps I had a miserable youth But somewhere in my wicked, miserable past There must have been a moment of truth
For here you are, standing there, loving me Whether or not you should So somewhere in my youth or childhood I must have done something good
Later on in the afternoon, feeling famished, I wolfed down a gall like mixture of Head Cheese dipped in white vinegar. I was angry at Ralph for putting me in that “position” and I am sure he thought he “got the guest” but who really got the guest?! I knew what I wanted and I went for it. Ralph never came into the store again or did we ever have lunch again but I did meet Andrew a few times in the woods up by Thomas’s Rock. I now spent my lunch time either perusing the Broadway Show Album bin at the drug store next to the A&P or withthe adults - Mr. Smith or Dominick or my new friend Joseph the butcher. That "Walpurgisnacht" and for a few more nights, I would jump when the phone rang at home hoping it wasn’t Ralph blowing the whistle on me. Shortly, the Seminary would take me out of Newbugh and harms way and bring me to the Toyland or should I say Boyland of New York City. It wouldn't take long for this Martha to come into his own and learn how to play “hump the host.” “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” “I'm not, Ralph, I'm not.”
Finale: I eventually left the A&P when Mr. Smith joined Grand Union Supermarket and took me along with him. I became the Deli Manager during the summers between college semesters, roaming Orange, Ulster and Rockland Counties, relieving the regular mangers for their summer vacations. My sister Karen replaced me when I went to graduate school. Thirty years later, she is the successful manager of a very busy Stop & Shop in Wallkill, NY and will retire with pension before me!
- April 16, 2009 - The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company A&P “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” 1964 – 1966 Part One
“Help Wanted!” A brand new A&P was going to open within walking distance of our house in New Windsor. When”my mother saw that “Help Wanted” sign hanging in the store window, she was determined that I get my working papers as soon as I turned sixteen so I could contribute to the family income and not be a “lazy bum lying around the house”. Part of the process of acquiring your working papers was going for a perfunctory physical to prove you were in good health. You would think I was going to work in a coal mine and be subjugated to Dickensian child labor. Mamma Rose drove me into Newburgh to see an old Jewish doctor who had been contracted by the city. Herr Doktor’s dark, musty and creepy office was located across from beautiful Downing Park nestled like the witch’s hut in Hansel und Gretel. Dr. Mengele’’s high-pitched nasal voice and bedside manner would later remind of Laurence Olivier playing the mad Nazi dentist in Marathon Man. He asked some very basic health questions with an accent I could hardly understand. He gruffly listened to my heart with a stethoscope, so cold that I jumped off the soiled paper on the exam table. Since I was now standing and shuddering, he asked me drop my pants and cough for him. Like a hawk swooping down to pluck a little furry bunny in his sharp claws, he grabbed my coglione so hard, cracking them like the Nutcracker. I so quickly zipped up that I got my weenie caught in the zipper - Ouch! My mother unclipped her red leather coin purse and gave him two dollars. Herr Mengele stamped the papers with all the diligence and brio of an SS Officer. The A&P Supermarket would be the anchor store in the mall next to newly built condo complex called Squire Village. It was built on the open field where I once sledded in the winter and took hay rides in the fall. The architecture was vaguely colonial in style with the condos sited around a town square building with clock tower overshadowing an in-ground swimming pool for residents only (on hot summer days I would sneak in past the oiled, tan lifeguard and pretend I lived there). I submitted my application at the Newburgh A&P located on upper Broadway where training would be held till the new store would open within a month. Mr. Smith, the soon-to-be Squire Village A&P manager called to say I got the job at the minimum wage of $1.25 per hour and could I start on Saturday from ten to seven? I was so nervous for my first day at work that I got up at 5am. My Dad drove into Newburgh but I got at the store a bit early at 6:30am. Some of the overhead harsh florescent lights were on but the front door was locked. I could see two men ripping open cardboard boxes with single edge razors, stamping the contents and stocking the shelves. I waited till “ten to seven” as asked and knocked and knocked on the front door to no avail since they were so far in the back of the store. So I used a trick the principal of Sacred Heart would use. Sister Margeretta would rap the inset window pane on the classroom door with her wedding ring, symbol of her marriage to Christ, and startle us and the teacher out of our seats. So using my class ring I began rapping rapping on the window store. Finally one of the guys came to front and tried to chase me away. I started to widely gesticulate like Ruta Lee on the TV charades show, Stump the