Special Encore For A Special Pride Day

Posted while Florence was declining, I was in touch with the woman she had been in love with, involved with and in war with since they were teenagers. Today, with gay marriage now legal in New York State and honored by the highest court of our country, I wonder what their life would have been like if only the world had loved their love as they had.

**

THE LIONESSES RULE THE PRIDE

1982
All the other gay seniors rode. In the convertible, on the bus, in wheelchairs.

But not Florence.

She walked.

She was in her 60s. She had waited her entire life to walk down a street as who she really was. And she wasn't going to give up that walk for anybody or anything.

Sunday Memories: Behind The Veil

There's paint-coated glass all over the place, sometimes so thick that most of the 1900's versions of air conditioners no longer shut...

... or even open.

Some glass doors are shellacked with personal statements of colors that were quite popular for about two years during different decades...

Once upon a time this home had been filled with only one family living in the light and air, flowing and swirling from windows though clear, open transoms, around walls, past translucent doors of rooms.  Maybe the bedroom Bernard Hermann grew up in, or the practice studio Sidor Belarsk stepped into to begin the daily work of scales.  

When hard times hit the neighborhood so many apartments in the building and in the neighborhood became S.R.O.s. 

And the winding hallway beneath those open transoms and along those glass doors became a tunnel past the warren of small rooms, filled with strangers behind opaque glass walls made of cheap paint.

 **
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Oscars, Opera and Orson Welles At Onxy Court

Friday's Child Is Loving and Giving and Celebrates Pride!!!

There's a reason Friday's Child is now a part 

of Her New York, if only to say thank you.

And this week Friday's Child celebrates PRIDE AND LOVE AND PRIDE AND LOVE AND PRIDE AND LOVE AND PRIDE AND LOVE AND....

SO if you got tons of PRIDE and lotsa LOVE

FOSTER AND ADOPT 

THESE AMAZING FOUR LEGGED HEARTS!

Little Hadley

Little Hadley, a Lab/Aussie Shepherd mix, is wiped after a morning of playtime with her puppy pals. This fluffy girl is the life of the party! She frolics around sweetly chasing her furry friends and then wants to collapse in your lap (or her empty water bowl, as the case may be) for a nap. Hadley is currently in a foster home nearby, but she's ready for a forever family.

If you're interested in adopting Hadley, please email Dimitra.socialtees@gmail.com for an application!

Frasier

KITTEN... OR COW? THIS GUY LOOKS LIKE A HOLSTEIN!!!
 
Look at those markings! Frasier has a scarecrow nose and a little goatee — adorable! He loves lounging in the window and playing with his toys. This baby was found in a backyard a few months ago with his mom and three siblings — all are safe and sound in a foster home nearby! And all are ready to be adopted. Frasier is super friendly, outgoing, and playful! 

For more info or an adoption application, please email samantha.socialtees@gmail.com

PUPPIES!!!

All under 15 pounds and looking for adoption/fostering homes!  Want ADORABLE in your life?

Contact dimitra.socialtees@gmail.com!!!

WHAT'S FOSTERING, YOU WONDER?!

Fostering lasts a few weeks, and Social Tees can provide supplies if you need them.  Fostering is SUPER important because it's much healthier for our animals to be in homes than in cages, and it expands our shelter virtually.

AND for every cat and dog that is placed in a foster home, Social Tees can pull another out of the kill shelter. So if you are an animal-lover with commitment issues, FOSTER!!!

For more info on fostering, email samantha.socialtees@gmail.com or check out our FAQs here:

HOW DO I ADOPT!

Do you want to meet these guys and all the other great pups and kitties at Social Tees, but you're stuck at your desk during the week? Then come to the weekend events at Petco / Union Square!!

OR

If you have questions, answers, money? time? dry cat food?

Everything helps!

CONTACT SAMANTHA:
samantha.socialtees@gmail.com

Social Tees
325 East 5th Street, NY, NY 10003;
5-7pm Monday to Friday
12-4pm  Saturday and Sunday at Petco at Union Square
212-614-9653;
socialteesnyc.org

First In The Eyes Of God, Then In The Eyes Of New York And Now By The Law Of The Land!!!

The news flashed across phone screens and computers at 10:03am the ruling had been made and only seconds later everywhere we could celebrate, we did, in emails and posts, over cubicle walls and by office doors...

...and at some point,  in the women's bathroom stall, quietly weeping in joy for all those who now could, and in sorrow for all those who never got the chance.

But until new bridesmaids dresses are chosen and china patterns picked, an encore celebration for those who did!!!

