Sisters!

Today is my sister Linda's birthday! Happy Birthday my beautiful sister!

If you were blessed like me and have a sister you can understand the special relationship sisters have. I am twice blessed, I also have my sister Debbie and though the three of us have had many fights over the years, most of the time we really get along and are best friends. Sisters!

Linda and I are only 2 years apart and kinda grew up separate from Debbie. Debbie is 8 years younger than me. Debbie and my youngest brother Joey were buddies when they were kids, they shared a room and me and Linda shared a room. Eventually it came time for Debbie and Joey to be separated and Debbie moved in with us. We were rotten to her, kicked her out of the room all the time and all she wanted to do was hang with her big sisters. When we lived in Brooklyn and she was so young we told her there were ghosts upstairs so she never came up to our room then, even after my mom found out and told us to stop, she was already afraid. Sisters!

Linda and I shared a bedroom for many years. My mom even dressed us alike when we were little. Not everything, but we always had the same coat, hat, scarf, same winter boots, same pajamas, stuff like that. She just bought two of everything when she went shopping. I remember finally being old enough to go and pick out my own clothes. I bought a pair of sandals and Linda went out and bought the very same ones. I was livid. Here I finally can be different and my little sister is buying the same shoes. Sisters!

I drove Linda crazy in so many ways when we shared a room. If you know me, I can be a bit hyper, just a bit! And when I was young and even into my 20s, I didn't even slow down in my sleep. I walked, talked, moved all over the bed. Most of the time we had bunk beds but there was a time we had a couch that turned into a bed and we slept together. That was the last time my sister Linda slept in the same bed with me. To this day, if we go away together, she always says I'm not sleeping with Tricia! And I've stopped walking and talking in my sleep. I know for sure but she wont believe me and again I tortured her, so I understand. Sisters!

I would lose my blanket and pillow while tossing and turning and just take hers. Sometimes I would be asleep, sometimes awake, she never knew, but I would just take the blanket and pillow from her and argue it was mine. There was a time that at about 3 or 4 in the morning, still sleeping, I would turn on the light and start to get ready for school. Linda would scream at me to go back to bed and eventually I would but it was happening every night. And then, I guess because all day long Linda would tell me how I ruined another night of sleep for her, I started to realize what I was doing, I would be turning the light on and wake up. Linda would start screaming at me and I would say I'm awake, I know, I'll turn out the light. But I had said "I'm awake" so many times when I wasn't that she didn't believe me, again, I don't blame her. I'm sure I drove her crazy. Sisters!

As an adult I can see now that little siblings look up to their older siblings, they love them, want to be like them and it's a shame we don't realize that until we're adults. As I watched my nieces and nephews grow up I can see them all looking up to their older brother, sister or cousin with that adoration and the older one is always just trying to get away from the younger one. But I've also watched them grow up to be great friends.

My sisters unfortunately don't live close by, Linda's only about and hour and half away and Debbie is about five hours, so we do get together a lot, but it's not the same as when we lived together or even close by. We talk on the phone but now that they are both moms and working full time too, we don't get to talk as often. There was a time when both their husbands would be complaining to them about how much time we spent talking on the phone with each other, hours, every day. How could we have so much to say?! Sisters!

I grew up watching my mom and her sister, my beautiful Aunt Libby, having such a close relationship, best friends. Aunt Libby has a son and a daughter, Doug and Chrissy, and they are really brother and sister to me and my siblings. Chrissy and Debbie are close in age, they grew up together, fought and made up like sisters. That counts as a real sister in my book, when you can fight and then make up like nothing happened. My brothers' wives, Debbie, Jackie and Janet, they have sisters and they too have and know that special connection. There's nothing like it.

Sisters!

Gracie's Zoo Party

My niece Gracie received her First Holy Communion last spring and she had her party at the Staten Island Zoo. It was a great party! They had a big tent set up and I'm not sure where the food was catered from, but wherever, it was great.

The kids had absolutely the best time. Gracie's parents hired a DJ who really entertained the kids and the adults. Our Bella is making her First Holy Communion next spring and all she thinks about is that she wants to have a Zoo Party like her cousin Gracie. What else would she be thinking of!?