Stars, acting out why I was there. After three attempts to give him the clue, the man finally let me in. “What da ya want?” he crankily shouted. I could hardly get the words out now, my stutter being so bad. “Mr. S-S-Smith s-s-said that I sh-sh-should s-s-start today and be-be-be here at ten to seven.” The man must have thought I was an idiot. And I am sure he did when he started to laugh and say “Oh silly boy, oh silly boy, he meant you are to work from ten am to seven pm not start 10 to 7 am! “Oh”, I managed to get out, “Thank-Thank you sir.” The automatic door hit me in the ass as I shuffled out. By now my father had driven home and I didn’t have a dime to call him to pick me back up. It was too early to go for breakfast at Commodore’s, the German soda fountain a few blocks up on Broadway. So I walked over to Sacred Heart Church, sunk down in the back pew and sat through the 7:30 and 8:00 am masses. I then read every piece of literature put out by The Blue Army and the Society of St Jude, patron saint of the hopeless cases which surely was me. Suddenly the church bell rang out: 1-2-3-4-5-5-7-8-9 then 10 big gongs. I sprang up, hitting my knee on the brass clip on the back of the pew that used to hold men’s hats. I had fallen asleep from being so distraught and waking up so early. I ran up Ann Street, almost got run over crossing busy Lake Street and took the shortcut through the back parking lot separating the A&P and Grand Union. The store was now bright and bustling as I slammed into a shopper, almost knocking the two shopping bags out of her arms. I hurried past her, mumbling my apologies, right up to the office in a booth that overlooked the store like a watchtower at a concentration camp. Taking off my cap, I sheepishly looked up at Mr. Smith, who was pouring over yesterday’s receipts. At last he glared down at me through his half glasses which slipped off his nose and bounced on his chest being caught by the attached gold link eyeglass chain. “Young man, I hope you are not going to make a habit of being late. Punctuality is the politeness of kings.” I froze there still, daren’t to look up. “Master Anthony, just don’t stand there, go and clock in.” He tossed me a punch card from his aerie that I managed to catch as it floated down from Valhalla. It took me till 10:30 am to figure out how to manage the contraption. I worked till 7:30 pm on the dot that night putting in a full 8 hours. During the day, Mr. Smith, the commandant sternly warned me not to work a minute past 7:30 pm; I would not be paid overtime. As bagger and shopping cart boy, I worked diligently and was never late again the entire month I was at the Broadway store. At the checkout counter I would neatly fill the paper bags making sure to put the heavy cans on the bottom, distributing the weight and gently placing fragile items on the top especially the eggs or a loaf of white bread. I would occasionally carry bags out to the car for some elderly lady and received 25 cents as a tip. I would then on my return, push any empty carts in the parking lot up the hill in a gleaming aluminum train back to the front of the store. Mr. Smith, looking less like Otto Preminger in Stalag 17 but more like Odin since he had a glass eye, was so impressed with my work that he said in the new store I would be assigned to the produce department. Over the next three years I sort of became Mr. Smith’s pet and I became the apple of his eye so to speak. The new store opened and I could now walk to and from work from my house through the Squire Village complex. I was very lucky to have Mr. Dominic D’Auito as the produce manager. He was an Italian sly gentleman, a little younger than my father with a wicked sense of humor. He was always making jokes about the Jewish women who would squeeze the tomatoes, haggle over the prices or complain about the quality or freshness of the produce. Not terribly politically correct, he would make me laugh when he crooked his finger up to his nose to signal the approach of one of the Jewish ladies. We would then run behind the two-way mirror behind the produce case and watch the unsuspecting customer and make very acerbic comments on what she wore as she sniffed a melon for ripeness! He taught me all about the different kinds of fruits and vegetables - how to unpack them, keep the fresh, inspect them and prolong their shelf life. He took great care on how to display the produce with attention to their colors alternating them so they looked like a Busby Berkley arrangement in Technicolor. He instructed me how to use the beautifully white enamel Hobart scale; sliding the calibration bar back in forth to get the correct accurate honest price. To this day I can estimate the weight of an item just by holding it in my hand which came in handy on dates! After weighing an item, I would mark down the prices with a green crayon on a brown paper bag making sure to put a line under the price so the checkout girls could legibly read the price and know it was 69 cents and not 96 cents. Stapling the bag shut and placing it in the cart for the customer, I would always offer a polite, “Thank You Ma’am.” In the middle of the Saturday afternoon Dominic marked down prices on any highly perishable items since we were closed on Sundays. I closed down