Friday's Child Is Loving And Giving And Going to Barnes&Noble On Black Friday!

 

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

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

What are you doing on Black Friday!!!????
Do you want to participate in Friday's Child?

The Barnes & Noble in Union Square has invited Social Tees Animal Rescue to spend a day wrapping presents there around the holiday season...

We sit at the table, set up a donations jar, hand out info about animal rescue, and wrap presents! We need three to four volunteers to staff the table at all times between the hours of 8am and 10pm. We have a few shifts available, and we need your help! 

Please email samantha.socialtees@gmail.com if you can commit to one of the shifts below asap, and please forward this to anyone you know who might be interested in helping as well.

WHEN: Black Friday -- November 29

WHERE: Barnes & Noble in Union Square

WHAT: Wrapping gifts, accepting donations, passing out Social Tees info, having fun!

SHIFT ONE: 8am-10am
SHIFT TWO: 10am-1pm
SHIFT THREE: 1pm-4pm

SHIFT FOUR: 4pm-7pm
SHIFT FIVE: 7pm-10pm

Give Thanks And Give A Sweetheart 
Some Haven

Some idiot threw Rocky out.  

This super friendly Chihuahua/Pug mix, only ten pounds, is great with every person and animal he meets.  Can you foster him!?  Do you want to adopt him?!  

Did I mention SOME IDIOT threw him out? 

Come meet the other wonderful dogs and cats at Social Tees!! Click Here!!!

Do you want to foster or adopt???!!!!

 It's easy.  All you have to do is fill out a form

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, check out our FAQs here.

Famous Last Words On That Fateful Thanksgiving

There was no traveling to friends or family on Thanksgiving.  Maybe we took walks uptown to see Christmas windows, but never the parade.  The day was for other families.  And, other than the time Seymour won a turkey, Thanksgiving was more about Florence's birthday or the feeling of impending storms when suddenly all four of us were in the house together.

Leaving home was not just a change of address; it was also a chance to try on all those big holidays I saw on TV or in books.  Soon, I got pretty good at finagling trips to friends' houses and unsuspecting relatives.  And soon, I came to expect spending the holiday in some traditional or conventional way.  Until one Thanksgiving when everything changed and life was never the same.

That it was at my sister's was rare enough.  What was also rare, at least to Florence, was all that food.

As they say, roll tape.

**
Related Post:

Famous Last Words

Just In Time For The Holidays: Thanking The Problems For Being The Gifts

Holiday Encore: Hand-to-Hand Combat! Life Or Death Decisions! Slow Car Chases! It's Thanksgiving, The Movie!

She's Leaving Home, Bye, Bye

One day last week, Florence's piano left the building.

For good.  

My sister had found a Jewish community center in Bensonhurst with an active classical music school   That felt right.  After all, early on, Florence and Sophie had moved to Patchen Avenue in Bushwick when the money ran out.  

Who knows... maybe some kid will sit down at those keys, and like Florence, begin....

**

My sister's account of moving day:

It never occurred to me how they would manage the weight of the piano but it’s very clever and reminded me of Topkapi, which I talked about to everyone for the rest of the day.

Two men were at the bottom end of the piano going down the stairs ...

...and the third man was at the top of the piano pulling up, that is, preventing all the weight of the piano from being on the two men underneath.

It reminded me of Peter Ustinov holding the acrobat up from the roof of the museum.  It’s not exactly analogous but …

The mover left a dolly on the sidewalk on Broome Street and called me an hour later when I was already back in the office. 

I no longer carry the courtyard security office phone number as I used to when Florence was alive, and I didn’t even remember the name of the head maintenance supervisor (Carl).

I haven’t dealt with anyone in the courtyard security office for 4 or 5 years, and I didn’t run into anyone from management when I arrived or while we moved the piano out the gate at the opposite end of the courtyard.

It took a while for me to figure out how to get the number of the security office.  So I called up.

“I own an apartment in the courtyard and I moved a piece of furniture this morning and the mover left a dolly…”

“Oh yes, you’re Claire’s sister and you moved the piano out of A51 this morning.  Carl has the dolly right here.”

I was astounded that they had taken note.  I really didn’t notice anyone noticing us.

I wish there had been a security office with people who knew us when we were kids instead of just a gruff old portly man who walked around the courtyard glowering.  It felt very warm and cozy that Ms. King in the security office knew the comings and goings of Florence’s piano that morning.

