You are currently viewing the stories for October, 2009
Celtic Memories – Whispering Hope from the Past
by Maura Mulligan 10/22/2009Neighborhood: Clinton
When I was growing up in the west of Ireland in the fifties my grandfather gifted me with stories about Samhain, (pronounced, SOW-in) now known as All Hallows Eve or Halloween. Samhain, a Gaelic word, meaning “end of summer,” signaled the coming of winter and the beginning of the Celtic New Year. “In the olden […]
Bumping Heads with New York Yankee Steve Whitaker
by Barry F. Bealick 10/22/2009Neighborhood: Bronx
No, I wasn’t going to cut school to go to Yankee Stadium and watch the Yankees play the Orioles during their 1967 season. “Aw, c’mon, BB, let’s do it,” recommended “Reese,” one of my Southwest Bronx neighborhood pals and fellow schoolmate during my sophomore year at DeWitt Clinton High School. Otherwise easygoing, when it came […]
The Haters: The Angriest Softball Team in New York City
by Patrick J. Sauer 10/01/2009Neighborhood: Brooklyn, Williamsburg
Last August, on a brutally hot Sunday afternoon, after a debilitating outdoor 90-degree basketball game courtesy of The Word bookstore league, I was shuffling along the sidewalks from Greenpoint to the Bedford L stop trying to bring my core temperature below triple-digits. Needing a respite, I stopped to watch a softball game on a playground […]
Becoming American in New York
by Sabine Heinlein 10/01/2009Neighborhood: Brooklyn, Greenpoint
When asked why I left Germany for New York, I have two answers, depending on my mood and on the patience of the listener. The short answer is: I fell in love with an American. The second answer is: On our birthdays my sisters and I were given pieces of silverware from a prestigious German […]
Runaways
by Deirdre Faughey 10/01/2009Neighborhood: Across the River, Brooklyn
The weather is turning. At home I didn’t notice the wind, but by the time we’d walked all the way to the library our ponytails held only half as much hair as they did when we left. There was an easy remedy: hold the band between your teeth, gather up the loose strands, pull them […]