the department by taking all the perishables like lettuce, scallions, berries, and parsley etc. out of the cases, gently putting them in boxes and storing them in the walk-in refrigerated locker. I would then take all of the chipped ice out of the tables and drain them dry. One final Windex cleaning of all of the case windows and I was done. Sometime Mr. Smith let me take home any stuff that had been marked down since it would not last till Monday. After work I would usually meet my mom at the new Squire Village Cinema and catch the 8:00 o’clock movie. Or sometimes I would go over to my friend Ralph’s place. He lived in the condos right behind the fence behind the loading dock that separated our store from the Village townhouses. Ralph was the only kid I knew whose parents were divorced. He lived with his Mom who worked nights at a local diner so he was often alone. We would watch TV or play scrabble or wrestle. Ralph was a tow headed tuff loner who would make me do things that supposedly he thought I did not want to do. I worked every weekend and all summer from 1964 to 1967 and got to know the guys in the Meat Department especially Joseph the butcher who would give me special cuts of meat to bring home to Mom. I would sometimes have lunch at the coffee shop next door with Mr. Smith who would always treat me to grilled cheese with pickle and fries that I always ordered. All the full time adult staff loved me but curiously I was not liked by the part time staff that was mostly my age. I often went over to Mr. D’Aiuto’s house and got to know his daughter, Maria who was a older than me and yet looked younger in an autistic kind of way; shy, demure, and protected by her father reminding me of Jane Wyman in Johnny Belinda or Susan Harrison, J.J Hunsecker's sister in The Sweet Smell of Success. He would drive me after work to his house for dinner where his wife made a big Italian dinner, my favorite being spaghetti with braciaole. They became my surrogate family and he was always trying to get me to take Maria out since he thought I was a fine upstanding Italian boy. I never got the hint to take her out or so he thought. So on New Year’s Eve 1966 Dominic and his wife took me and Maria down to Nanuet to see the road show presentation of The Sound of Music presented in 70 millimeter. I was so excited by this since we would get to see the show as it was presented in New York City with intermission on a big screen with multi-channel stereophonic sound. It was a bitterly cold night as we drove the 30 miles to Rockland County, me sitting as far away as possible form Maria on our faux date. When we arrived I opened the car door for her and grabbed her arm as we hurried from the parking lot to the lobby. Dominic treated us all to buttered popcorn. Graciously or guiltily, I bought Maria the souvenir book as a present as well as one for myself of course! The overture finished and my heart leapt as the curtains parted to reveal the Austrian alps and the sound of wind coming from the back speakers, the birds coming from the side speakers as the camera swopped down to catch Julie Andrews spinning around on the high tor filling the front speakers with voice singing “the hills are alive with the sound of music.” I whispered to my Maria, “They left out the intro to the song!” Somewhere during the film I murmured they left out the songs of the Baroness and Max! (she should have known then). During the middle of “I am Sixteen going on Seventeen,” Maria reached over and held my hand. I limply held it back staring straight ahead, being engrossed in the scene and angry that I was being distracted. Little did she know I was fantasizing that Rolfe and I were holding hands, dancing from bench to bench in the gazebo. The audience clapped when Leisl yelled “Whee” in the rain at the end of the song, giving me an excuse to take my hand away from Maria. It seemed like a long way back to New Windsor as I sat looking at the window pretending I was Maria on the bus staring out into the distance whispering “I have confidence in me.” I didn’t. We had a bottle of Cold Duck back at Dominic’s’ house to celebrate the New Year and I suspect to help grease the wheels at the supposed love match. Dominic and his wife went to bed and left us alone. We turned the TV on watched the final hour of Guy Lombardo playing at the Waldorf=Astoria - ‘Enjoy yourself; it’s later than you think.” It was late as the cloistered Maria drove me home. With my hand on the car door handle, I gave her a quick peck on the cheek as I dashed out and down my driveway. At 2am, my home was a silent cold, dark Neuschwanstein Castle with no handsome King Ludvig to meet me at the door but only a sleeping Hexe in the downstairs bedroom. I took my shoes off and slowly crept upstairs to my bedroom. My father was snoring away in his bed as I got into the other bed next to my brother Michael, pushing him up against the wall to make room. The frost on the window lit by the street lamp make interesting patterns on the ceiling as I drifted off to sleep dreaming of my little Nazi boy, Rolfe who somehow looked like my friend Ralph. I could sleep in late till 8am tomorrow; the A&P was closed for the holiday. I had January 2nd off too but Mr. Smith asked me if I could work from 10 to 7...