I remember for my First Holy Communion I couldn't wait to wear my new shoes! Even at 7 I was into shoes. I would have worn them out if my mom didn't put them away. I remember the morning of my Communion Day she opened the closet and took those shoes out to give to me. Even the dress and vail didn't mean as much as those shoes. They were probably ruined in a couple of weeks knowing me. And I had a party on my Communion Day and sometime during the party my mom went into labor. It's funny, I don't remember her being pregnant, I don't remember her leaving but I do remember her calling me the next day to tell me I had a new sister, Debbie, and I remember saying something like, yeah another sibling, when are you coming home with my money. My Communion had been the first time I had been given gifts of money and I guess I gave it to my mom when she left for the hospital to keep it safe from my brothers. It's funny the things you remember and don't remember.

For Gracie's party I made party bags filled with animal cookies. The party bags can be whatever size you need, you can find all different sizes at a craft store like Michaels. I make a tent card and staple them to the bags.



But Gracie especially loved the t-shirt I made for her and wanted to put it on as soon as she saw it. Her mom wanted to take more pictures of her with her beautiful dress and vail but Gracie just wanted to wear the t-shirt. I hope Gracie remembers that, I know I will.

I also took lots of pictures of the fun day and then put them together in video to music. You can see how much fun the kids were having.

Dolls, dogs and brothers...

My sister-in-law Debbie (the big sister I always wanted) reminded me the other day about how my brother's dog, Mac, a Bulldog, totally destroyed my niece Irene's favorite doll. He chewed it like a bone, the dress was shredded and Irene was so upset and crying. She slept with her little doll, carried it around. Thank goodness my sister in law was able to get the same doll the next day. It wasn't any special doll, not a Cabbage Patch Doll, or any one of the big sellers of the day but she was Irene's "baby". Me and my sister Linda used to tease her about her doll's name. Horrible aunts! She was just a toddler, but we would ask her what the doll's name was and she would say "Baby". We would say no, what's the baby's name? She would get all upset and say "Baby, it's Baby!" She was the center of attention, the first niece for us, my parents first grandchild, the world was centered around Irene. But poor Mac, he was the king of his castle. My brother loved his dog and even celebrated his birthday with cake and party hats! Mac was a typical bulldog, his jowls always filled with gooey saliva and he would shake his head sometimes and I would get hit with that slime flying across the room! But I loved Mac, he was a good dog.

My brother became a father when he still had Mac and what Mac went through with my niece Jessica! She tortured the poor dog and he let her, never growled or bit or went after her, he knew she was the reigning princess. He also humped everyone! You had to watch out if he was coming near you. It might just be to get a big old pet, but it mostly was to hump your leg! The only person he never did that to was Jessie, he knew enough. Again I loved Mac even with some of his "annoying" habits! Jessie grew up thinking that's what all dogs did. When I got Molly she asked me if Molly humped. I cracked up, it's so funny what kids think and say, so honest about everything!

I used to love the Candid Camera show, especially when Allen Funt would talk to the kids. So innocent and honest. Here's a great clip from Candid Camera with Muhammad Ali surprising some kids that were being asked questions about him and their faces when they see him they are so real (that's reality TV!!) and so honest. And by the way, the last kid who talks with Ali mentions Chuck Wepner, nicknamed "The Bayonne Bleeder". Me and my friends used to run into Chuck all the time "down the Jersey Shore". His license plate said "Champ" and he always had an entourage of young girls hanging around him getting free drinks. My brother Bob came down one weekend and we all went to the Headliner. Chuck was there with all his girls. My brother, who has a few drinks in him, starts imitating all the girls around Chuck, saying "Chuck, Chuck, oh Chuck!" It was time to leave! We got out of there before Bobby became "The Brooklyn Bleeder"!



