"1961 Road Trip" ~ Published in Our Town

"Our Town" newspaper published my 1961 road trip story, "Central Park in a Rumble Seat."

http://ourtownny.com/2010/12/29/central-park-in-a-rumble-seat/

The two pictures here: my Ryan grandfather and my brother, Rory. My Ryan grandparents & the 1961 Falcon.

See Loftus Tavern (now Bailey's Corner) in bottom photo, and Peggy's Bakery on the other side of York Avenue in top picture. See two cleaners sandwiching Peggy's. I always find that stuff nuts.

If you like the story, please consider leaving a comment at "Our Town."

Thank you, Happy New Year, Tommy

The Ghost in You

Inside you the time moves, and she don't fade.

Last night, I'm walking home from the radio show along Lexington Avenue with three of my guests, Eric, Alex and Marie. We're talking, we're laughing, enjoying the glow from the show. As we hit 96th Street a crosstown bus flies by going west and Marie takes off with her arm waving like it's a religious revival and Eric and Alex are close behind. I'm left on the corner alone, I smile to myself and keep walking.

The radio show was in the past, but my mind didn't know that. My four spontaneous guests, Marcia St. Clair, Marie Sicari, Alex DeSuze & Eric Vetter kept the spirit of "let's see what happens next?" going strong with exceptional support from Betty Eng when my laptop and music took an unexpected swim and sunk deep below the sea down to Davey Jones Locker and we improvised.

I didn't get a chance to play "The Ghost in You," by the Psych Furs last night before the accident, but I hummed it all the way home.

The ghost in you, she don't fade

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMmA8PsTvPA

Thank you, folks, for a great next to last radio show.

Mia Berman, thank you for my amazing red striped socks from Oz that turned my dungarees into knickers. Smooch!

Please come down next Tuesday for the final Yorkville show, it will be a house party. My scheduled guests are John Lewis and Mary Crowley & Matt Knapp. I assure you others will join us to say goodbye.

hugs, Tommy

Yorkville Radio Signing Off ~ Next to Last Show @ Tonight @ 9pm

Tonight, is my next to last Yorkville radio show.

Next week will be my 26th show. I signed on to do 20 shows, had too much fun, so I extended six more into the coming New Year (January 4th is my last show with guests John Lewis, author of " Radio Master, The Life and Times of Sports Broadcasting Great: Ted Husing," & Mary Crowley and Matt Knapp, musicians & songwriters.

Thank you, everyone, who listened in. Tonight's show will be interesting. I have no scheduled guests and the odds of anyone getting to Giovanna's Restaurant with the weather conditions are dim. I'm playing lots of music and getting silly.

Received good writing news today, mood is tip-top.

Listen in @ 9pm on the Centanni link:

http://centannibroadcasting.com/

Whole Lotta Snow pix:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=249934&id=541978729

Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrVDViSlsSM

Christmas Morning ~ 7 am

Christmas morning, 7am: St. Elizabeth of Hungary church on 83rd Street; Boot wipe on 82nd street stoop; Second Avenue buildings.

Rose Bowl January 25, 1987.

Put Me In Coach

I'm going in. Need to get the bad taste of last week out of my mouth and get my team in the playoffs.

I'm wearing my pajamas under my uniform so I'm ready for anything. Frank Gifford told me to take out my old Our Lady of Good Council #16 jersey (we practiced in Central Park's 97th Street dust bowl in 1969) and told Coach Coughlin to put me as flanker in the second quarter after Jacobs and Bradshaw soften up the Packers defense with pounding runs.

My personal trainer, my grandfather, will be on the sidelines making weird faces and smoking his cigar and coughing a lot. At flanker, I'll be a triple threat on the reverse thanks to my wicked left arm and my strong right leg from kicking and throwing pillows around the living room when the Giants do poorly (Dad taught me).

I feel bad for my friends, John Oudens & Michael Goldberg, Green Bay Packers fans, but it's time to recover our senses and play four quarters of football. The Cheese Heads are going down. I plan to pick up extra yards by screaming "Geronimo!" after I catch the ball and straight arm would be tacklers. Gifford will be proud I'm wearing his number.

Despite Deborah's announcement in a Checker cab as we sat on the pull-up seats in front of our fathers, years ago, that there was no Santa Claus, this is what I'm wishing for tonight when I go to sleep, who needs sugar plum fairies.

peace in the valley, nygiants by a touchdown, tommy

Marx Brothers ~ Horse Feathers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9A_X1DYvl9k&feature=related

Old NFL Theme music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p30QHbD8018&feature=related

Sometimes In Winter

Last night's radio show with Kathy Jolowicz, the Yorkville historian was terrific. Thank you, Kathy for reeling in the years.