You wait, little girl, on an empty stage For fate to turn the light on Your life, little girl, is an empty page That men will want to write on You are sixteen going on seventeen Fellows will fall in line Eager young lads and rogues and cads Will offer you food and wine Totally unprepared am I To face a world of men Timid and shy and scared am I Of things beyond my ken I need someone older and wiser Telling me what to do You are seventeen going on eighteenI'll depend on you
Finaletto: As fate would have it, 30 years later in Austria, Gary and I would have a private moonlight dance in that very gazebo from The Sound of Music, invited by a business colleague of ours who had access to a private estate where it had been transferred. On that very same trip I did get to meet a Mad King Ludvig look-alike at a cocktail party who I shamlessy flirted with to no avail..
- March 24, 2009 - Lenten Meditations Meditaton #1 – First Fridays
All the students of Sacred Heart Parochial School in Newburgh had to attend the 7:00 am mass every “First Friday” of the month from October to June, Since our parish was named in honor the Sacred Heart of Jesus, it was logical that we followed the teachings of St. Margaret Mary who had a special devotion to the Sacred Heart. There is even a mosaic over the main altar of St. Margaret Mary in supplication to the radiant Sacred Heart. She prescribed that if you attended nine “First Fridays” masses in a row and made communion, you would receive special graces. This penta-devotion fit nicely into our school year. Of course the nuns never told us about St. Margaret and the grace part, we just had to obey and show up. So every “First Friday” my father had to be late for work and drive me into mass since the school bus wouldn’t get me there on time – You would get a look that would chill Medusa if you were late and not in your pew with the rest of your class. During the mass, the principal of our school held a clicker in her hand and would signal our genuflections. We knelt, sat and stood up all in unison like a little Swiss Army of Christ. Thank God, the 7am mass only lasted a half hour since there wasn’t any sermon. This is lucky since sometimes Father Lombardi would be the priest and to say that his English was fractured would be kind. At the end of the service with the appropriate triple click –click – click, we marched across busy Route 9W to school and went downstairs to Gallo Hall for breakfast. The basement was set with long tables and was filled with a heavenly yeasty aroma. Hot cinnamon buns had been delivered in large flat boxes, freshly baked and donated by Luna Bakery, an Italian Pasty Shop down the block. Little half pint cartons of milk cost 5 cents. Grace was free.
Meditation #2 – "Revival" House
Every once in awhile Father Leo would set up his 16mm camera in our school basement, Gallo Hall and show us some religious, inspirational movie. My job was to set up the screen that would precariously rock on its unsteady tripod stand. He would never show the obvious titles like Going My Way or The Bells of St. Mary’s. We never did get to see Jennifer Jones’s Oscar winner performance in The Song of Bernadette. Father Leo thought he had better taste then to show us Hollywood thrash. So we had to sit on hard metal folding chairs and endure watching a badly dubbed dour French version called Bernadette Sobirous., very unglamorous but seriously didactic. After the showing of that movie, the nuns sold us little bottles of authentic “Lourdes Water.” This was years before the bottled spring water craze. At home, I doused the holy water all over my father, hoping it would cure his Parkinson’s disease. He wasn’t and I got a slap from my mother for being sacrilegious. Wasn’t that what the water was for! I guess it was for display only. One movie we watched every year was The Miracle of Marcellino. I think it was shown at every Italian American parish in the 1950’ and 60’s. The original title was Marcelino Pan Y Vino and it was a heartwarming tale of a little orphan boy who causes a miracle. Left on the doorstep of a monastery as an infant, Marcelino was raised by the Monks. He was well cared for but lonely and missed having a mother. One day he found a “special friend” in the forbidden attic hanging on a cross! - A friend that would repay Marcelino's kindness by granting him one heart-felt wish. Believe me it was heartwarming for me when the near naked Jesus reached down and grabbed little Marcellino in his arms. This started my interest in naked-Jesus-on-the-cross erotica and looking for “special friends” in dark attics.
