Sunday Memories: Before...

1962 on Delancy and Willet by the Williamsburg Bridge



... the stroller was stolen...

... we stood there in clothes for spring's cool weather but it had to be near summer the Good Humor man had just walked by ringing his row of bells I know we didn't get any ice cream we never did it just wasn't allowed I remember that day and now I wonder what Florence wanted from that picture she was one of the older mothers in the neighborhood it just wasn't done then to have two babies after 30.

Then the stroller was stolen...

... stolen from outside the Hamilton Fish Library on Houston and Columbia Florence repeatedly fumed for decades that the day's mail had been in the stroller and thus had been stolen with the stroller and now I wonder if maybe there had been a letter in that mail she had hoped to read alone later when her life she'd didn't want wasn't bugging her for food or love or care.

And after the stroller was stolen...

... Florence said she looked down at me, three years old already knowing something was wrong still willing to cry about it Florence looked down and said, "Walk."

So I did.

No new stroller was bought or considered or borrowed and I learned to not know something was wrong be cheerful instead and the many miles my family walked throughout the city I walked along side them.

It's been decades and I still walk that stretch of Delancy I walk it intimately as if it were a lover by my side it is a rare patch of home where not much has changed except for a couple of things.

The Good Humor man has been replaced by freezer cases in bodegas and now I can admit something is wrong.

Trudy and Dana

Trudy and Dana, both 88 years old. Best friends. Trudy priority mails Dana string beans from her garden.


"We started a conversation when we were eleven and we haven't stopped yet."

The Walk to Hope

Staten Island Ferry

The thing is that by the time you get to the end and you think you're about to fall in and drown, your ship comes in.

Sunday Memories: When The Three of Us Went A' Traveling

Me and Louise on 44th and First sometime in the 1960's

My sister's violin teacher lived in Oz which required travel.

The doorman the stones the streets the trees the silence the restraint the language of air we didn't breathe or speak or understand Florence's unspoken admonishment to be on my best behavior

This was uptown.

It Feels Like This Sometimes

Back To Work

The old buildings are being scraped clean of poisenous particles and in the new building, the weather's unknown unless you are outside. Still in temporary walls and airport gray carpet, the idea of peace is attempted in between dreams of windows.

GUEST ARTIST: It Was Her New York - Part XII

A woman truly from Her New York, Joni has been the Guest Artist for the last couple of weeks. This is the last of her series unless of course she has been holding out on me.

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Tribeca in 2000. When we didn't think it could get any worse.



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GUEST ARTIST: It Was Her New York - Part XI

A woman truly from Her New York, Joni will be the Guest Artist for the next several weeks.

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Dress Suits To Hire



This was the Second Avenue equivalent to a haunted house with so many rumors and myths (there had been a murder there she never left the place again she killed her lover no a man did because they loved each other no she killed her girlfriend) that a show was made and played on and off for years. One year on a sunny day I saw a woman outside selling rusted costume jewelry. I bought a bunch (unwearable unless you like the rusting look) just to talk to her. She smiled a lot and talked even more. Didn't seem like the murdering type.


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GUEST ARTIST: It Was Her New York - Part X

A woman truly from Her New York, Joni will be the Guest Artist for the next several weeks.

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Question: How do you know this is Central Park in the 80's?



Answer: Nobody's there.

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GUEST ARTIST: Sunday Memories: It Was Her New York - Part IX

A woman truly from Her New York, Joni will be the Guest Artist for the next several weeks.

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Tina, The Elephant, Central Park Zoo (early 1980s)



Joni said Tina was so unpleasant that when they were renovating the Central Park Zoo into a livable place for animals no other zoo would take her.

She lived in a small enclosure which had an outside back yard you had to climb up a steep hill of stairs to see down into. From a distance, it was looked like home and she looked like she lived happily in it.

Now, knowing more about the hearts and souls of animals, especially pachyderms, I realized she must have been devastated to be so far from where she belonged.

My sister and me at the Central Park Zoo (early 1960s)

Perhaps, from a distance, our lives looked good to someone else as well.

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These photos may not be used without permission from myprivateconey.com

GUEST ARTIST: It Was Her New York - Part VIII

A woman truly from Her New York, Joni will be the Guest Artist for the next several weeks.

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These photos may not be used without permission from myprivateconey.com

GUEST ARTIST: It Was Her New York - Part VII

A woman truly from Her New York, Joni will be the Guest Artist for the next several weeks.

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"I have often walked down this street before;
But the pavement always stayed beneath my feet before.
All at once am I Several stories high.
Knowing I'm on the street where you live."

My Fair Lady

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GUEST ARTIST: Sunday Memories: It Was Her New York - Part VI

A woman truly from Her New York, Joni will be the Guest Artist for the next several weeks.

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Ideal Hosiery was normal until one day the street was filled with multi-million dollar condominimum and Ideal Hosiery was like proof man we're living in a real New York neighborhood dude!

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