And when my sister-in-law Debbie reminded me of Irene's doll, I remembered what my brother Michael did to my Tutti Doll.
The Tutti doll came out in 1965, so I was about 6 or so when I got the doll. She was Barbie's little sister. We didn't have lots of Barbie Dolls when we were young, we had more paper dolls. They were popular when I was growing up. I don't think kids today would be the least interested in playing with them, but me and my sister Linda, our cousins and friends had hours of fun playing with them. I had Mary Poppins paper dolls and even Little Women, so many more.

I loved my Tutti Doll and me and Linda, I'm sure, each had one. I'm 2 years older than Linda and my mom pretty much bought 2 of everything in different sizes. My brother Michael is 4 years older than me and as I've mentioned he was one of the biggest busters you ever met! Especially to me when we were growing up. He didn't tease Linda at all, I was a much better subject, he could get a rise out of me by looking at me. And he was 12 or so years older than my sister Debbie and to her, he couldn't have been sweeter, they had a very special relationship from the start. Michael had an assignment in school about Joan of Arc and actually asked me to use my Tutti Doll as Joan of Arc, all sweet and nice, like he didn't just put a fork in between his teeth and bite down on it, something that drives me crazy! I probably said something like no way, you're not using my doll for anything, and besides I don't even like you.

Of course Michael used my doll. I came home to find her burned at the stake, he cut up a sheet and made some kind of dress for her and actually set her on fire, she was burned, her hair all gone. I was furious! I don't remember, but I hope he didn't get a good grade on that project!!

Dolls.
Wonderful memories of playing with my dolls. Funny now, not then, but Michael burning Tutti at the stake (an ice cream stick) was funny. They entertained me and my friends for hours, using our imagination to make up stories. I didn't have a lot of Barbie Dolls, maybe two, but some of my friends did and shared, they had more Barbie dolls, the house and car, so much more than I did, and I learned about sharing and also some people had more than me and some less, and that was okay.

Brothers!
I have four, three older, one younger. The older ones drove me crazy most of the time when I was young, again mostly Michael, but there were many times I thought they were cool and was proud that they were my big brothers, and now, the older ones may still see me as their baby sister, even though we're all in our 50s, we're friends, love each other and spending time with each other, I wouldn't trade them for anything. And my younger brother Joey, my buddy since he was a baby, my best friend.

Dogs.
We had a dog in our family ever since I can remember. Sometimes two at a time and a cat or two in there as well. Sandi, Prince, Mr. Tibbs, Heide, Kissie and then my beautiful Molly. Meant for me. All my brothers and sisters, cousins and friends, a lot of dog lovers in my life, especially my friend Maria, who has three now, all of them she rescued and I've never seen more animals in anyone's home and I'm not talking about her three dogs, her cat and turtle. Everything is an animal. Her coffee cups have animal pictures on them. Her paper towel holder, her hamper, prints on the wall, her jewelry, all animals. She's one of those special people when it comes to animals. And as much as her husband loved dogs before knowing Maria, I think he loves them more now. She gives her time and money to all kinds of animal charities. When she rescued Dixie, she was part of a chain of people that brought Dixie and her brothers and sisters up from the south. They would meet at state lines and then the next person would transport the puppies to the next state line. Maria, in New Jersey, was the final stop for the pups and got to drop them all off with their new families. She spent a few hours driving with them and picked her Dixie and also said it was amazing, each of the puppies really fit with the families that picked them. Even the last person, who didn't get to choose, the pup fit with them. They were all meant for each other.

Trick or Treat?

My mom used to tell me I loved collecting pennies when I was young. It's funny because now I pick them up from the street all the time. Some people only pick up the ones that are heads up, but I pick up most of the ones I find, I think of them as pennies from heaven, someone up there is thinking of me. Sometimes I even turn the pennies over to head's up, maybe giving someone a lucky day.

We lived in Long Island until I was about 5 and I was still collecting my pennies but then we moved to Brooklyn, right around the block from my first candy store, Jacks. My mom said I was in my glory when I discovered what all my pennies could buy. I can remember going in there, the gumball machine you put a penny in and gum came out! The pretzel jar. Penny candy, I was in my glory. Unfortunately, it was the start of a terrible relationship! I would use the bus fare money my mom gave me to go to the dentist to buy candy, and walked over 20 blocks each way just to have it!