 

 ***

Originally posted Sunday, August 14, 2011

Doug and Shawn got married.



Friends asked if they could play music for the party.



We all couldn't stop hugging them...



and hugging them...



...and hugging them...



It was a celebration of what America was and could be.

For where else, Rev. Sparks asked us, could a Baptist preacher marry two Jewish men in a bar on the Lower East Side of New York.

And after they cut the cake....



...all that remained at the end of the night was love, honored by friends and family and now, finally, protected by the laws of the land. THEN in New York State.


AND NOW BY DECREE OF THE HIGHEST COURT IN THE LAND!!!!!!!

Thank you, Supreme Court!


Altar photo: Celeste McClain

Home Going

There is so little left that those moments surprise me, when glancing up or left or in this case right...

...suddenly stepping into old familiar letters,  the tiles that used to reflect all our faces, that staircase that had wrapped itself around us in hot, in cold, at night, or rushed mornings...

I'm home, back home, going home.

Sunday Memories: A Room Of Her Own. With a Door!

In the 1970's it was the 'cat' room, along with boxes and stuff not being used by the three young men who sprawled through the rest of the house.  The cat didn't mind.  As long as he could get to his litter box.

Not sure what happened to the cat when everybody moved out and me and my friend moved in.  But the room was empty.  So we put in all our stuff that we weren't using as we sprawled through the rest of the house.

Those were the days where we each delivered our share of the rent to Mrs. Schneller, who lived on the 6th floor and rented out sheets and towels to the men living in the S.R.O.s.

Don't remember the ins-and-outs but one day that friend moved out and another moved in, bringing tables and lamps and posters and dishes and that room became a little dining room where morning cigarettes were smoked and post-party gossip shared.

And then it changed again, became the "guest" room, a bedroom with a loft bed brought from Brooklyn, resurrected as one apartment ended and our new relationship began.

Years, years, years, until life changed again, that new relationship no longer new, ending slowly into boxes that got packed up and shipped to unknown spaces waiting for a bedroom to be resurrected.

That room stayed behind, became a way station for an old friend needing a bed because he was too sick go home after work and then after him, friends also leaving relationships no longer new until...

...the room fell away, the wood packed away, walls painted, and a new roommate made it a fragile bedroom from another time filled with delicate fabrics and soft empty air.

And soon after that roommate began a new relationship in a new home, an old roommate moved back in.

Those many, many years that followed saw much change fly around that room, but the room didn't change much at all.

Home was, as it had been for the past 37 years, a myriad of footsteps and hellos and histories and stories, a constant array of memories sitting around the dinner table talking all at once.

Until.

One day became different.  The idea of home stretched beyond the small room and big shared space into a place where family could lived and friends might visit.  The room fell away for one last time and now it awaits, awaits me after all these years to sprawl beyond finite walls and fear into imagination born of solitude.

**
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 Days Like This

Friday's Child Is Loving And Giving: So There!

There's a reason Friday's Child is now a part 

of Her New York, if only to say thank you.

SOCIAL TEES SUCCESS STORY!

A TALE OF TWO BROTHERS!!!

 

Go ahead and ogle these two handsome brothers, Ulysses and Anubis.  

They were adopted separately in December and reunited recently during a puppy play date. 

Ulysses, in his new home, settled in immediately.  His favorite spot is by the window, where he people-watches for hours. He says hello to absolutely everyone he meets on the street, which has earned him the nickname “Mr. Mayor.” 

Anubis, named after the Egyptian god of mummies, adores taking dry mulch baths in the park and howling at ambulance and fire engine sirens. 

Funny story: One time, Anubis’s mom was walking down the street when a stranger chased her down... turns out the stranger was Ulysses’s mom, and she thought Ulysses had been dog-napped! It’s easy to see why. These two pups are definitely brothers! And what a cool coincidence that both ended up with ancient names!

Adopt a rescue pet, and YOU could be a future Social Tees Success Story! Check out some of the rest of adoptables here http://ow.ly/mblhA and email samantha.socialtees@gmail.com for an application.

FOSTER ME!

FOSTER ME!

I WANT TO FEEL YOU CLOSE TO ME!

SHELBY NEEDS A FOSTER / ADOPTION HOME !!!

This teddy bear of a yellow lab just arrived, and she's ridiculously friendly! 

She's an 8-year-old puppy-like rescue from Southampton, who is excellent with other dogs, cats, and kids.  About 60 pounds, she's currently at Social Tees in the East Village. 