If you like, listen to the show at the link below:

http://www.centannibroadcasting.com/id56.html

During the show, I mentioned my worst Christmas gift ever.

When I was ten, after fattening me up for a few years (my brother and I called her refrigerator “Treasure Island”), my grandmother gave me a package on Christmas morning that looked like it was wrapped by monkeys. Fully expecting a toy I tore it open and found a shiny pair of HUSKIES dungarees, the three fold style with starch, stiff like a steamroller gave them a once over. The tag saying HUSKIES was so big you could read it from across the room.

I looked at my grandmother funny, and she asked,” Do you think they’ll fit?”

Here's a Blood, Sweat & Tears song I played last night celebrating the Winter Solstice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3nu-qmxM0w

Yorkville History on the Radio with Kathy Jolowicz ~ Tonight @ 9pm

Kathy Jolowicz, the Yorkville historian, is my guest tonight on the Stoops to Nuts radio show. Kathy's built a large exhibit about life in her village, "Old Yorkville/Kleindeutschland," and the impact of the Slocum Disaster (1904) on Yorkville's larger development into a German~American mecca. The exhibit was entered into the Congressional Record in Washington. Kathy is writing a book on Yorkville and the era that incorporates personal memories of herself and her family, spanning the 1930s through the 1960s.

She continues to give exhibit lectures to tell about “Germantown’s” Sauerkraut Boulevard and German Broadway. Kathy's work has been featured in many documentaries in Europe, Japan and the U.S.A. A website for her Yorkville/Kleindeutschland Historical Society has been created to inform the public of the era.

http://www.yorkville-kleindeutschlandhistoricalsociety.com/

Listen in tonight @ 9pm @ the Centanni link below and hear Kathy reminisce about Old Yorkville, a phenomenon never to be experienced again.

http://centannibroadcasting.com/

If you liked Archie comics, you will enjoy this New York Times article on the gang from Riverdale:

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/21/death-comes-to-riverdale/?ref=arts

Taking My Medicine

I remember how good I felt when they were up 31-10 with eight minutes to go, then Manningham fumbled on the sideline and the pile-up began. I'm lying, if I say I'm not in pain today. It feels horrible. This team who doesn't know I'm alive, I give them unyielding support, suspend my disbelief for no other professional sports team, imagine they care that I care, vicariously enjoy them, letting my world go up and down with theirs.

As a boy, three teams ruled my universe: New York Giants, New York Yankees and the New York Rangers. Steinbrenner took the joy out of the Yankees, and the Rangers lost my respect when they traded Jean Ratelle for Phil "Let's Stand in Front of the Net" Espositio.

After Sparky Lyle departed the Yankees, my heart only belonged to the low flying Giants. I'm a life long parishioner in the Church of Mara. Today, the chapel is dark.

*************************

Heard sad news this afternoon, Clay Cole died. His Saturday night rock and rock show on Channel 11 was the TV highlight of the week in the 1960s. Clay was a sweet generous talented man and hopefully he will enter the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in the near future.

I wrote about Clay last year on the blog, I will miss him:

JUNE 8, 2009

The Clay Cole Show

Mom's got that crazy hair dryer going that comes out of a little hard plastic suitcase. It's larger than a portable typewriter, but smaller than a day tripper. Regardless, it looks like a heart lung machine to me.

Dad's loiters with a scotch as Mom gets ready.

I want them gone. Cindy, my babysitter, is the prettiest girl in St. Stephen's eighth grade and for a whole night she's mine and Rory's.

As Mom & Dad walk out the door the Clay Cole Show comes on Channel 11. He's cool, he's handsome as James Bond, and everybody in music comes and sings on his show. I'm 8 yrs old. All those girl groups!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSwe17Z1njo&feature=related

I want him,
I need him.
And someday, someway...whoooa...I'll meet him.
He'll be kind of shy.
And real good looking too.
And I'll be certain, he's my guy,
By the things he'll like to do.
Like walking in the rain,
And wishing on the stars up above,
And being so in love.

Eli, Handoffs ~ Lots of Handoffs

Dear Eli, please hand the ball off 60 times today. Throw as a last resort. Do not, I repeat, do not play catch with the Eagle cornerbacks.

It's a playoff game, no doubt. Been up since 6 am. First thought, seven hours to kickoff.

That's Rory and me in the Yankee Stadium bleachers in 1967 watching a New York Giant game. Rory & I were in the Go-Go Giants Fan Club, I wore my card out carrying it everywhere in my pocket year round. I still have Rory's, see.

I miss football at the old Yankee Stadium, that was heaven for me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYVj-7Wfdeo&feature=related

.

.