Now & Then



This is so cool. A photographer superimposed a picture taken in 1953 with a picture in the same spot in 2010.
That's me and my godmother Carole on the day I was baptized 5/9/53.
The apartment building is the one I grew up in, 7111 Palisades Ave.
That's the WOR Radio Tower. At one time it was the eight largest man made structure in the world.
A plane hit the tower in heavy fog on 11/8/56. The top of the tower was destroyed and the tower was eventually taken down. I wrote about this on my blog a couple of months ago.



Woodstock Museum

A couple of weekends ago,we finally made a trip to the Bethel Woods Museum. We went with our friends Jackie & Lew Marchant.The museum contains some great historical memorabilia from the 1969 concert and the 1960's. It brought back so many  great memories.




Toni & Jackie

 



Toni and the Hippie Bus. Inside they run  a movie about the concert

  



We ran into our friends Marlene & Bambi along with Marion Caine who I haven't seen in over 30 years. Marion was married to our great friend Mike Caine





Toni, Jackie & Lew





They have this cool thing at the museum. The museum is doing an oral history of the original 1969 concert You go into a booth whereyou can record your verbal memories. I made a one minute recording and then they take your picture. If you go to the museum you can enter my name on their database and you'll hear my story. Next time we go I want to listen to other people's recordings.
I listened to my Woodstock "date" Cathy Longo's recollections. This is the picture of Cathy in their database..

This photo is from the exhibit and that's how I really remember it. Someday I hope to find a photo of Cathy & me at the concert. I keep looking but so far, no luck.

Me & Cousin Brucie

So I was pretty excited last week. There were signs all over Wurtsboro about a rock & roll party with Cousin Brucie at a campground near Wurtsboro on Saturday night. The sign said the party was a fund raiser with prizes and free food.
 Not to brag, but Cousin Brucie and I go way back. In 1964 I  listened to him  on WABC AM radio, on a red Channel Masters transistor radio, the kind with the one ear plug. When the Beatles burst on the scene they changed the name of the radio station to WABeatleC. In 1965 I waited in line for two hours at Schlesinger's Dept. Store, with my best friend Jacob Reicen, to see Cousin Brucie. He gave us both   genuine Beatle Belts, just like the ones the Beatles actually wore.

So I wanted to reminisce with Brucie about our last meeting, and to tell him that my friend Gloria Taylor used to trick or treat at his house, my wife Toni used to cut cold cuts for his wife and mother-in-law and that my friend Ray used to be his mail carrier! We had a lot to talk about. I brought along my camera so I could get some pictures of Brucie & me.We talked our good friend Mary into coming with us to meet Brucie. Mary got dressed up and Toni  even shaved her legs!

It took a while to find the right place. We drove for miles on a very dark, deserted road. Just when we thought we'd have to give up, we saw this car parked along the road. We knew this was it!



The sign outside the party room





We walked into the party room and we saw some people, but we only knew one elderly couple. There was  a lot of  "interesting" food on a table and I could see some of the of the people were wondering who we were. Well, I can tell you people who we are, we are Cousin Brucie fans! People were bringing in pots of food and Hispanic kids were running around wild. There were prizes on a table. Brucie hadn't arrived yet and the room seemed kind of small. I wondered where Brucie would set up his DJ equipment.


The place was a little shabby and the only bathroom was outside. I hoped Brucie didn't have to go.



Mary got so excited she had to use the gross port a potty



Finally the big moment arrived. The owner of the park,which I later discovered was really a trailer park, thanked everyone for coming.  The proceeds from the raffle would partly go to Brucie's charity and the rest of the money would go to feed the wild cats who lived in the park all winter. Huh, shouldn't they be trapped and fixed instead of fed?, No matter.

He then made the announcement it was Cousin Brucie time. I got my camera ready and the emcee went to the corner of the room  and TURNED ON THE RADIO. No Brucie just his Sirius radio show. Oops!

Mary & Toni didn't believe me when I told them Brucie wasn't coming. Brucie wasn't coming to this god forsaken place and he never would. The party was the trailer park's fund raiser to feed the mangy, feral cats and the entertainment was Brucie's radio show.The people at the party all lived in the trailer park, they had cooked their own food for a pot luck dinner and we were in their camp's rec. room.
We made a hasty exit  before someone asked who we were and what were we doing there eating their food.