Fostering would last a few weeks.  So if you can foster Shelby or if even adopt her, please call 917-612-4163. 

For an adoption application, please email samantha.socialtees@gmail.com. 

WHAT'S FOSTERING, YOU WONDER?!

Fostering lasts a few weeks, and Social Tees can provide supplies if you need them.  Fostering is SUPER important because it's much healthier for our animals to be in homes than in cages, and it expands our shelter virtually.

AND for every cat and dog that is placed in a foster home, Social Tees can pull another out of the kill shelter. So if you are an animal-lover with commitment issues, FOSTER!!!

For more info on fostering, email samantha.socialtees@gmail.com or check out our FAQs here:

FOUR LITTLE KITTENS!

Buzz, Fuzz, Suzz and Agamemnon

Just like the kittens in that old children's book, these four little guys are up for anything!

They're also up for adoption! 

***
Do you want to meet these guys and all the other great pups and kitties at Social Tees, but you're stuck at your desk during the week? Then come to the weekend events at Petco / Union Square!!

OR

If you have questions, answers, money? time? dry cat food?

Everything helps!

CONTACT SAMANTHA:
samantha.socialtees@gmail.com

Social Tees
325 East 5th Street, NY, NY 10003;
5-7pm Monday to Friday
12-4pm  Saturday and Sunday at Petco at Union Square
212-614-9653;
socialteesnyc.org

History Lessons

That dentist wall filled with scribbled details about different parts and certain moments...

...or the hospital basement packed with color-coded files describing the exact heartbeat of someone but not what made that heart pound....

... were not so much different than that cupboard storing all those journals and diaries overflowing with attempts to tell a secret wish.

**
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A Walk In The Park

I had been told, in the past, that I was not a walk in the park.

Perhaps, that was an accurate assessment, if  I were, in fact, like any 1970's self-respecting park of New York City that didn't tolerate just anybody trolloping about.  You had to earn passage through.  That, or be looking to buy some illegal drugs, which of course I did not sell.

The city aged.  Parks became, well,  places that were like a walk in the park.  Quiet, complacent, polite and receptive, welcoming everyone at almost any hour of the day or night.

I grew to enjoy strolling through quiet, polite and welcoming cement surrounded by green stuff.   And, like the city, I had aged and had less to say out loud, so perhaps I confused myself with such pleasant qualities. 

But, tonight strolling past benches that once offered respite after heartbreaking hospital visits with Florence, and marveling that the dangerous people lurking were outnumbered by joggers and lovers and teenagers and dogwalkers bouncing around, I heard myself saying something funny and sharp and not at all complacent.  Like the biting mosquitoes, a walk in the park shouldn't tolerate just anybody trolloping about.

**

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Sunday Memories: "Be True To Your Teeth Or They Will Be False To You"

So sayeth my father.

So sayeth what we did every year.

For a family that rarely took vacations, almost always bought second-hand clothes, and never went out to dinner (unless it was chock-full-o'nuts or the annual Chinese food splurge), that trip to Dr. Lowenthal up in the Bronx or Washington Heights* - I just remember the long train ride taken with Florence, the buildings were shorter than New York's and there was more light - was money my parents never questioned spending.

The fear and discomfort of awful sounds and unpleasant probings were all balanced by the promise of a toy - one I could pick myself from a big box he kept near the chair of torture.  For a child, toys are always too rare and to choose my own was a precious moment.  I remember quite clearly a plastic sailboat that I could snap together.   Perhaps it was my attempt at an homage of the big 1800's sailboats docked at South Sea Port. Odd choice for a child of the lower east side who either walked along the East River or rode the ferry, but never step foot into the 'sailing' culture until the age of 30.

Adults seem endless in their years, never aging, always staying the same, but one day I was told Dr. Lowenthal had retired.  A new dentist, one right by Macy's, had taken his place.  And I, now a 12 year-old teenager, was responsible to get myself there for the yearly check-up.

Somehow, when house and home began to descend into fractured words and silent rage, the care of my teeth had fallen through the cracks.  After 10 years of perfect checkups, I suddenly had 13 cavities, The new dentist, who hummed tunelessly as he work, filled them, one by one, week after week. 

And after, not quite understanding how I really felt about just everything, I'd head over to the sweets shop, tucked into the corner of Macy's and, in place of a box of new toys, buy forbidden pieces of fudge and other bad sticky things that tugged at a mouth full of metal.

