You are currently viewing the stories for “March 2022.”
Yesterday, there was a café and now, suddenly, there isn’t. Life disappears while we sleep. The homeless live on many corners. Shelby plants a mattress and pillowson the corner outside the nearby Duane Reade. Neighbors donate sheets, pillowcases, a woolen blanket and a warm winter coat to help Shelby, as she takes yet another night ride through vulnerability. “Better the [...]
Pizzaiolo, Flatbush Avenue 1975 On St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, 2022, it might have been easy to let slip the New York Times obituary of an Italian-American octogenarian. But I sat up straight when I saw the name Domenico DeMarco, the legendary pizza maker who founded Di Fara’s Pizza on Avenue J in 1965. I had read about him for [...]
Three Pipers, 1997 I was born in South Brooklyn in 1947. As a teenager I did not experience the Italian - Irish conflict that my parents, children of Italian immigrants, did. The fighting between Irish-American and Italian-American teen gangs had basically stopped. (Sadly, newer common enemies were found.) Locals continued to tag walls and store gates with graffiti featuring ethnic [...]
I lived in Manhattan for most of my considerably long life, until moving to Queens four years ago. In my early adulthood, Manhattan was still affordable, so affordable that the people who worked the jobs that sustain city life—cops, teachers, garbage men, hospital and transit workers—could afford to live in certain areas of it. So could a 20-year old, who [...]
February 13, 1975 Yesterday shot a roll of people leaving Ash Wednesday church. Should be good. Since the front entrance was locked due to snow, only exit available was small side one. The walk is only about four feet wide, but only two feet were shoveled. So…people had to go by me. I swear, after a while people thought getting [...]
