What Remains

The Remains Of The Day, October 14, 2008

The boxes collected from the nearby beach towns of Jersey or from Coney Island or maybe even Seneca Falls are not her voice raging with life and insistence on the work of expression.

Nor are they her hand that last year of life seeking and yearning for someone to hold it.

These boxes are not even her gorgeous explosive silver and white hair that to the very end kept singing her indefatigable lust for attempting once more something of promise.

The Remains Of The Day, July 24, 2013

Those boxes, brought from her place to this home and now residing in a childhood's bookcase, hold new trinkets that remember for a middle-aged befuddled mind brief sweet moments of love, of friendship, of important moments and momentous passages of time and of impulsive purchases always under $10.

And tucked away next to those baubles are her own memories.  Of love, of friendship, of important moments and momentous passages of time and, knowing Florence, of impulsive purchases always under $5. 

 **
Related Posts:

Sunday Memories: Florence As A Memory

Precious In The Eyes Of The Beholder

The one or two 'pieces' Florence had held long histories and were rarely brought out.  I remember Seymour got Florence something at Bailey Banks and Biddle in Philadelphia during their honeymoon or their early days.  It was talked about as if he had scaled Mt Everest, entering the bastions of the ruling class.  And on a late birthday he surprised me with gold earrings, reminiscent of those worn by every Bubbie on the lower east side.  Bought at Fortunoff's he told me.  He had, once again, scaled Mt. Everest. 

If I ventured in to any place other than Woolworth's for earrings, I went to places like Kathe's on First Avenue.  Besides all the billions of ways a ring could be fashioned from a semi-precious stone and 14k gold or silver, there were multiple crucifixes and Star of Davids to choose from, not to mention tons of pins, each different from the next, and the perfect place to find the perfect gifts to celebrate those major turning points, like someone's first Timex watch for graduating 6th grade.

Other than the 'pieces' and their histories I've inherited, the things I have may not be precious but they are precious to me.   They get broken or beat-up or tarnished.  Clasps break on necklaces given by a favorite aunt or the one I gave the Mariner.  Pretty woven rings get unwoven.  Or you need to buy a chain, a simple chain (for a pendent that couldn't be worth more than a couple of bucks) without breaking the bank.

There is no mountain to scale walking into Kathe's.  You just open the door and whatever you have in your hand to be fixed or cleaned is as precious as everything in the whole store put together.

**
Related Posts:

Kathe's Jewelry Store on First Avenue

Sunday Memories: On The Road

Mechanic's Alley

Sunday Memories: Moving Day

The Mariner moved in.

There was a real moving van and real movers and four-wheel square skateboards that carried hundreds of things across the lobby and floors, and, in what felt like just a couple of minutes, every room in the apartment burst open with boxes and lamps and coffee tables, all cooking from the heat wave.

A much different day than the one that I moved on in 1976.

For one thing it wasn't a day; it was a night.  And whatever small belongings I was taking in this forced expulsion from the Quartchyard fit into the trunk of my father's beat-up Valiant.   There wasn't much.  A record player and hifi set, clothes, maybe some books (I can't remember), and this chair.

Bought for $2 at the street fair held by Odyssey House on 6th Street probably 1971.  Florence and I carried it back together to Grand Street, me a 12 year old attempting to be the adults she saw in old movies and her a 48 year old furiously fighting the storm her life had become.   The chair lived in my childhood bedroom, which she took over when I fled to relatives' home.

When vacating this second time, now the adult age of 17, I took the chair.  I remembered it as being paid for with my $2 and living in my room all those years.  Florence was pissed as hell when she saw it gone and for the next three decades she'd comment about how that chair was really hers.

However, I had no intention of ever letting go of it.  Moving into an apartment of many rotating roommates and room changings, that chair followed me from bedroom to bedroom until one day, with most of my life filling those walls, it took its final spot outside the front door, a rest for the cat in his wanderings, a seat while the Mariner opened the door, a safe place to put the bag of groceries with the eggs in it, a reminder of that night I left to seek home.