Meditation #3 – Miracle of the Sun or “Lucia in the Sky with Diamonds”
Our Lady of Fatima is the title of the Blessed Virgin Mary when she appeared to three shepherd children at Fátima, Portugal on the 13th day of six consecutive months in 1917. On the final day of the apparitions a crowd believed to be approximately 70,000 in number, including newspaper reporters and photographers, gathered in response to reports of the children's prior claims that on that day a miracle would occur "so that all may believe". It rained heavily that day, yet countless observers reported that the clouds broke, revealing the sun as an opaque disk spinning in the sky and radiating various colors of light upon the surroundings, then appearing to detach itself from the sky and plunge itself towards the earth in a zigzag pattern, finally returning to its normal place, and leaving the people's once wet clothing now completely dry. The event is known as the "Miracle of the Sun." The 1952 movie “The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima” with Gilbert Roland depicts this scene very well in vivid Warnercolor. Hollywood filmed it in the height of 1950’s cold war hysteria as propaganda against the godless atheism of Russia. It reminds me all those science fiction films from that time meant to put the end-of-days fear of god into you. I am sure Spielberg quoted it when he was filming the finale of Close Encounters. However what really frightened the bejesus out of me was “Three Secrets of Fatima.” The “Three Secrets of Fatima” are the prophecies that were given by an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary aka “The Lady o Fatima” to three young Portuguese shepherds, Lucia Santos and her cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marto. Two of the secrets were revealed in 1941 in a document written by Lucia to assist with the canonization of her cousins, while the third was to remain secret, although the bishop of Leiria commanded Lucia to put it in writing and to present it to the Pope. Lucia urged that it should not be revealed till 1960 because she thought that by "then it will be made clearer”. The First Secret was a vision of Hell and the Second Secret is a statement that World War I would end and supposedly predicts the coming of World War II should God continue to be offended and if Russia does not convert. The second half requests that Russia be consecrated to the Immaculate Heart. The Third Secret was the big mystery. Our parish nuns predicted that the secret was filled with horrifying apocalyptic descriptions and foretold worldwide nuclear annihilation and the return of the anti-Christ. When 1960 came and went and the Vatican decided not to reveal the Third Secret we lived in daily holy terror of fear of annihilation. Good reason to practice “duck and cover” and stock up our bomb shelter provisions and Lourdes Water (I knew there was a use for it!). Eventually we forgot about the prophecy with the election of tour beloved Catholic president, JFK. The Vatican withheld the secret until June 26, 2000 and it was a mish-mash of mumbo jumbo with no great mystery revealed or future foretold – watered down mystical poetry that someone in Haight-Ashbury could have written during a ‘trip’.
There are still some groups who dispute that the full text of the third secret has not been officially published. They claim that the Vatican is covering up and the Third Secret’s predictions are unfolding as we speak: the attempted assassination of the Pope in 1983, the outbreak of Aids, I-Pods., the fall of the evil empire of Russia, the Tylenol Scare, the plagues in Africa, Yoko Ono, the melting polar caps, Mel Gibson, stem cell research, Swanson TV dinners, Stonewall, global warming, American Idol, 9/11 and Santa Lucia knows what…
“Like a Prayer…”
- February 26, 2009 - "The Castro Convertible Girl" 1958- 1978
In one corner of my Nonna’s dark tenement parlor in the Bronx sat a rose pink convertible loveseat. The diminutive but massive piece of furniture was upholstered in a flamingo, shiny hard fabric with interwoven silver threads. It was boxy in shape with two large armrests. I could set my plate of pastina with melted butter on one side and my glass of milk with Bosco on the other. It was manufactured by the popular New York City based, Castro Convertible Company and featured a “feather lift” mechanism. In the 1950’s, you couldn’t escape their commercials on the local channels that catered to the NYC’s lower middle class, all of whom had limited living space after the war. It was the perfect answer to a family living in cramped quarters.Bernard Castro, the founder, filmed his 6 year old daughter Bernadette with his 16mm camera. She daintily demonstrated how easy it was to open –“so easy a child could do it”. An Italian looking young girl dressed in a white nightgown would lift, snap and drop. “You just take it and pop it straight up.” As if my magic, the “Castro Convertible Girl” with her little pinky, would gently slide it up, out and over. When it was time for bed, I became the ten year old “Castro Convertible Boy” and would emulate little Bernadette, gracefully flipping open the bed. Sometimes I would close and open it several times as I sang the jingle: Who was the first to conquer space? It's incontrovertible! That the first to conquer living space Is Castro Convertible!
