As COVID-19 cases begin to surge across the country, again, questions surrounding when life will truly return to normal rise along with it. And yet, our current plight is anything but a mystery. Did we really think we had this thing beat in less than four months? Was reopening such a good idea? As New York State’s numbers, once the epicenter of the pandemic, continue to decline the only thing that everyone (well,...
During my high school days, I competed in three sports. I was pretty busy and staying out of trouble, for the most part. One of the sports I competed in but had not planned to was wrestling. I tried out for basketball, which I loved playing. During the tryouts, I ran into the wrestling coach in the hallway. He said to me, “When you get cut from basketball, report to the...
From the moment I first heard it, I’ve never forgotten this quote attributed to Mark Twain: “I apologize for such a long letter – I didn’t have time to write a short one.” This bit of wisdom became a guiding force for me as a writer. Which is not to say that I’ve only written short pieces, but I always do aspire to be more economical in my writing. Although I don’t...
Something’s been bothering me. It’s been festering since Memorial Day Weekend. It was crystallized for me the other day when I turned the corner after walking just a few blocks from my home on my way to the neighborhood grocery store. As I turned the corner, I spotted some activity in front of the new lunch spot that had just opened the day before. The menu looks appetizing: cheese steaks, burgers, salads,...
https://youtu.be/a60Jf66POJs ...
When I was 10 years old, I discovered a thick folder in a box at my home in New Jersey. I twirled the string that held the flap secure and pulled out the contents—a cache of newspaper articles dating back to the mid-1930s. The articles were from the Newark Star Ledger and the Newark Evening News. As I sifted through the news clippings, they all had one thing in common: They were about my...
As I write this on the morning of May 25, 2020, I’m struck by what a different Memorial Day this is compared to what we have become so accustomed to. For the most part, there are no large gatherings on the beach; no parades led by high school bands; no throngs of people lining the streets, standing shoulder to shoulder and cheering on our war veterans; no big blowout shopping...
I celebrated my birthday on May 14 in the year of COVID-19. My wife Dale and I usually go out with friends for our birthdays. Obviously, that wasn’t happening this year. So, we ordered in from one of our favorite Italian restaurants. I had baked ziti and Dale had seafood over pasta. We had a seven-layer cake for dessert. It was a beautiful day all day, sunny and in the fifties. Some...
https://youtu.be/pzUPhgVKy28 ...
As a child growing up in New Jersey in the 1950's and 60's, one of my favorite things to do when school let out for the year was to get up, ride my bike to the candy store, meet up with friends, pick up a newspaper and check out the baseball box scores from the previous night’s games. I liked reading about my favorite players. I’d check their batting averages, earned...