**
Related Posts:

Sunday Memories:  Lonely Town

Days Like This

Dust To Dust And Then New Cities Rose

Sunday Memories: On The Road

Stories From The Crossing

Encore To Celebrate Exodus And Resurrection - The Exhaustion Of Diaspora: Part Six

In Memory Of Cindy: The Land Of The Quartchyard

Friday's Child Is Loving And Giving And One Coooooool Cat (And Puppy!)

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

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

 

The James Bond of Kittens! Up for adoption!!!

So are the Fred and Ginger of Kittens, the Manx Kids!!!

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

OK YOU DON'T WANT TO GET MARRIED, JUST DATE?

THEN FOSTER!!!!!

This sweet angel Aussie mix here has nowhere to go! She is only 2 years old, very sweet with dogs, cats and humans. Quiet and not hyper, taking her in for a week or two could make this brutal summer feel like heaven!

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:

The Promise

Everyone rushed to the railing to take a picture of the Lady.  Everybody, not just the tourists.

She was still and forever our promise for a fair, an equal, a just life in a fair, an equal, a just country.

A younger than me but older than young woman, dragging her older than me but younger than ancient mother behind her jockeyed their way closer to the view.  Then, in what sounded like Russian, the daughter told her mother to pose with the Lady and quickly snapped several pictures.

Whatever journey that mother and daughter had traveled to that moment,  they now had, from those quiet camera clicks, proof of the promise. 

**
Related Posts:

On The Ferry Monday Morning

Love Letters From The Most Beautiful Harbor In The World

Sunday Memories:  Getting Out Of Town

Midnight At The Oasis

The Walk To Hope

Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay

Taking It To The Streets

Stuck upstairs sick, I heard the roar first, almost like a ferocious chorus from one pissed-off opera.  The street got fuller and fuller with shouts and chants,and going to the window I watched for the next forty minutes thousands of people - every age, shape, race, gender, walking, wheeling, being pushed - call for justice.

The cars weren't going anywhere and they weren't happy about it.  But all these crotch rocket bikers wound their way to the front. They revved their engines like crazy and borrowed signs from marchers to wave to the never ending pouring of people fed up and incensed. 

The 80-year-old in his Birkenstock and cargo shorts exchanged power to the people fist salutes with them and then he stood in front of cars attempting to cross to the other side.  Not on his watch.  The cars would wait this time; the people would come first.  And the bikers, delighted with his 'don't fuck with me' attitude, revved their bikes even more.

And when there were no more marchers, just the police van coming up from behind, the old man stepped aside and the bikers revved even more and burst ahead popping wheelies and zipping down an empty avenue.

**
Related Posts:

A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood

Summer Reruns - Sunday Memories: Home Where My Love Lies Waiting - revisited

This is Florence somewhere in Bushwick. She told me she could tell how their fortunes were diminishing by how bad the new home was. This move was one of the bigger steps down.

The trip from Trenton to Brooklyn was taken illegally in the front of the truck with the driver who, according to Florence, took pity on Gramma and her, two lone females on the border of destitute.

I know nothing of that apartment on Patchen Avenue, except that Florences flourished at Eramus High School, was neighbors with someone who knitted mittens used for shooting rabbits, and had someone mailed her a little letter so that she could have this special stamp for her collection.





***

original post:

The Exhaustion of Diaspora: Part Six - Home Where My Love Lies Waiting
Saturday, April 4, 2009

Friday's Child Is Loving and Giving And Smells Of Success!!!!

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

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

EVERY BIT HELPS!  EVERY BIT COUNTS!

Success story!!! 

 

Here are Bobo and Stella (euthlist last week) in their amazing foster home in NJ!! Thank you to Melinda C., Social Tee's regular foster who ALWAYS steps up in the craziest situations! Thanks to her BOTH dogs were pulled out of the shelter and into the same home! This is what rescue is all about- team effort and taking on the hard cases!! One tail at a time!!!! 

 

A REAL HAPPY ENDING!!!

 

 

"We adopted Molly, a Weimaraner, in September and just wanted to say how much we love her. Her favorite things to do are swim in the ocean, walk in the woods, play with our Vizsla (Delta Blue), and snuggle under the covers! So glad that we found your organization. She is very loving and attached to us at the hip. I've had many dogs in my life, but she is really something special. I think she knows that, too! Thank you again for the great work that you do."