During the day and before bedtime, Nonna would preside from her mauve throne munching tiny brown salted nuts as she watched a wrestling match on the Dumont or listened to Carlo Buti on The Italian Hour on the Philco. Sometimes I would sit next to Nonna, fitting so snuggly close that I could smell her black dress redolent of camphor balls as she crocheted lace doilies and antimacassars. But at night, the pink Castro convertible was mine. I loved my couch set with its harshly wrinkled white cotton sheets that I somehow never wet even though I did that often in my own bed at home. My little twin bed sat directly in front of the TV so I often fell asleep watching over and over again, "La Strada" and 'The Tales of Hoffman" on The Million Dollar Movie as the “Star Spangled Banner” played and the sign off signals appeared. The gray dull glow encircled my dreams until finally Nonna would stomp in from her bedroom and snap it off in a huff saying “Who do you think I am? Con –the- Edison!” In the 1960’s, I often spent weekends alone with my Dad and Nonna. My father would first drop off my mother with my brother and sister in Brooklyn to spend the weekend at my other grandmother’s house. I would wander the Arthur Avenue neighborhood by myself stopping in at the church for some holy water, visiting chickens at the live poultry market and tasting samples at the numerous grocery stores. I would go shopping with my Aunt Mary at the stalls at the Retail Market and witness her interrogations and negotiations with the butchers, produce vendors and dry good merchants. I sometimes tagged along with my Cousin Viola (who looked a lot like Bernadette Castro), when she went to her CYO meetings in the Mt. Carmel Catholic School basement. I explored the nearby Bronx Zoo countless times, especially the Monkey House, where my mother joked that I was born. I used a special “Elephant” shaped key that you stuck into a box in front of a cage to get the story on the animals pacing back and forth inside. I knew the place inside and out. I even ventured on my own to Freedomland, an amusement park, making multiple bus and train connections to get there way off in Pelham Bay. At Freedomland, I would mail letters to myself via the Pony Express Office from Little Old New York to San Francisco while watching the drama of firemen putting out the great fire of Chicago. Exhausted from my journeys, I would flop into my little bed and watch Perry Mason and Sea Hunt with my Aunt Mary who would often stop down from her place directly over Nonna's. One big weekend my uncle Carmelo, my father’s older brother whom he had not seen in 30 years, moved to America with his entire family from Sicily. They were staying with Nonna before moving on to Chicago. My cousin Vito was my age and spoke no English but somehow we communicated as I showed him around. We sort of looked alike and all of the neighbors thought we were brothers. We shared many Saturday nights in my bed giggling as we watched Sonny Fox and I couldn't help notice his pee-pee was different than mine. Let's just say it was European. In the 1970’s, Nonna decided to finally to move in with my Aunt Mary who had moved away to Queens several years earlier. “Titzie” and Viola had purchased a brick mother/daughter house in Woodside. Nonna was always welcome to live with them but she refused to move from her beloved neighborhood. Besides she was a very proud and fiercely independent Italian matriarch, widowed now for 50 years. However, the area was changing and she was no spring chicken anymore. So, when I told grandma I was moving into my first apartment (after just recently getting my MFA) she offered me to take whatever I wanted from her place. She was moving to Queens. It was the excuse of helping me which would save face, the precious “bella figura”. Nonna had always been so good to me, me being the first grandson and little prince. When I was in graduate school, she had even bought me my first car, a brown Toyota Corolla for $2,450. So with my friends, I packed up the entire contents of her home including a beautiful art deco wall mirror and bedroom set, the Dumont TV, the Philco Radio Console, five and dime store dishes, sheets, towels, pots and pans, an old toothbrush and an old pair of flesh colored pantaloon panties. Huffing and puffing, it took four of us to move the Castro Convertible sofa to the van, It had a bad center of gravity making it difficult to maneuver. Like Tony in “Saturday Night Fever”, I crossed the Brooklyn Bridge "in reverse" to Park Slope. It was a hot July afternoon and we sweated lugging the sofa up to my new 4th floor walk up on Garfield Place. We had to force it around several tight corners, stopping on each landing. It almost broke the banister we wedged it in so tight.
