Sunday, March 24, 2019

Saint Patrick's Day

A while back on St. Patrick's Day, I had been thinking about the Irish, my grandfather, Thomas Francis (“T F”) Reilly, and about you and me.

T F was an Irish immigrant who came to these United States of America as an orphan.  Like many another he worked with his hands. And some hands they were, “Two-fisted Tom Reilly” was his moniker when we was a railroad man. After that tour of duty he became a contractor and a millionaire. My earliest memories of him were of this very big man we called “Poppa”. Of course all people seem huge when you're a kid, but he was exceptional. When he passed on in his late 80s he was still over 6 feet. I can still see him sitting in his living room on a straight back chair listening to Bing Crosby's recording of Toora Loora Li. Poppa became a proud American like so many others who were not born here. My clearest memory has him seated at the head of the table with a bowl of boiled potatoes as his side dish.  A part of Ireland that never left him.

Yes, besides thinking of Poppa on St. Patrick's Day, I remember too my own celebrations in New York City. Certainly they were memorable with so many Noo Yawkahs wearing green and the Big Parade. I too marched for a block with my own very young offspring, just so they could say they had marched in New York City on St. Patrick's Day.

You don't have to wear green or march in the parade to celebrate St. Patrick's day, but it's fun to do so. Just about everyone in Manhattan is Irish for that day. It's a beautiful thing. My memory is especially keen about my late friend Mel Sokolow and I celebrating the day at Tim Costello's watering hole on the East Side. St. Patrick Day parades are held in other cities to be sure, Charleston, South Carolina, and Savanah, Georgia, two notable examples. But New York is New York.   

That's the bottom line, friends. No matter where you are next March 17th, be Irish for the day and celebrate! 

Saturday, March 16, 2019

BODIES, Then and Now

By happenstance (not by design I can assure you) I came across a picture of my own self taken circa 1948.  Who is that feller?

Certainly, it was long ago. I am wearing a pair of white canvas short-shorts, then fashionable among the Jersey Shore lifeguards and we lesser mortals who hustled for a living by putting up umbrellas, setting out beach chairs and coaxing the unknowing into renting canvas surfing rafts.

There I was, coming in about 135 pounds with a suntan that would stop any modern-day dermatologist right in his/her tracks. George Hamilton broke that deep-tan barrier decades later, but in the Forties we thought we were bronze gods. 

Then time and Mother Nature moved us along.  Chests went south. 135 pounds became the weight of each thigh. PC was unknown at that time, “body shaming” although decades away, loomed threateningly. So we dug in to defend the last frontier – a great tan. It sounds crazy now to recall how teenagers mixed baby oil with iodine to enhance the tanning process. But we did. Some of the more insane amongst us doused their hair with peroxide and came forth as carrot tops. Orange was “in” for a few weeks before parents with scissors ended that madness.

It's fun to turn back the hands of time once in a while. But in the main many, if not most of us, prefer to live in the present. Where else can a chubby, balding, 90 year old find an attractive younger woman who loves him these days?  Life is good.

As for those short-short white canvas trunks? Save the photo to prove what used to be. It's but a memory now.

Monday, March 11, 2019

Sickness

No one likes to get sick. This includes you, dear reader, and certainly this writer. How men handle illness and how women handle illness provide two interesting and very different approaches.

With men, we see a return to wanting Mommy to make it better. After all, didn't she do just that in days long ago? Unhappily, for many of us, this is no longer possible. Now, to be clear here, when I speak of sickness, I'm thinking about everyday maladies – a bad cold, a touch of flu, nothing truly serious. Granted when it is YOU having to cope with a bad cold, touch of flu, etc. each setback takes on monumental importance.

For men, it starts with facial expressions. Think of the sad-face Bassett hound. Then add a bit of moaning, especially when our wives are within earshot. Pour in a tad of muttering along the lines of “don't worry about me, I'll be alright (pause) eventually.” Being simple souls, that's pretty much it. Just repeat, repeat and repeat.

With women, circumstances are far different. (It is good for men to keep in mind that only women are capable of childbirth with all the pain that accompanies it. They deserve to be honored for this alone.) And not so by the way, when it comes to common illnesses, most women simply carry on come hell, high water, or near-pneumonia. So this leaves us with that atypical +handful who do not. They are the truly memorable ones. Broadway cannot handle the oceans of dramatic tears these few inflict on the rest of us.

Women are emotional by nature, so when routine illness strikes this handful of memorable ladies, it opens up the floodgate of opportunity for full expression. Moans become thunderclaps, gestures reach for the heavens. No avenue is left untrod.

Please pray they will always be in good health.

Friday, March 1, 2019

Bicycle

I love my bike.  It's right outside, waiting for me to mount up and pedal off to another adventure.

It's true that my biking today is a far cry from when I used to ride 15, 20, 30 miles a trip. Mother Nature, a bad back and wifely concerns have combined to limit me to a modest 3 three-mile jaunt. I have no complaints, however. Any bike riding is wonderful to me.

The day I first soloed on a two-wheeler is firmly etched in my memory book.  There is no plaque marking the site and my first solo fell far short of the distance Wilbur and Orville flew at Kitty Hawk. But that day on the side yard at 2403 North 50th Street in The City of Brotherly Love was historic nonetheless.  My father, a patient man, held the fender of my rear wheel, gently pushed me, all the while steadying the first few feet of my efforts.  (I wonder if you too recall your own moment.) After my father left to go back to the office, I got on my bike, pushed and pedaled to move forward. Better to try things without an audience, plus having a comfortable grassy landing site if things went south.

Success! Joyous success.  I ran into the house to tell my mother who promptly telephoned my father at work. I yelled the news. Dad congratulated me, excited himself. It was a big Reilly day all around.  Only now, so many decades later do I truly understand how blessed I was. First, in having a bike at all in the midst of The Great Depression, and more important, to have such caring, supportive parents sharing my success. If you've been lucky in this life, and I have, nothing beats having had loving parents.


As for that first two-wheeler of mine, it was a beauty.  Fire engine red with fat white-walled tires. I wonder if it still exists somewhere out there short of the scrap metal heap. If so, name the price. I'll be there. My steed today still sports fat tires in keeping with my own body type. It is rusty but reliable. The young women and men who pass by me on the road, which includes virtually everyone, are cyclists of the first order. Most of them are athletes and fitness buffs. They are also friendly and encouraging. They seem to welcome old timers like me even though we are slowpokes, for we too are part of the sport they all love so much.