Adopt a rescue pet, and YOU could be a future Social Tees Success Story! socialteesnyc.org

 

It's as easy as reading more below!

 

 

HOW TO SUCCEED IN LOVE 

WITHOUT EVEN TRYING!

 

MEET LOVER BOY LANCE!
 

This elegant little man is eager to wine and dine you. He's even dressed for the occasion -- tuxedo! Lance is a wonderful young senior at about 10 years old. He's got a sweet balance of playful energy and laid back laziness. He's good with other cats and dogs, and he adores snuggling and being brushed. He was recently rescued from the euthanasia list and is now living it up in an awesome foster home nearby. Lance is very affectionate and completely wooed his foster mom. Now it's time for him to find a forever family that will give him as much love as he gives everyone he meets!

 

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

 

Passages

Just off of 14th Street, moments of cool peace in the midst of hot changes....

"Jewish Geography"

This is Perry. 

I had never even heard of that kind of geography and I had no idea that's what we were doing.   But, in fact, we were and not only that, it's what I've been doing my entire life. 

*His step-father was best friends with Bob.

*He had a crush on Bob's sister.

*He married a woman whose grandmother lived in the Quartchyard.  B Building.  I'd know her if I saw her.

*His (former) mother-in-law lives in the buildings Dana and George lived in for years. Betcha bottom dollar they know each other...

*Bob and Carola moved into Second Avenue.

*Tom was friends with Bob.  Tom and Laura moved to Second Avenue.

*I moved from the Quartchyard to Second Avenue, right above Bob and Carola.

*Perry and his then wife moved into the Quartchyard.  A Building.  One floor above Florence on the other side of the elevator.  Yeah, he knew Mrs F. and the family.

*Bob's sister moved to Second Avenue.

*Perry did work in their apartments, including connecting my apartment with Carola's via a hole in the floor/ceiling and an internet cable and other cool stuff I used to envy.

*Laura now works with friends I grew up with. 

*Perry now has brass window pieces from Second Avenue that Joni saved during the 1980s window installment (otherwise known, wtf or in yiddish, mishaghas)

*And thanks to Perry, there are now parts of my apartment that look as nice as what I used to envy in Bob and Carola's.

However, I didn't even broach the subject about him going to Stuyvesant High and all the people we knew in common there.  Because, after all, I gotta stop talking at some point.....

**
Related Posts:

Jewish Geography

It's A Small, Small, Small World After All

Home Is Where The Heart Is

Last of the Native New Yorkers

Sunday Memories: In The Happy Cacophony Of A Visit...

Sunday Memories: The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future

In Memory of Cindy: Land Of the Quartchyard

Sunday Memories: Guest Artists: Dana  - Encore-"If I Bring Forth What Is Inside Me, What I Bring Forth Will Save Me"

A Poem Becomes Her

Sunday Memories: Long-Ass Journey Into Home

At 17, I had, newly ensconced in the small room, envied the big room.  But rent was divided up by size and I could at that time only afford small.

Don't exactly remember exactly when 'we' moved into the big room.  It was ours for a while and then as things changed, mine.

I don't remember when I moved back into the small room.  It was definitely years, maybe decades later.  The big room became someone's bedroom for a while.  I was in a new 'we' which lived in the small room.

Roommates came and went and lived in small rooms and the big room and then small rooms, a constant parade of different sized shoes.

Finally, one day the big room was empty.  And very few roommates remained.

It became a quiet parlor room, filled with plants and soft green walls.  It was like that for a long time.  Until that 'we' suddenly stopped.

The green walls became a prison.  They told and retold every lie of that 'we'.  A friend helped pick out new colors, soft blue and creamy yellow and bright, bright white, that opened up the walls and expanded light and joy back into my world.

However, when the yellow can was opened...  a bottle of tequila for the painters and a hastily bought can of white brought that creamy yellow onto the walls.

The room finally became itself, unfolding into a quiet place to write, to pray, to laugh, to have wonderful cake and tea.  Plants that could withstand neglect filled it.

But the old floor, beaten to bare planks hadn't changed.  They had for at least forty years if not sixty years been stomped on, tiptoed on, danced on, sat on and in return had given splinters to any foot too much in a rush to be careful.