This is the only picture I have of the sofa. It is a morning after shot taken in my Park Slope apartment alcove but it has many clues. If you look closely you can see Carnevale decorations hanging from the ceiling. I still have part of my "Close Encounters of Third Kind" alien costume on with makeup. You can see a votive light on the radiator on the right that I had lit for the previous evenings afterglow romantic encounter of the first kind. Note the empty wine cups on the Phico TV and the green knit cap. It belongs to a leprechaun sleeping exhausted in my bed across the way.
I set it with pride of place in the triple exposure bay window alcove overlooking Seventh Avenue. You could see the Statue of Liberty from it, far out in the bay. I often read the Sunday Times there, resting a mug of coffee on one arm and the crossword on the other. It was also a perfect place to seduce an unsuspecting date. I would suggest sitting there for the view, get us wine and then sit down right next to him so close. Eventually an arm went around his shoulders and soon thereafter I was demonstrating the sofa’s “feather lift” mechanism. The couch saw many parties, hosted numerous trysts and slept overnight guests of my roommates, Loretta and Fran. If that couch could talk! I swore one night it opened up by itself because in the morning it was magically agape. We all swore no one of us had touched the bed but there it was, open as silent witness to god knows what drunken revelry. The morning after one wild Carnevale party we discovered a guest had thrown up all over it. There he was asleep, not on the sofa, but propped up behind its backside. Since he was from India, we called him the “Bombay Bomber.” Right before the 80’s began, I moved to the Upper West Side of Manhattan into an L shaped studio of my very own on West 83rd Street. Fran had already moved out and Loretta had gotten married so the place in the Slope was just too big for me. Once again my friends helped me move. Down the stairs went Nonna’s huge art deco mirror, Dumont TV and Philco phonograph console. The double bed with Nonna’s yellow chenille bedspread went too. It didn’t dawn on me till a few years later that it was the very bed I was conceived on back in 1947. If my parents only knew what had happened on it since! When it came time to move the Castro sofa out, we got it down to the third landing and once again, it got stuck around that tight bend. This time however try as we may, we couldn’t get it around the corner. So with much sadness we hauled it back up and put it back in the alcove. I was going to leave it behind for the next tenant. Before we pulled away, I ran upstairs, and like Madame Ranevskaya in Chekov’s The Cherry Orchard, I took one last walk around. It was broom clean and ready for the newcomers. But there in the sunlit bay window sat my now faded pink Castro Convertible Sofa. I sadly approached it and with a flick of my wrist, I lifted it up and popped it open. I lay down on it and looked up at the water rust stained ceiling. Like spotting the likeness of the Virgin Mary in a tree bark with my eyes half closed from squinting from the sun streaming in from west, I imagined seeing in those stains the faces of Nonna, Viola, Vito, Aunt Mary, Fran, Loretta, monkeys, myriad lovers and the “Bombay Bomber.” I jumped up startled when I heard my best friend, Michael yelling my name up from the street. I must have gone out like a light for a minute or two. I sighed, looking down at the pink convertible and like the angelic Bernadette, the “Castro Boy” closed the sofa for the last time with one last effortless, graceful motion. Who conquers space with fine design? Who saves you money all the time? Who's tops in the convertible line? Castro Convertible!