When I was in third grade our teacher, Mrs. McVay, read to us the book "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". We were all entranced by the story, gave up playing in the yard at recess to listen to more of the story. I dreamed of living in that world! Everything made of candy! I was about 12 when the movie came out and loved it. I still dreamed of a world of candy! I really didn't enjoy the second movie with Johnny Depp, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". I love Johnny Depp, think he's a great actor, but the movie was too dark for me, there was nothing dark about the story I heard in third grade, and the first movie just captured what I imagined it would be like.

So obviously Halloween was my favorite time of the year. We wore those cheesy boxed costumes when we were really little, but eventually starting making home made costumes which I think are always the best. Some people over the years have come up with some costumes that I still remember, they just stand out, so original, so creative! And the Village Halloween Parade! Those costumes are amazing. I went one year, but even if you can just catch it on TV, it's worth it.

Kids now have much nicer costumes than we did and they are too cute and also very scary too! I remember our friend Annie (more like part of our family) dressed her son Ryan up as Winnie the Pooh. He was about 2 or so and absolutely adorable. His cute chubby baby face and even the way he walked at that age, I will never forget how cute he looked.

That year we were up in Boston and they don't even go out until after sundown up there, different traditions everywhere. I looked up on line, of course, about the history of Halloween. It's changed so much other the years and has been influenced by many different cultures. It's interesting, look it up!

The trick part of it seems to have just disappeared from Halloween. Thank goodness! Had I known about the trick part as a kid and young adult, I probably would have given up the candy for the trick!!

Halloween starting changing when I was about 10 or so. I remember razors being found in apples, we started to throw away the loose candy. Kids, teens started throwing eggs, Nair Hair Removal and shaving cream all over people, cars. Halloween ended for us before sundown and we didn't mind. As much as we were losing bags of candy, it was safer staying home. As a teen living in Staten Island, me and my sister were walking our dogs one morning and Linda got hit in the head with an egg. It was like a rock hitting her, I felt so bad. It's such a shame it got out of hand. In Brooklyn I never heard of "mischief night", but in Staten Island it was big. It was the night before Halloween and kids would be out throwing eggs at each other, at cars and buses driving by. It got so out of hand stores would actually have signs saying only adults could buy eggs during the Halloween season and there were lots of adults who bought eggs for their kids. I wonder if any of them got hit with an egg in the head or had an egg thrown in their windshield or windows as they were driving.

It seems to have stopped, changing again as everything does. Maybe just in my neighborhood, but I hope everywhere. It seems to be a nice holiday for kids again. They have way better costumes than we did, and even though parents have to take their kids out to keep them safe, they get to see how much fun their kids are having running from door to door for candy.

I've made a few fun things for the kids to bring to school when they were younger, now they are "too cool" for this kind of stuff, maybe I can still make some for Bella, but I'm not too sure? They are growing up way too fast!!!

These are mini-chocolate bar wrappers I made for Halloween a few years back. Same as the bigger wrappers, only I just seal the edges and don't crimp them, I think it looks better without the crimping but you could do that too. I made individual ones for Robert, Jojo and Bella and then just some generic ones. Jojo and Robert loved their costumes and are even posing for their pictures, no way I can get them to do that anymore!



And these were great, for those school parties where they don't want any more candy (poor kids!) These are Utz mini Halloween pretzel bags. I made a tent card and just glued it on the top of the bag. These were for Bella when she was in pre school. At that age she thought they were cool! And she was the cutest poodle I ever saw!

Girl Scouts of America

Yes I was a girl scout! It's called Girl Scouts of the USA now. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but back in the late 60s and 70s, I think it was Girl Scouts of America.