Before death or eviction, one must leap into making home a home. In under two hours the Mariner emptied the room and the cat, bewildered that his hiding spots and scratching posts had disappeared, settled in with us waiting for transformation to begin.

**
Related Posts:

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

When All Was Said And Done

There was trouble in the corners.  Mothers were roosting on eggs that weren't hatching.  Nests were being abandoned, and for weeks, fights were breaking out.

One nesting spot that had always been filled with babies from spring to late fall remained empty.  And in the other corner, one mother didn't move for months, no matter what the other pigeons did to her.

I thought about the canary in the mine, the bird dying to give a signal to the miners that they too were in danger.  Watching the sudden break from almost four decades of consistent breeding, I wondered what these pigeons might be telling us.

Then this morning, movement not seen in a while but quite familiar in the other corner, the one where several failed eggs still remained, there she was, proudly and fiercely feeding one of her baby chicks.

**
Related Posts:

Sunday Memories:  What The Stork Brought

Last Of The Landsman* At The Pass

 

We didn't know what hit us, but it was very familiar.  Like home you didn't know you were missing until it was right in front of you.

We were headed down Orchard Street to the Untitled Store.  Towels.  I wanted to look at towels and, as we crossed Grand Street, I wonder what it would be like to have a set of towels not fifteen years old or mismatched.

Mr. Gluck didn't head us off at the pass. We couldn't even get near to the pass.  He headed us off half a block away, one look at the Mariner, he knew a good suit would be the answer to everything.

And before we could stop ourselves, Mr. Gluck, clearly an expert at herding baby ducks, sheep and middle-aged strollers, got us into his store filled with suits and coats and jackets and ties and they were beautiful.

And we said no,  no, every step we took deeper into full wardrobes for sale we said no, every cent we had was going to root canals and fresh paint on old walls so, no, no, but yes tell us stories of your father who made the store we will tell you stories of Poppy who lived around the corner and was one of the first striker to get arrested and...

I don't know how he did it but before you could say thank you or oh really or yes such a shame or even no! how old is your father, Mr. Gluck had the Mariner in a suit jacket you couldn't even imagine the cashmere the silk the flow the feel the dark blue so subtle it didn't have to say a word it was so intriguing but you could hear it singing ok so maybe the lining looked like you'd wear it to an over-the-top bar mitzvah but still...

The price was what that root canal costs, so I said NO in the voice of authority because when a Jewish woman speaks in a clothing store that's the end of the discussion, at least when it comes to spending root canal money we don't even have  and I said (as a joke) we'll come back and maybe you'll get married in that, and Mr. Gluck said married again because in his mind we were and he turned to the Mariner as I laughed so hard and said, see?  A happy wife, a good couple... then dragged me over to the pants on the hanger to look and feel and touch and just try to wrinkle that cuff you can't, for you I make a good price...

So, if you want a suit that flows and feels and sings and is cashmere and silk and you can't wrinkle it it is such a good fabric, go... go to Mr. Gluck.  It won't be hard to find him because all you have to do is walk down Orchard and once you cross Grand...

GLOBAL INTERNATIONAL
62 Orchard Street between Grand and Hester
New York City
212.431.4530

*Landsman: A fellow Jew who comes from the same district or town, especially in Eastern Europe.

**
Related Posts:

Sunday Memories - A Visit from Another Her New York: "It Looked Chaotic But It Was Quite Organized."

Orchard Street

The Untitled Store

It Was His New York

Days Like This

Stories From The Crossing

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.

 **
Related Posts:
 
Sunday Memories: What The Stork Brought

Oscars, Opera and Orson Welles at Onyx Court

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.

**
Related Posts:

Sunday Memories: Schneller And Her Boys

Sunday Memories: Yeudi

Sunday Memories: The Domino Effect

A Poem Becomes Her

Home Is Where The Heart Is

Sunday Memories:  In three acts G. dies in Manhattan in 1993

 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.

**
Related Posts:

When The Past Is Screaming To Be Heard

Walkng the Walk Walking The Talk

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.

**

Related Posts:

Another Escape

Going Up The Country, Got To Get Away

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.

**
Related Posts:

Dust To Dust And Then New Cities Rose

Sunday Memories: On The Road

Sunday Memories:  "Not Coney. Coney Island."

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.