*Washington Heights: from Louise:  181^st St stop on the A train, around the corner to 180^th St.  I don’t remember the avenue, but I was there perhaps 20 yrs ago (can’t remember the circumstances) and recognized it and knew where the building was.  The stops on that part of the line have exits onto Ft. Washington Ave and to Overlook Terrace or Bennett Ave.  Wikipedia says the escalator (which we took) was at the 181^st St end and an elevator was at the north end.  Dr. Lowenthal used to go hiking in the Alps during the summer and had a beautiful photo of mountains to look at while sitting in the chair.  His receptionist was Mrs. Dee.

**
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Friday's Child Is Loving And Giving And A Work Of Art!

There's a reason Friday's Child is now a part 

of Her New York, if only to say thank you.
 

IT'S CATS!

 IT'S KITTENS!  

IT'S ART!

The Cat Show' will celebrate kitties and raise awareness about homeless pets in the city. The centerpiece of this huge, eclectic installation will be 'The Cats-in-Residence Program' where adoptable strays from Social Tees Animal Rescue* (partner for the project) will hang out in an artist-designed cat habitat - and maybe even find forever homes at the adoption events that will open and close the show.

June 13-July 20, 2013, White Columns, NYC.

Featuring 'The Cats-in-Residence Program' June 14/15 and July 19/20. 


***

A HOME FOR THIS BUDDY WILL BE READY IN THREE WEEKS

UNTIL THEN, HE NEEDS A FOSTER HOME!

One of SOCIAL TEES' most absolute favorite fans recently adopted this 15-year-old boy, but she can't take him home until she moves... so this old, sweet boy need a three-week foster home for him!

He needs to be the only cat in the house because he's a glutton for attention -- he will meow at you for love when he's feeling cuddly! 

If you can foster this boy starting ASAP, please call SOCIAL TEES at 917-612-4163 where he is currently staying.

WHAT'S FOSTERING, YOU WONDER?!

Fostering lasts a few weeks, and Social Tees can provide supplies if you need them.  Fostering is SUPER important because it's much healthier for our animals to be in homes than in cages, and it expands our shelter virtually.

AND for every cat and dog that is placed in a foster home, Social Tees can pull another out of the kill shelter. So if you are an animal-lover with commitment issues, FOSTER!!!

For more info on fostering, email samantha.socialtees@gmail.com or check out our FAQs here:

**

MAX AND PENNY!

Max and Penny are THE most adorable kittens on the planet! They are Manx mixes -- Penny has a tail and gallops around like a regular cat, but Max has no tail and hops like a bunny. Both have super beautiful smoke coats -- their fur is gray and chocolate colored -- and their eyes are a stunning blue/green! 

Max and Penny are absolutely attached at the hip, so THEY MUST BE ADOPTED AS A PAIR. They are about 12 weeks old and as wonderfully rambunctious as kittens get. They're like little werewolves! They're also extremely socialized thanks to their amazing foster home, so they adore cuddling, climbing all over you, scaling your pants legs, and being held like babies.

If you are interested in adopting these kittens, please email samantha.socialtees@gmail.com for an application asap! They are currently in a foster home but will make a guest appearance at one of SOCIAL TEES' adoption events this weekend...

***
Do you want to meet these guys and all the other great pups and kitties at Social Tees, but you're stuck at your desk during the week? Then come to the weekend events at Petco / Union Square!!

OR

If you have questions, answers, money? Money is very helpful... Time?  TIME IS REALLY HELPFUL, although money is nice....

CONTACT SAMANTHA:
samantha.socialtees@gmail.com

Social Tees
325 East 5th Street, NY, NY 10003;
5-7pm Monday to Friday
12-4pm  Saturday and Sunday at Petco at Union Square
212-614-9653;
socialteesnyc.org

A (Dentist's) Room With A View

Working there for two years already, the dental assistant had never seen it. 

Well, it wasn't like she had any time to look out the window, what with vacuuming out spit from people's mouths, handing sharp instruments to the dentist and getting x-rays.

I had time because we were all waiting for the drugs to kick in. 

So I got to look out the window and wondered about that beautiful script writing and if MM bags had secretaries who wore serious red lipsticks, shopped at Macy's and had the pick of the best pocketbooks in New York City.

The Promise

Summer was going to fill the 100 years of stairs soon.  But the cat was ready, already hunting for future delights and sniffing places he was sure that next time his prey would be right there, waiting for him.

**
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Sunday Memories: Beneath Your Surface

The Miro poster had been found on the street, but I prefer to believe that it had run away from an unloving home because the minute it hung over the stove it looked like it had always been there.