Let's get out of here!

We drove to to the Quickway diner in Bloomingburg, where Mary & Toni told everyone what an idiot I was. Someone said since Brucie wasn't there I should have had my picture taken with my arm around the radio.
Now I see people snickering in town as I walk by. I guess the story is making the rounds of town.There's a moral/lesson here and as soon as I figure it out I will let you know. But I'm not giving up, one day Cousin Brucie and I will get some quality time together and we will  talk about my ABeatleC belt. ( Which I lost ) and we will remember the good times.

Bethel Woods Summer Concerts 2010

We got to see some  really good concerts this summer at Bethel Woods the original site of the Woodstock festival. We are so lucky that Bethel Woods is so near to us in Wurtsboro.

We went to see the Moody Blue with Cathy Longo Arment my 1969 Woodstock "date"

Moody Blue Skies



The Moody Blues





More Moody Blues



        



And still another Moody photo



Oh, no here comes the rain

It  poured for over an hour and yet the band kept on playing

Trying to ring out our blanket



Next Concert Steve Winwood & Santana



We went with friends Cathie & Terry



And their son Kyle, here with Cathie & Toni



It was a much better night than the Moody Blues



Conor Freaney Kilgore 1st birthday at Woodstock



Chrissie & Conor



With Karen & Jim Kilgore



Steve Winwood was really great. His music brought back so many great memories  for me and he sounded just the same as always did. He could have headlined his own show

Santana was also great. 
The first song they did was the one they played at the original concert in 1969.
Carlos talked about the  being on sacred land and the importance of this Woodstock site.
His show really got people moving.Excellent!



Sting with the Royal Philharmonic was our next concert

    

Cathy came back with us for Sting. We paid $80 a ticket for pavillion seating. Cathy went with no tickets and scored a pavillion seat for $10.



The original "Woodstock kids"



Toni really loved this show. I just don't understand what she sees in him

Before CS&N

The last show of the season for us was Crosby, Stills & Nash

 

Crosby & Nash sounded great ...Stephen Stills not so much, but he still played a mean guitar



This concert was a world's record for us. The show ended at 10:45 PM and we were back in Wurtsboro at 11:20 PM
We can't wait to see who's going to play Bethel Woods next year.



Chelsea's & Marc's Wedding

I had a great time at the Clinton Wedding.

I can't believe I got in this photo.

They loved the blender I gave them.

Aiden's 2nd Birthday

My little buddy Aiden turned two last week

He had a birthday party with lots of people and great food.

Aiden & his Mom Debbie

Debbie, our neighbor & Grandma Glo with the birthday boy

WOR TV Tower Plane Crash of 1956

One of my first memories was of the WOR TV Tower crash in 1956. The tower was built in 1949 and was built right next door to our apartment building, 7111 Palisade Ave in North Bergen, NJ. My apt. is the black building in the photo below, bottom right. The tower was 740 ft tall and stood 1040 feet above sea level. At night, red neon lights on the tower blinked WOR.

At the time it was built, the tower was 10th largest man made structure in the world. It always scared me.

Here I am with my godmother Carole in front of our apartment building with the tower behind us. This was taken May 1953.

On November 8th 1955, a small plane fit the tower in a heavy fog,the plane coasted 10 blocks and crashed into the top floor of an apartment building. The pilot and two passengers died as well as three ladies in the building. One lady jumped to her death because of the flames. The plane's engine landed in my future grammar school's play yard. Seven years later we would play on the cracked concrete where the engine landed.

I clearly remember our neighbors knocking on our door and telling us we had to evacuate the building. Everyone in a five block radius had to evacuate, because there was a real threat that tower would come crashing down.
We packed up and stayed at my Aunt Bertie's house in Wurtsboro for about a week until it was deemed safe. I remember it was so strange to see our neighborhood in the newspapers and on TV

Here's a picture of the tower from the west side of NYC the day after the crash. It's amazing how tall the tower was and that the town would have let it be constructed in a residential area. By 1957 the tower was torn down completely.