Carnevale 1978 Me as the Alien, Loretta as the White Rock Girl and Bill Donavan the 6 foot Leprechaun
- January 26, 2009 - "Hey Culligan Man" 1962
My mother tried all different brands of detergents but she couldn’t get a good head of suds in the laundry. When we lived in Brooklyn, Tide was the soap of choice. Once in a while she used Duz if it came with a dish towel in it. But up in Newburgh, the washing machine agitator swirled back and forth in dark gray waters with nary a bubble. My mother was distraught, all the whites were coming out gray and the colors were less than bright. She tried Lux, Borax, Surf and Oxidol to no avail. What was a mother to do? Our water supply came from a well and a pump in our basement. We were used to the pristine purity of NYC water that travelled all the way from the Catskills in underground aqueducts and out of our faucets - not this infernal metallic country water pumped up from hell. My Dad finally figured out that we had hard water. You can’t get a bubble out of hard water. You couldn’t even get lather up from a good bar of soap when you showered. Then one day I heard a commercial on the local radio station - “Hey Culligan Man!” The Culligan Water filter system would make everything all right. The water would be soft and sweet and my Moms’ wash the envy of any Chinese laundry or French Cleaners. Mom had me call up and make an appointment for the water softener to be installed. It involved a complicated hookup in the basement before the water reached the hot water tank. I scheduled a visit for a cold Lincoln’s Birthday on February 12th when the holiday was celebrated on the actual birth date and not watered down into President’s Day sharing it with Washington. My parents still had to work since the factory had an order to get out but I was off from school. About 11 o’clock in the morning, a small van pulled up into our driveway and out came a man in a spiffy gray uniform, The Culligan Man! I opened up our front doror and waved him to go back around the house to basement. He trundled along with a propane like tank on his hand truck. I met him at the back door. Our basement was dark, humid and unfinished in gray cinder blocks with a dusty concrete floor and dimly lit by a 60 watt naked light bulb bobbing unadorned from the ceiling. Two laundry lines stretched from one end to the other with wet clothes hanging to dry like veils in a harem. I let him in. As the tank bounced over the ridge in the doorway, he caught me staring at him as he struggled to get it up and over. “Hi I’m Jim, you’re Culligan Man.” He was an attractive guy probably 40 or so, husky with his gray trousers bunching up nicely. He took off his Eisenhower cut jacket to reveal a barrel chest under his white shirt with bow tie. He kept his cap on with a sporty tilt. I brought over a chair from our summer kitchen table set and sat close by to watch him install the tank. Michael and Karen were out playing in the snow so we were alone. He worked steadily explaining to me step by step all the advantages of the soft water system. He turned off all the water. He cut a section of the pipe, expanding the joint, screwed on a casing and looked back to see me watching. Over the next 20 minutes our eyes often met as he worked and explained to me: “At Culligan, we understand how important water is to you, your family, and your home. Which is why when you trust Culligan with your water needs, we promise to deliver one thing: better water, pure and simple” Slowly, meticulously he assembled the unit; lifting and straining to get the pipe to fit into the tank and make a perfect seal. Suddenly turning around to reach up to an overhead connection, he lost his balance a bit as I grabbed him by the waist to hold him in place. We stood there for a moment till I quickly grabbed a towel off the line popping off the clothes pins in my haste to cover my embarrassment. With a little few little grunts he wiped his brow with a clean rag and cleaned up any mess he had made. “OK it’s ready to go! Why don’t you help me turn it on?” He stood back to admire his work and gestured to proceed. I put my hand on the bright new shiny copper valve he has just installed. It was tight and wouldn’t budge. He put his hand over mine and we both turned it slowly till it moved. WHOOSH – and a CLANG CLANG . We could hear the water whisking through the pipes into the tank and back out and up and around and up into the house above.. He smiled at a job well done as he gathered up his tools. Putting on his jacket, he asked me to come over to sign off on the job. He held a metal like box and I pressed hard as I signed my name through the carbons. He pulled a lever and out came three copies, white, yellow and pink. I got the yellow slip. His signature, James Mac Donald floated above mine. With a tip of his cap, wink and a smile, he grabbed his hand truck and off he went. I locked the basement door and I ran upstairs. I stood by the living room window, slyly watching through the curtains as he got into his van and drove away.
From my pocket I pulled out the now soiled rag I had surreptitiously took while Mr. MacDonald wasn’t looking and held it to my nose to smell his sweat. With a sigh, I went over to my stereo and put on “Naughty Marietta” from my Readers Digest Collection of Great Operettas. I got undressed and took a shower to test the system. I sang along “Napoli, Napoli, Na-a-apoli” to the Italian Street Song as I stepped into the tub. I brought the rag in with me and used it as my washcloth. When “Ah Sweet Mystery of Life” came on, miraculously a rich lather sprang from my bar of Dial soap and I slavered it all over my body in rich luxuriousness. A hot steady spray cascaded from the spigot as the Prell worked up in my hair into a white icing. My body was sleek like an otter as I soaped myself up using his rag. “All the longing, seeking, striving, waiting, yearning The burning hopes, the joy and idle tears that fall AHHH…” The bathroom window fogged up as the room clouded with steam. Anna Moffo and Peter Palmer sang out and reached a melodious peak – “For it is love alone that rules forevermore!” I almost slipped when I got lost in the moment. I bent over to pick up the dropped bar of soap and the rag that I had dropped now brighlty white, clean from the suds swirling around my feet. Yes, the water was now so soft but I was now so hard. “Hey Culliagan Man!”
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