**
Related Posts:

Sunday Memories: Steinway to Heaven

Summer Reruns of Sunday Memories: Home, Where My Love Lies Waiting

A Special Encore of Sunday's Memory: I Hear It Was Her Birthday

It is Florence's birthday.   In my own search for home and art and a life that looks like both, the day always offers reminders of both her ferocious hope and her denial of anything but success.  

Originally posted in November 24, 2009


Not really knowing the circumstances of her birth on November 24, 1923 or 4, I have no idea if she was celebrated when she arrived.

Possibly not. Her father was a World War 1 veteran who wasn't very nice and her mother, erudite, educated, multi-lingual, worked as a practical nurse because as an immigrant and refugee from Russia, it was what she could do.

Her father not much in the picture in between hospital stays and abusive behavior, resources her mother had went toward the basics and then Florence's music lessons.

Poverty and unhappiness perhaps didn't lend itself to birthday parties with pretty cakes but stories of how much could be done with so little offer some hope that maybe there were birthdays she really enjoyed.

It was her 65th birthday that my sister did it up right with Florence's first birthday cake. A real cake with icing and flowers and her name and candles to blow out. As it wasn't something we ever got as kids, giving her this cake was a big deal. I found the candles - a 6 and a 5 - in a drawer of one of her tables when we cleaned out her house.




**
Related Post:

A Special Monday: Deutschy

Friday's Child Is Loving And Giving And Better Than Winning The Lottery

 

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

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

THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME!!!

Another Social Tees success story from another happy new family!

"We had been talking about getting a dog for years, and this October it finally happened thanks to Social Tees Animal Rescue. When I saw that Bounce (now Wilson) needed a foster home, I emailed immediately and picked him up the next day. At home he was very excited and quite nervous at first, so he began galloping up and down the length of our railroad apartment. The only way for us (and him) to get some sleep that night was to let him in our bed. The next morning when I woke up he was sleeping on my leg, and when I heard him snore I was sold. We are so happy we are able to give him a forever home and feel very lucky for the joy he brings us every day. Wilson has since learned to sleep in his own bed, but he is dozing and snoring on my lap as I write this."

See?  Better than the lottery.

URGENT!!!

 It's holiday time... which means foster animals get left behind. Help us keep them out of cages!! 

SOCIAL TEES need foster homes for six amazing dogs -- including this amazing border collie -  some small some medium sized -- starting this coming Monday, the 25th. All dogs are super sweet and well behaved. Fostering will last just one or two weeks. 

Please email Dimitra.socialtees@gmail.com if you can help and PLEASE SHARE!!!!

What are you doing on Black Friday!!!????
Do you want to participate in
Friday's Child?

The Barnes & Noble in Union Square has invited Social Tees Animal Rescue to spend a day wrapping presents there around the holiday season...

We sit at the table, set up a donations jar, hand out info about animal rescue, and wrap presents! We need three to four volunteers to staff the table at all times between the hours of 8am and 10pm. We have a few shifts available, and we need your help! 

Please email samantha.socialtees@gmail.com if you can commit to one of the shifts below asap, and please forward this to anyone you know who might be interested in helping as well.

WHEN: Black Friday -- November 29

WHERE: Barnes & Noble in Union Square

WHAT: Wrapping gifts, accepting donations, passing out Social Tees info, having fun!

SHIFT ONE: 8am-10am
SHIFT TWO: 10am-1pm
SHIFT THREE: 1pm-4pm

SHIFT FOUR: 4pm-7pm
SHIFT FIVE: 7pm-10pm

MONEY CAN'T BUY YOU LOVE!!!

SO CHUCK YOUR LOTTERY TICKETS

AND GET SOME LOVE INSTEAD!!

Do you want to foster or adopt???!!!!

 It's easy.  All you have to do is fill out a form

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, check out our FAQs here.

Sometimes You Can Go Home Again.

Leaping is just one of those things I should never do.  Literally or metaphorically.   But being a bad mix of a twelve-year old boy and a baby goat, I keep doing it.

I leapt backwards into jump ropes and broke my arm. And I leapt forward into men who didn't love me and broke my heart.

And then there was the leap I took into this old pool.

I was thirteen.  Wearing my first bikini that I had proudly bought by myself at A&S in Brooklyn.  I think it might have been turquoise.