It was a big thing when I was growing up and Boy Scouts too. From about 5 or so, as a Brownie until about 8th grade, I'm guessing here, but I think I was a senior girl scout. I loved our meetings, our day trips, our camping weekends, we always had so much fun. Our leaders were wonderful women. I didn't know it then but these awesome women were donating their time, entertaining and teaching us for a couple of hours each week, and then a weekend camping trip each year. I respect them even more now. I kinda remember not so much liking my brownie leader, but I guess having a bunch of screaming 5 year olds girls running around isn't too easy, I'm sure she had to be a bit more stern with us and probably me more! I think I might have even been thrown out of Brownies and rejoined when I was a little older as a junior Girl Scout. I marched in my first parade as a Brownie, getting to hold the flag. Vague memories of of my Girl Scout days.

I know my niece Ashley is a Girl Scout, and only because I've bought the delicious cookies from her. I'll have to ask her what it's like being a Girl Scout now, what they do at their meetings, do they still have camping trips? I don't recall hearing about that from my sister.

Their uniforms have changed too! I guess girls wouldn't been caught wearing the uniforms of my time.




I looked up on line to try and find what kind of badges I earned when I was a Girl Scout.
The list I found was nothing like what I remember!? Women have come a long way just in my life time and so too have Girl Scouts. They earn computer expert badges, money manager, philanthropist, inventor, pets, making friends. I think we had first aid, sewing, cooking, safety. If any of my readers remember some of the badges we earned please remind me!!! But I know for sure we didn't have any of the ones I found in my list here!

We went on camping trips and though we stayed in cabins, we learned how to make our own little BBQ grills. We had to take a coffee can and then I think a smaller can inside, like a tuna fish can, we put cardboard all around the inside of the can, kind of like a circle maze, then melted candles into the cans. The bottom of the coffee can was punched with holes and we put the tuna can on the bottom, lit the cardboard, a little still sticking up over the melted candle, and placed the coffee can over that and cooked our hamburgers on top of the coffee can. I was amazed and what we made.

We also made our own mats to sit on the damp ground around our campfires. We took newspaper and wove it into little rugs and then put garbage bags around to keep the newspaper dry. They were very comfortable. We sang songs, told ghost stories, again just old fashioned fun.

And for any of you who don't know what a true Girl Scout Samoas cookie is (also called Caramel deLites now), you have missed a delicious dessert! A "Somoa" which had to have started in New York because it's "some more", just another one of our words we've blended together. A true "somemore" is first collecting sticks in the woods, really thin on top and long enough so you can toast your marshmallows on the campfire and then you put it on a graham cracker with a piece of Hershey's chocolate and another graham cracker on top. A little sandwich. Way, way, way better than a Girl Scout "Somoas" cookie, sorry but it just can't compare.

My cousin Wendy just told me that she makes them at home now, microwaves a marshmallow on top of the graham cracker and then adds the chocolate and top graham cracker when it's all melted and gooey. Again not as good as getting it toasted on the campfire but not a bad idea.

I remember during one of our camping trips I had learned a trick about sewing someone's PJs to the sheets of the bed. I was all ready to do it but it's hard for me to not have a guilty look on my face, especially when I was younger, I just looked like I was up to something all the time, which I probably was, and was watched very carefully! I think I just fell asleep and ended up losing the needle which I pushed into the mattress to hide.

That little trick was one I remembered in my 20s and used it "down the Jersey Shore" during the years me and my friends were renting summer houses. It was funny watching people rip themselves off the sheets, it did make me laugh but the best really was while I was sewing them to the sheets and laughing hysterical, I don't know how I didn't wake them. I guess maybe a few drinks in them might have had something to do with that!

But the absolute best time I did my sewing magic was to my friend Irene. She came home from a night out "down the Jersey Shore" and fell right out on a mattress that didn't even have sheets or blankets on it, fully dressed. I couldn't sew her to the sheets, what was I to do!? Well I sewed her to the mattress, way better! I sewed the bottom of her jeans to the bottom of the mattress by the thick seam that lines the mattress and then her jeans to the mattress itself, from about her ankles to her knees and I'm sure I laughed myself to sleep that night. I keep laughing out loud right now as I'm writing this! The next morning was the absolutely best and it was probably the last time I sewed anyone to the sheets or mattress, nothing could top this.

