Checkerbells

Checkerbells is a wonderful shop. When you walk into Checkerbells you want to look and touch everything, especially little kids, more little girls and young teenage girls.

My friend Laura created the shop and has owned and operated it for ten years now. Unfortunately she has decided to move on to another adventure in her life, and one that doesn't keep her as busy as owning her own business, which was a 24/7 job. She wants to pursue other creative enterprise that will also give her time with her twin boys, young men now.

If you live in the West Brighton area or have shopped along Forest Avenue in Staten Island, you had to have been drawn into Checkerbells just from the window display and though I was only there once to visit my friend Laura, I found myself examining every item in the store, a wonderful place to just window shop, I guess for big girls as well!

Though she's selling the store, she is hoping that whoever buys it leaves Checkerbells the way it is. I hope so too. It really has charm, it's original, it has Laura's magic touch. But just in case, get there before she closes her doors.

END-OF-WINTER SALE

Now in progress is Checkerbells' end-of-winter sale, with all items 25 percent off, except those on consignment from local artists.

Check out Laura's own unique hand-painted furniture - – breakfronts, hutches, and armoire furniture – perfect for children's rooms, and also on sale.

Prospective buyers of the business should contact Nancy Galatro of Robert Defalco Realty, 917- 975-5212.

Checkerbells, 643 Forest Ave.
Hours: Tuesday through Saturday,
10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Closed Sunday and Monday.
Phone: 718-390-9822
Email: checkerbells@aol.com

I met Laura in 1985 when I switched jobs, leaving my fun secretarial position at WOR-AM Radio to downtown Manhattan, in the oh too serious financial district. The lure of more money brought me there and I had my first exposure to computers. Had I stayed in the radio business, it would have been a few years before they would have what the financial district did electronically.

Laura was not so serious, we had a lot in common, both of us from Bay Ridge and we had some similar friends from the neighborhood. Laura was one of the people I considered "normal" at this job. Everyone else was so serious, so different from my radio days and Laura made me feel comfortable right away.

Laura taught me to use a computer and from the way she approached teaching me, her logic, I believe my ease in learning new programs to this day is because of Laura. She made it very simple, logical, she didn't over explain anything and I thank her to this day for passing along her knowledge. Because of her I've done very well as a word processor and love my work.

Before owning Checkerbells, Laura quit being a secretary, and became a word processor herself with one of the big financial firms downtown, still one of the big ones. I think she was running the department by the time she left that job and created Checkerbells.

Laura and I worked on a mini trading floor for the traders and mini didn't mean there weren't quite a few people we were answering the phones and performing secretarial duties. There was another girl that worked for the head guy of the department. Laura, me and the other girl sat at big fancy desks right in a row and I sat in the middle desk. I was kind of the lead secretary's secretary but still had to help out the other traders. Laura didn't have to work as much with the lead secretary and if she was out, I was the fill-in, again very serious atmosphere, I needed to let the real Tricia out of the box a few times a day and Laura helped me do that.

Laura and I had a view of the entire trading floor so we could catch their attention when they were on the phone, which basically was always and tell them they had a call. I remember there were so many buttons on the phone! I didn't think it was something I would get use to at all, but before long it just became second nature, answering a line and screaming out to one of the traders who was calling for them. I wrote in one of my other blogs that this job was where Oliver Stone and Charlie Sheen spent a few days getting the feel for a trading floor when Oliver Stone directed the film Wall Street. I'm sure he heard my big mouth screaming out to the traders during those days. I'll have to watch the film again and see if any of the workers on the trading floor have any of my traits!

We used the WANG computer system at that time and it was a very basic word processing system, but popular at the time. It was about two years before I saw a MAC Apple, and it was so evident and exciting to me what computers would become, I was caught up in computer world and was so interested in how things kept changing, constantly and again because of Laura my expertise with computers made it fun rather than being overwhelmed by the changes occurring overnight.

When we had down time, rare, or just when we needed a stress release Laura and I would play a game called Animal on the WANG. We also had Space Invaders but you could tell when we were playing that, you would get caught up and before you know it, there's a trader in your face asking what you're working so intently on. Not cool.

When I first asked Laura about the game Animal, she said it was boring. It was. It would ask questions and tell you what animal you were thinking of. Like "do you swing through trees" and if you answered yes, it would say "are you a monkey". But you could teach it new animals when you answered no and it would ask you for hints. Well of course I didn't create new animals, I created hints for people on the mini trading floor.

I would say no and when it asked for a hint I would put something like "who is the moodiest and hairiest guy who walks by your desks too many times and needs a mint". Stuff like that. About everyone on the trading floor. And Laura learned the new version of Animal quickly, she had my kind of sense of humor.

Out of the blue, Laura or I would say "play animal" and then we'd both bust out laughing, having the lead (oh so serious) secretary giving us looks like an old-fashioned librarian telling you to shush. It got us through the day. Again it was a busy intense office atmosphere and our little game of Animal kept our sanity!

The mini trading floor needed more space after a couple of years and we were moving upstairs to a bigger space but Laura and I knew all this silly and funny (well only to us) information from our game of Animal might be seen. We had to explain to the IT tech that he had to delete Animal from our computers and stopped playing after that, learning early in the game what you put out there is out there forever!

Well Laura put Checkerbells out there, a great shop which I'm sad is closing but glad that I got to see Laura succeed the way she did. She deserves to succeed, she works very hard and I'm sure whatever direction she heads in, she will make her mark.

I hope whoever buys it keeps Checkerbells the way it is and if not, we've been so lucky these last ten years to visit and buy anything from Laura's beautiful creation, Checkerbells.

And of course I'm super glad that Laura and I crossed paths in our journey through life, she surely made a difference in mine.