All the teenagers I hung out with at the 14th Street Y were already in the pool.  I'm not sure what the occasion was but it seemed that, other than the slanted billiard table on the first floor, we all hung out in the water. I don't think there was much swimming going on either.

I was looking for a particular boy that day. Tons of red curls exploding out of his head like a dandelion.  I had been playing the advantage of the slanted billiard table all the time with him so he thought I was really cool and very Mrs. Peele-like.  Here was my chance to drive that belief home.

I saw him at the shallow end, and without really thinking it through, I leapt.

A girl I was friendly with told me afterwards - meaning nobody said anything, including what must have been a very happy adolescent boy - that both my newly grown boobs were hanging out.  I fixed the top and left.

I didn't walk into that Y until five years later. And even then, I didn't go near the pool.

Recently, my old knee in need of repair got a cortisone shot - just to get me through the fall before the operation.  It was amazing to walk so freely that of course I quickly forgot the impatient doctor's warning.  "This only stops the pain.  You're still injured.  No jumping about."

The fall job began with excitement and reunions.  And when I saw two old friends chatting together, as only the bad mix of a twelve-year-old boy and a baby goat could be,  I leapt with joy.

And my knee crumbled into searing pain.

No walking, no skipping, no hopping, no biking, no dancing around to pretty music.  No nothing. 

Except.  Swimming.  In that pool.  That I hadn't entered since I was 13.  

My knee was too miserable for any leaping.  But, easing my way into so-called warm water, forty-two years of shame dissolved. 

 **
Related Posts:

Swimming Swimming In A Swimming Pool* - Snapshots From Deep Water
  
Sunday Memories - "Not Coney. Coney Island."

The Sweet Spot: More Snapshots from Deep Waters

Sunday Memories - Baby Boy Tadpole and Other Snapshots from Deep Waters

Merrily Merrily Merrily Merrily Life Is But A Dream - Snapshots of Deep Waters Continue

 

Before Global Warming, There Was Autumn

photo by T. Krever

I hadn't seen these in years.

I didn't understand where they came from, just that they came.  The playground trees would change colors and boom! These would appear. 

I told the Mariner we'd split the end and with a bit of spit, and boom! You had a rhinoceros nose.

The Mariner said, "oh I think that's just Your New York you did that in."

But, no it wasn't.  It was Our New York.  Where we played Ja-Spa-leaders-allowed or falougie or mach a naim or kugelach.  Those words, those games, those days were normal.  

Like what autumn used to be before the world changed it.

**
Related Posts:

Sunday Memories: Moving Day

Sunday Memories Encore:  The Corners Of My Mind

An Encore Of A Sunday Memory: Giving Peace A Chance

You don't feel the sixty-hour weeks until you slow down. Then they hit you will body-numbing exhaustion.  An encore celebrating and commemorating a day spent in bed resting and hoping all that work somehow gave peace a chance.

Originally posted November 8, 2009




It was way more dangerous in 1972. At least according to the crime rates.

But we didn't know that or notice it. We just went about our business all over the city by ourselves or with each other, a gang of 12 and 13 year old girls traveling the subways, the buses, the streets without a cell phone because they didn't exist then, and at least in my case, not even a dime to call home in case something went wrong.

So it was no big deal for us to head over to the Peace Building on Lafayette and Bleecker to pick up peace buttons to sell on the street for the cause - BRING THE TROOPS HOME! PEACE NOW! FREE KIM AGNEW!

Our plan was to walk up 6th Avenue selling peace buttons until we got to the big peace rally near Herald Square. We pinned our wares to our teeshirts and in our tinny little voices hawked our wares - Peace Buttons for a dolla! Stop the war in Viet Nam! Buy a button for a dolla!

The shame of that day wasn't the man jiggling under his raincoat while touching each button on breasts I wasn't sure I had.

It was when on a dare or perhaps on empty pockets we all dashed under the turnstiles at 34th Street and ladies who probably were our neighbors or knew our neighbors or maybe even our parents TSK TSK'd us scolding "such nice girls such nice girls doing that shame on you what would your mother say..." as we ran down the ramp to the F train and home.

Friday's Child Is Better Late Than Never

 

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

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

 

 

 

 

Click Here to find out how Social Tees
LIKES SAVES LIVES!

 

 

CAPTION THIS PHOTO!!!!
It's our Likes Save Lives campaign's second Just for Fun Friday... What's happening here?!