Irene woke up screaming, she thought her legs were paralyzed and I came in the room laughing hysterically, I can't control myself sometimes! Irene knew right away by my laughing, she wasn't paralyzed and knew I had something to do with what was going on but still couldn't figure out what I did. A little hung over maybe!?

So thank you Girl Scouts of America (USA?), my sewing badge came in very handy!

And that's why I take your picture.

Yesterday I took Bella to mass. I always park around the block from the church and not in the church parking lot. It's a big church, lots of cars coming in and out, and I'm not one for parking lots, there are too many people creating their own lanes and getting in and out takes forever. We were already a little late too! Because of where I park my car, we enter the church grounds from behind the church and I told Bella I wanted to go in the back entrance, really meaning the front entrance, but we were facing the back. Bella pointed that out right away. She's six and already way too smart, similar to her cousin Ashley, she has the skills of an attorney arguing and convincing you of pretty much everthing!

She said we are at the back! So I said, yes but we're facing the back so I was calling that the front and the front entrance of the church is back that way so that's why I called that the back really what I meant was that we are going in the front but I said it backwards cause we're facing backwards!

She looked at me and said, you just said the longest sentence, with no commas, lots of words and you didn't even breathe! I cracked up. She is so funny and doesn't miss anything and she absolutely understood every word I said and most of those words probably ran together as well! She's used to me, speaks my language!

I had also taken her to her basketball game earlier yesterday morning and of course brought my camera. She was saying how I was a photographer and a film maker, which in her small world I have been. She asked me why I take so many pictures. I told her that when she grew up she might want to know what she looked like as a baby, or at 3, 4, 5, etc.! I said pictures can also make you remember some wonderful times in your life that maybe you forget about and then looking at the picture, you'll be like, wow, I remember that day, or I remember always going up to Aunt Linda's and Uncle Bob's house, playing in the yard with all my cousins, how much fun you had.

I told her I was in the hospital room when she was born and took lots of pictures that day. She came out with her eyes wide open and looking around, almost like, what has been going on out here since I was inside my mommy! She loves hearing stories about herself as a baby, as most kids do. She wants to see those pictures and I told her, see, there you go Bell, you already want to see what you looked like when you were born, and you'll remember me telling you how I was there and you were so beautiful and alert. That makes you happy and that's why I take pictures of you all the time.

Then she said that she heard the doctors slap the babies behinds and is that true. I said yeah, I think they still do that. I know they always used to. I didn't tell her, but I can't remember that part from when I watched her being born, I was way too overwhelmed. But I know I heard her cry!

Bella laughed, thought it was so funny that you get a slap on the behind when you're born.

I love having our little conversations when it's just the two of us. Most times she's being way too silly, trying to get a laugh out of anyone or everyone. She's still at the age where once she gets a laugh out of something she still thinks it's funny the 20th time she says it and I can't help but encourage her by laughing all the time.

These pictures I hope will be a special memory for Bella. We we went to a book fair upstate by my sister Linda's house in September and Bella arrived with only one of her front teeth missing and by the end of the day she yanked the other loose one out. How cute are kids when their two front teeth are missing?! Everything they say is just a little cuter. It's also the beginning of the end of that baby face.

Their faces become fuller, their teeth looking too large

for their still so young faces and we know how fast those teeth will fit their faces, they will fit into their teenage and adult faces. I love watching it even as much as it makes me sad to see them growing up so fast right before my eyes.

That's why I take your picture Bella.

I'm trying to get her to learn the song "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth", she's not having any part of it.
Maybe they've made a rap version of it?
That would get her to do it!

We had a fun family day when Bella lost her second front tooth. We went to a kids book fair hosted by the New York Public Library and Barnes and Noble. The kids met some of the authors and bought a bunch of books they love.

They played in the yard at my sister's house, which is huge. The boys had races, played football (boys also means my 40 year old brother Joey). Bella wrestled with her dad and he threw her around like she was a rag doll and she giggled that beautiful belly laugh of a child.



