throwback thursday: 14th street

My dad was born on 14th Street in New York City, and at least, c. 2000, the building was still standing. Here's a photo from a trip we made to the city from our home in N.J. (probably to see a Yankee game) in the 1970s. The building is the first brownstone, with Allen's Bar at the ground level.

Here's a close-up shot, with my mom and me standing in front of Allen's Bar. The family had more than one apartment in the building. The family patriarch, my great grandfather Don Peppino, a retired chef, had an office in the front of the building, where he would see patients. After he retired from the restaurant he spent his time as a healer. The family lived in rooms at the back of the building. In summertime Don Peppino would sit out on the roof and dry tomatoes, which he would later use to make sauce. Apparently the building also once featured a stoop, and a shop that sold prosthetics and wheelchairs was the storefront in the 1930s.

Here's a color polaroid from 1999 or 2000, from when I last lived in NY. The storefront was still a bar, but with a different name, and the bike store was gone. A satellite dish was now on the roof, but for the most part times didn't seem to have changed all that much. I'm not sure what I'd find there today.

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boston

Thoughtful at Cheers, originally uploaded by xoxoxoe.

I was born at the Jersey Shore. My father was born in the Bronx. We were, are, and always will be New York Yankees fans. But unlike a lot of my fellow Yankee lovers I've never hated the Boston Red Sox. A few summers ago we took a New England vacation in search of our Salem witchery roots and Boston was one of the stops on our trail. I really loved the city. Its history, its rough-and-tumble edge. We didn't see a ballgame, but we did lots of other touristy things. We took a ride in a swan boat, we went to the aquarium, we went to the Museum of Fine Arts. We ate at Cheers. We drove and walked around town. We had a lot of chowdah.

I've been thinking a lot the past few days about faith, and what we all choose to believe. Although I don't believe all the pretty Bible stories, I do believe that God could walk as a man, woman or child (even animal) among us and might even do that on occasion. Maybe even more often than we think. But when confronted with the sort of human disaster of the past few days, all those beliefs and hopes seem shattered. All I can do right now is think about the innocent people who are gone and the people who are still grappling with their injuries, and all the people who are helping them and hoping for them and praying for them.

I'm so very sorry Boston, that this has happened to you. That this could happen to anyone anywhere.

saturday afternoon baseball

Today we went to see the Florida Marlins play the Atlanta Braves.



As a dyed-in the-wool Yankees fan, it was hard at first to think of going to a ballgame with no Yankees involved, but it turned out that there were some appearances by ex-Yanks . . .



The kid had a great time, documenting the impending rain clouds.



Maybe not so great a time after the rain actually showed up . . .



The Marlins almost blew a 6-0 lead by letting the Braves tie it up and walking home two runs. All looked bleak as the game headed into extra innings and then got bleaker after one player got beaned by a foul ball while on deck. But two hits later the Marlins finally won the game. Such high drama—it was almost like a Yankee game after all.

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