 

 

 

SO MANY PUPPIES UP FOR ADOPTION!!!!!! 

 

 

We will be at the Best Friends Pet Super Adoption event this weekend in White Plains, NY with 40 adoptable dogs and puppies... and some amazing cats! None of these animals are yet listed on Petfinder, so you'll have to stop by if you want to meet the new rescues. Please come, and please spread the word! Saturday 10am-7pm, Sunday 10am-5pm

 
More info: http://bestfriends.org/What-We-Do/Events/Pet-Super-Adoptions

 

 

 

Do you want to foster or adopt???!!!!

 It's easy.  All you have to do is fill out a form

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, check out our FAQs here.

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

What are you doing on Black Friday!!!????
Do you want to participate in 

Friday's Child?

The Barnes & Noble in Union Square has invited Social Tees Animal Rescue to spend a day wrapping presents there around the holiday season... 

 

We sit at the table, set up a donations jar, hand out info about animal rescue, and wrap presents! We need three to four volunteers to staff the table at all times between the hours of 8am and 10pm. We have a few shifts available, and we need your help! 

 

Please email samantha.socialtees@gmail.com if you can commit to one of the shifts below asap, and please forward this to anyone you know who might be interested in helping as well.

WHEN: Black Friday -- November 29

WHERE: Barnes & Noble in Union Square

WHAT: Wrapping gifts, accepting donations, passing out Social Tees info, having fun!

SHIFT ONE: 8am-10am
SHIFT TWO: 10am-1pm
SHIFT THREE: 1pm-4pm

SHIFT FOUR: 4pm-7pm
SHIFT FIVE: 7pm-10pm

You Got Your North Star. I Got Mine.

Sailors have the north star.   I have the Clover Delicatessen.

It's been in business since 1948.  Same family runs it. I know this because I called them tonight and asked.

I have been walking by that deli for 40 years.  Second Avenue was my way home.  No matter where I was coming from.

All those nights walking back from Jutta's on 89th Street and West End, or when I was working my way through City College, and had a part-time job on 93rd Street and Third Avenue... Didn't matter.   The minute I hit the Clover corner, I knew I was home free home.

One summer I even worked across the street at Allen's Restaurant.  I was a busboy.  I was saving up enough money to go to China.  It was 1986.  Nobody went to China then.  Except maybe Nixon.

The Clover always had these cookies in the window.   The ones that look like different presents under a Christmas tree.  Year after year after year, the same cookies.   Sometimes I wondered if they were actually the same cookies being kept as window dressing.  I promised myself for decades that one day I was going to go in there and get every kind of cookie they had.  Then I found out cookies made me sick.  I should still do it anyways.  At least when I have a day off the next day.  Or can fit back into my jeans.

I only went in once, maybe it was the 70s.  Maybe it was the 90s.   The place just seemed too fancy for me. After all those cookies were really pretty.  Mostly I'd slow down and peek inside and then ... look at the cookies.

It didn't matter I never went in except once.   Walking by that warm light pouring out onto the nighttime street, that was almost as good as eating a cookie.  Something sweet and beautiful that lets you know you're almost home.

Walkin' After Midnight

At that very moment we were both sick of our favorite companions.  She was hogging all the attention and he wasn't listening to me.

So we left.  I opened the door because I had the thumbs, but we both firmly stalked out.
 

And melted into night time air and old stairs we used to wander together when we were both beset with that lonely feeling that sometimes quietly drowns you when you aren't looking.

This time we weren't drowning.

Just shaking off fussiness that came from both our furs being rubbed the wrong way by the company we had both always looked for in ancient hallways.

We didn't expect it, slipping in and out of marble and iron, but there waiting on the very last landing was a rainbow that only appears when the city is still and remembers itself.

 

At the end of that rainbow was a pot of gold.  It was called home.

He led the way.  But I still had the thumbs and had to open the door.

**
Related Posts:

In The Still Of The Night The Sound Of Silence

In The Still Of The Night The Sound Of Silence Revisited (an homage to Florence and home)

In The Still Of The Night (The Avenue A Bus)

The Promise

Sunday Memories of Guest Artist, Ted Who Looks Back At The World From Above And Below - Part Three

During the busiest time of year, the series of guest artists continue.  Ted Krever rides the trains and tells some tales. 

***

 

The elevated tracks bear the scars of a ruder New York.  Those days felt like war time.