And by the way, I must say...whenever any of the kids lose a tooth, I am always reminded of my mom telling us when my sister Linda lost her first tooth. She was the biggest scardy cat ever, afraid of her own shadow, nothing like she is now! But she didn't want to leave her tooth under her pillow, she wasn't digging the idea of this tooth fairy coming into her room while she was sleeping, she wanted my parents to keep it under one their pillows. My godmother told her, don't worry Linda, the tooth fairy doesn't really come into your room, she has a really long, long, long arm and just reaches under your pillow to take your tooth. A LONG ARM!!!! That flipped Linda out! She didn't want the tooth fairy anywhere near our house!

I think these lyrics from the Billy Joel song "These Are Times to Remember" say it perfectly.

"These are the times to remember
Cause it will not last forever.
These are the days to hold onto
Cause we won't although we'll want to..."




And that's why I take your picture.

New York, New York, It's a Helluva Town!

Last night my sister read me a poem her 10 yr old daughter Ashley wrote. It was beautiful, all about New York, quite the little writer, she's also super smart and not only book smart, she just has a wild imagination, an incredible vocabulary and the skills of an attorney when arguing her side of a disagreement or what she thinks are unreasonable rules her parents enforce on her. Though born and raised in New England, she's been to New York many times as most our family lives in this area. She's been to Manhattan more times than I was at the age of ten, went to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and I've lived here my whole life and have only seen it on TV! I think she's even going to see Mary Poppins on Broadway when they all come down for Thanksgiving. She and brother Shane love New York Italian ices, Italian bread and bagels! My sister too misses her Brooklyn pizza and Chinese food, it's just not the same in New England. And her husband after tasting his first real bagel had me bringing smelly onion bagels on the plane, I always felt like everyone thought I never bathed!

I think Ashley's poem was about her love of New York, and the excitement of the city now. It's lit up like a Christmas tree all year round in Times Square, I'm even amazed at it. I also think along with her visits to our great city, she is with family, especially her cousins, they are a little gang and for the most part are best friends, I love how they love each other!

Then this morning I was watching the news and they were talking about how they are going to be changing Times Square even more than it already has. It's going to be a big open plaza, no curbs, with benches and lots of walking room. I think it's a great idea, much safer for all, it's way too crowded now. Not at all like it was when I starting working in Times Square in 1978.

I worked at RKO on 40th and Broadway until 1986, not the safest area. As you can see from the pictures there were X-rated shows everywhere. It was on the tip on the fashion district and below 40th it was much nicer, safer. Herald Square, Macy's and Gimbels too.



A Horn and Hardart Automat restaurant! They had food behind small glass windows and you put coins in and then the door would open and you would take your soup, or pie, whatever. That chain probably went out of business not long after I stopped working in Times Square.


The next time I worked in Times Square was in 2002 and 2003. Way different! Times Square was amazing! I even gawked at the lights and the stores just like all the tourists! But I worked on 45th and Broadway, right in the center of the madness!

My office was above Planet Hollywood (pictured here to the left) and the huge Virgin Records store, also a block away from the Toys R Us with the ferris wheel. It was packed at all hours of the day and night.


And I can't forget "The Naked Cowboy"! His regular spot was right in the middle of Broadway down the block from my office. He would stand on a little island in the middle of busy traffic. He's one of the many crazy, interesting street entertainers you'll find all over the city, on streets, in the subways, on the Staten Island Ferry, parks, everywhere. People would stop in the middle of the street with him to take their picture.

Me? Well I never stopped for a picture, but I certainly did walk slower than I normally did!

I can't wait to see what the new Times Square will look like. I never would have imagined all those years ago that it would look like it does now. I know people of my parents generation are amazed, they remember how great Times Square was when they were growing up and then watched it go downhill. They used to go to movies in Times Square, even theaters where you saw a movie followed by live entertainment. I think Frank Sinatra even got his start singing at the Paramount Theatre in Times Square after a movie? Maybe one of you know? Tell me! Dance Halls. Then it got seedy.

But it's come back, like so many places in New York have!

New York, New York!
It's a helluva town!