And the cupboard next to it, stripped twenty, maybe twenty-five years ago by a generous neighbor for about $100, maybe less, probably less, revealed almost a hundred years of secrets from all the other people who had lived in that kitchen, each one passionately painting over the previous version of a beautiful haven.

At that time, that cupboard was all I could afford to have stripped.  The rest of the house stayed buried under a century of paint and every decade or so, I'd add to it, resigned that there was no other choice.

Once in a while, while cooking tea, or praying coffee would percolate faster, I'd stare at the remnants left from all the painting over of other people's histories and wonder what each color meant to each person who had put it there.

But now these different days were welcoming in a new era.  And those histories, as much as they told interesting stories, had never been mine.  I wanted a fresh beginning, not one that started with a yet another covering over of a century's worth of paint, but one that removed and revealed what was beneath the surface.
  
"But beneath your surface
you know what you must
your love is calling
and it's reaching out to you"

**
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Friday's Child Is Loving And Giving And The Best Part Of Life!!!!

 There's a reason Friday's Child is now a part 

of Her New York, if only to say thank you.

OUR HOUSE IS A VERY, VERY FINE HOUSE

WITH TWO CATS IN THE YARD

LIFE USED TO BE SO HARD

NOW EVERYTHING IS EASY

The cool cat-loving woman who adopted these two kitties back in the day said: "I have the sweetest mommy and baby cats I adopted from you. They are the happiest little lovers who live amongst another adopted cat, two old big adopted dogs, and two human babies.... LOVE Social Tees and all the work you do!!"

A FACE SO UGLY ONLY

A (FOSTER) MOTHER COULD LOVE IT!!

THIS CUTE-UGLY DOG NEEDS A FOSTER HOME!!!!

Dingo, a poor old pittie mix that we rescued from a neglect case a few weeks ago, needs a new foster home asap! He gets loads of attention on the street for his adorably ugly little mug. He was starved and lost a lot of fur before we took him in, and now he's slowly gaining weight and growing his coat back. 

But he's spunky as ever, loves to go for walks, and has a super hearty appetite. He's great with other dogs AND cats... and everyone he meets! Plus, he's crate trained. This wonderful boy had a very hard start to life -- now he deserves a relaxing home where he can play and soak up the love he deserves.

WHAT'S FOSTERING, YOU WONDER?!

Fostering lasts a few weeks, and Social Tees can provide supplies if you need them.  Fostering is SUPER important because it's much healthier for our animals to be in homes than in cages, and it expands our shelter virtually.

AND for every cat and dog that is placed in a foster home, Social Tees can pull another out of the kill shelter. So if you are an animal-lover with commitment issues, FOSTER!!!

For more info on fostering, email samantha.socialtees@gmail.com or check out our FAQs here:

MOTHER AND CHILD REUNION 

THAT'S NOT ON THE MENU!

THIS MOM AND HER KITTEN NEED A HOME!!!

For now, they're chilling in Social Tees' front window. Both are teeny-tiny, wonderfully friendly and playful girls with slender bodies and lovely torbie coats. This cute pair loves to frolic and nap as a unit, so Social Tees is hoping to find them a home together. 

***

Do you want to meet these guys and all the other great pups and kitties at Social Tees, but you're stuck at your desk during the week? Then come to the weekend events at Petco / Union Square!!

OR

If you have questions, answers, money? Money is very helpful... Time?  TIME IS REALLY HELPFUL, although money is nice....

CONTACT SAMANTHA:
samantha.socialtees@gmail.com

Social Tees
325 East 5th Street, NY, NY 10003;
5-7pm Monday to Friday
12-4pm  Saturday and Sunday at Petco at Union Square
212-614-9653;
socialteesnyc.org

Message In A Lamp

Usually when fate wants to send a message, it puts it in a bottle.

This one came in a lamp.

Joni had made it out of a music stand.  An electric blue 1960s or 70's metal ball was the lamp shade and you could make it taller or shorter.

Florence kept it for years.  It charmed her.  Not so much that it was a music stand, but that Joni had made it.  And during one of their last visits, all three - the lamp, Florence and Joni - came together in the same room.   (That's the lamp all the way in the back by the window.)

However, Florence had even less of an idea than I did that things could be repaired or healed or improved or made better.  What was awful was awful; what was broken was broken.  And only a swipe of an attempt could be made before returning to what really mattered - practicing, writing, pondering and then practicing again.

So, in the place of repairmen, things were slapped together in bizarre ways.