 

 

Now, years later, those high tracks still offer an eerie vantage point on lives lived just outside the spotlight.

 

 

So much changed over the years.  But the trains just roll on like a river.

 

 

Friday's Child Is Loving And Giving And If You Click You Save Lives!!!

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

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

 

Click Here to find out how Social Tees
LIKES SAVES LIVES!

Meet JoJo

Sweet, sad Jojo the mini-pin needs a foster home asap and a forever home too!!!  She's 6 years old and 18 pounds of dearnest!!!

A BASKET FULL OF KITTENS!!! 

These kittens are way too cute to have been on the kill list a few days ago... but they were!  Social Tees rescued them literally just in time, and they are now up for adoption!!! Come to 5th Street and meet them!!!

Do you want to foster or adopt???!!!!

 It's easy.  All you have to do is fill out a form

Charlie the Puppy!!!!!

 

When you look in a dictionary at "Good Boy!" you'll see Charlie's picture!!! Up for adoption and needs a foster home in the meantime!!!

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, check out our FAQs here.

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

What are you doing on Black Friday!!!????

Do you want to participate in 

Friday's Child?

The Barnes & Noble in Union Square has invited Social Tees Animal Rescue to spend a day wrapping presents there around the holiday season... 

 

We sit at the table, set up a donations jar, hand out info about animal rescue, and wrap presents! We need three to four volunteers to staff the table at all times between the hours of 8am and 10pm. We have a few shifts available, and we need your help! 

 

Please email samantha.socialtees@gmail.com if you can commit to one of the shifts below asap, and please forward this to anyone you know who might be interested in helping as well.

WHEN: Black Friday -- November 29

WHERE: Barnes & Noble in Union Square

WHAT: Wrapping gifts, accepting donations, passing out Social Tees info, having fun!

SHIFT ONE: 8am-10am
SHIFT TWO: 10am-1pm
SHIFT THREE: 1pm-4pm

SHIFT FOUR: 4pm-7pm
SHIFT FIVE: 7pm-10pm

Guest Artist, Ted Looks At The World From Above And Below - Part Two

During the busiest time of year, the series of guest artists continue.  Ted Krever rides the trains and tells some tales. 

***

 The elevated trains display their structure like body builders at the beach - they might be unsightly but you can't miss 'em.

 

 

And with the noise and the breeze and being at roof height, the city seems far away

Guest Artist, Ted Looks At The World From Above And Below - Part One

During the busiest time of year, the series of guest artists continue.  Ted Krever rides the trains and tells some tales. 
***

I've always been fascinated by the elevated trains.

Underground tubes are an inward-looking, hurtling meditation of stainless steel and Plexiglas.

 

The El is a carnival, a clacking, sparking spidery light show - and a bit of left over Thirties or Forties New York in a world that is stupidly throwing those days away.

 

But either way, the subway is magic to me, menacing and wondrous.

GUEST ARTIST: Joni - Sunday Memories of Her New York And The Games We Once Played - Part 6

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

 Broadway in the 20's before it became prime real estate for luxurious entertainment only found in expensive products.

***

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

Friday's Child Is Loving And Giving And Getting Ready For The Long Cold Winter!!!

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

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

Click Here to find out how Social Tees
LIKES SAVES LIVES!

HAPPY ALL SAINTS DAY AFTER HALLOWEEN NIGHT!!!!

And what a perfect time to foster or adopt!!!!

And this puppy could be YOURS!!!  A PERFECT snuggle bunny during the upcoming winter!

Or maybe you want a couple of kittens!!!!  These sweet ones were just rescued from the kill shelter!

Do you want to foster or adopt???!!!!

 It's easy.  All you have to do is fill out a form

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, check out our FAQs here.

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

Do you want to participate in 

Friday's Child?

Not everybody can bring an animal home.  Not everybody lives in New York.  That's why Social Tees just started an Amazon Wish List. It's easy, it's fast and you never have to risk any allergies or a plane trip when you click a button.

Or, if you do live in New York but still can't bring an animal home or don't have the time for a weekly commitment, why not do a drive for materials for Social Tees!?

Visit them at their MATERIAL DRIVE COLLECTION page and find out how easy it can be! 

And if you live in New York and are in the neighborhood, stop by the 5th Street Store front 5-7pm weekedays and the Petco adoption events weekends!