Ten Years Gone

There were the chairs, neatly lined up in rows on the football field. There were the bleachers, empty and waiting. And could it be? Yes. Yes it could. The soft strains of “Pomp & Circumstance” wafting through the air as the band rehearsed. Graduation time once again.

Can it really be ten years since my own? An entire decade? At times, it seems like only yesterday that I led my own class onto that very same field. Other days, it seems like an eternity ago. So much has changed. And yet, so little. Just another chapter of life closed.

Adventures in Dining

There are certain people who, no matter when or where you go out to a dining establishment with them, something so bizarrely absurd occurs so as to make it something of a regular “thing.”

A friend of mine from college and I attempt to get together every month or so for dinner, lunch, or whatever our packed schedules will allow. Once a month usually turns into once every two or three months by the time we coordinate and reschedule seven or eight times, but the effort is always there, and we have no trouble picking up right where we left off when the planets finally do align.

Always an Adventure

Traveling into the city with the Ryan Family is always an adventure. It doesn’t matter how we go, how much time we allow or where we’re headed. It’s just always an adventure.

Last week, we made our first trek to the “new” Yankee Stadium. After considering the options, we opted to take the train and subway rather than drive, thereby avoiding all that fabulous rush-hour traffic.

Right.

Rants & Raves

During one of my final semesters at C.W. Post, I was assigned to come up with a program concept for my TV Production class, one that would be filmed and broadcast on the college’s television channel at a later date. Thus was born “Rants & Raves,” a smashing success of a debate/talk show – complete with a live studio audience – which lasted one entire half hour. I don’t believe it was ever broadcast, actually, nor was it picked up for another installment.

Imagine that.

Walk This Way

Have you ever noticed that some people walk just about as inconsiderately as they drive? I can’t tell you how many times, just in the last week alone, that I have been almost run over by a careless pedestrian – either on the street, in a store, in a hallway...

Grocery stores are my absolute favorite. Because there, not only do you have the individual person to contend with, but his/her wobbly, out-of-control shopping cart as well.

The Final Curtain Call

…There used to be a ballpark where the field was warm and green
And the people played their crazy game with a joy I'd never seen
And the air was such a wonder from the hot dogs and the beer
Yes, there used a ballpark right here…

- Frank Sinatra

As I write these words, Yankee Stadium has closed its gates at the corner of 161st Street and River Avenue in the Bronx where it has proudly stood for the last 85 years. While the countdown clock may remain infinitely frozen at “1,” we all know it won’t be quite the same experience next season when we cross the street to take in our first game at the new ballpark.

Talk to Strangers

How many times have we all been admonished not to talk to strangers? On countless occasions, I’m sure.

While this advice surely has its practicality, it also limits that human contact which is so integral to living and learning. Should we talk to every random person we happen to encounter on the street? No, of course not. But anyone with even a hint of decent judgement should be able to ascertain the difference.

Being There

There is something to be said for being present at an historic, once-in-a-lifetime event.

Two weeks ago, I had the good fortune to be in attendance at two of them.

Edward Scissorhands Goes Online

A running joke in my family has been to compare my father to the “Edward Scissorhands” of movie fame, our tongue-in-cheek reference to his…how to put this delicately…less than stellar history, shall we say, with the hedge trimmer.

There were several instances of nearly mangled bushes, the time when he cut all the flowers off the lilac shrub by mistake - and, the all-time classic, the day when the power suddenly cut out in mid-trim, causing my father to frantically gesture that one of us must have knocked the cord out of the outlet, only to find it lying there, severed in half, on the grass.

Forever in Our Hearts

“Forever”
“Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some people move our souls to dance. They awaken us to new understanding with the passing whisper of their wisdom and make the sky more beautiful to gaze upon. Some people stay in our lives awhile, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never, ever the same.”

– Flavia

LEFT Through the Lens of Time

Talk about a trip down memory lane…

I was recently invited to attend one of Lindenhurst School District’s LEFT for Juniors field trips, “LEFT” standing for “Lindenhurst Environmental Field Trip.” This program, an outgrowth of the original (designed for high school Advanced Placement Biology students), is geared especially to the elementary school’s 4th graders. It was founded in the early 1980’s by one innovator, Mr. Lee Paseltiner, Lindenhurst High School teacher and adviser.