Which is how that note, worthy of a bottle, was found.

In these halcyon days of making things better, Gloria at NY Brass Lighting was unwrapping layers of electrical tape that kept together the music stand lamp.  From that sticky mass, a piece of folded up paper fell to our feet.

Worried it might contain a message or note only I should see, Gloria said, "You open it."

 I did.

It was a piece of sheet music, torn in half, folded many times into a wedge, stuck between broken hinges and taped to the music stand.

I took a closer look.  It was Chopin.  A nocturne.   One that filled childhood mornings with the grief of summer light.

**
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Répétez, S'il Vous Plaît

Sunday Memories: Upstairs Downstairs

To Continue On

It wasn't just the Cove closing, the buildings being torn down, the bookstores and bodegas eaten alive by boutiques and expensive lattes that even tested my love of coffee.

It wasn't just the bees dying, the glaciers melting, the trees that allow us to breathe being cut down.

It wasn't just the feeling of futility noting words that demanded change, only to be outshouted by the actions of greed.

It was all of it and more.  That more that didn't come in details, but in finality.

It was the slow loss of hope that everyone could, as they came to that moment, die in a world that was just and kind, loving and respectful.  Moving through the seasons with respect.

I don't know what made me pick up my camera that day and take a picture of Florence and me holding hands as we sang Buddhist sutras together.  

I wasn't willing to admit it then, but that day marked the beginning of losing hope that what I saw wasn't really happening. 

That picture, oh that picture. 

Years later I would look at it and be reminded that she and I went through the loss of hope, holding each others' hands and singing words that soothed our souls and opened our hearts so we could fully face what was not just or fair or kind or loving. 

Looking for Her New York as it literally turns to dust and then rises into expensive glass has become that picture.  A drink at a bar, a conversation with a neighbor, a longing for a roll, the painting in the museum's hallway, a transistor radio.  Art scrawled on a box and left in the middle of a sidewalk.  They all become that picture, defying assumptions and speaking loud and clear.  Facing loss of hope, continuing on.

**
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Sunday Memories: Last Call

We all heard the news.  Developers had just bought East 14th Street and were going to raze everything, including the Blarney Cove.

I had passed the Cove for years.  Never went in.  I went to a dive on St. Marks until an unfortunate incident.  (Hint:  don't have a bad affair with the bartender of a bar you call home unless you don’t want to hang out there anymore.)

Besides, the Cove didn’t seem like a place for a girl like me.  Those guys were having shots at 8 in morning and I was too old for that kind of pissing contest.

I was also too broke for more than one round.  Not when for $5 more I could buy the bottle at the Astor Warehouse.

So, I'd pass the Cove and never go in. Even after the neighborhood blogger, Goggla told me it was great.  Even after I married a new drinking partner.

But suddenly it was now or never.  I said to the husband, let’s go to 14^th Street.  We need socks and a couple of places sell a dozen for $6.99.  And then maybe after, the Cove for a drink.

We headed east but the further we got the worse things looked.  It was like Close Encounters of the Third Kind when Richard Dreyfuss slipped into the restricted area and saw all these dead cows.

Store after store were empty with 'For Rent' or 'Going Out Of Business' signs in the windows.  Even the cheap department store was gutted - 40 years of affordable shit, gone.

There was only one cheap stall left in the last remaining tenement.  The guy there told us the landlord had refused to sell to the developers, but eventually they'd win and buy the place – “they always do”, he said.  Meanwhile, he had a dozen socks for $5.00.

A couple of steps east was the Cove.  We peeked in and saw Christmas lights twinkling and a baseball game on both TVs.

"If it's the Yankees, I’m not going in...." the husband mumbled.

They changed one of the TVs to the Mets vs the Marlins, we got Rolling Rocks in big-ass glasses because Pabst only came in tall boys, and the guy at the end of the bar played every baseball song on the jukebox for us, including one about being a Mets fan (which really should be categorized as a mental disorder) . 

I asked the bartender when they were closing.  "End of June." she said.  "It's sad."

Then a couple of more regulars came in.  The bartender spoke to everyone, everyone spoke to everyone and I said to the husband, "Well, if we were not old hermetic writers who were always broke, this would be a good bar for us."

The 6th inning made it clear the Mets would lose.  Again. The beers were $3 each.

"Leave a big tip," I told the husband.

"$2?"

"No.  $3."

After all, they were closing and we weren’t going to get another chance before the end of June to say goodbye to a bar that, if we weren't too old, too broke, too hermetic, we'd go to.

**
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Ted Krever