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Bumping Heads with New York Yankee Steve Whitaker

by 10/22/2009
Neighborhood: 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 […]

Camp Camelot

by 07/20/2003
Neighborhood: Long Island

When I was fifteen years old I went to Camp Camelot, a romantic name for a Fat Camp. My family had always called me “big boned.” My classmates had other terms for me, and they certainly were not half as nice. In my elementary school gym class there was one record used for special occasions […]

One of the Singer Girls

by 03/24/2003
Neighborhood: Brooklyn, Fort Greene

I had just completed my freshman year at Cornell University, where I was majoring in Functional Apparel Design. The program focused on designing clothes for people with specific needs. My degree would be nothing like those awarded to fashion design students at F.I.T. No, nothing frivolous for me. But what I didn’t realize when I […]

Special Ed

by 12/30/2002
Neighborhood: East Harlem

Most parents have to be repeatedly prodded, coaxed and cajoled into attending any school meeting. Parents of Emotionally Disturbed Special Ed. students are required to attend annual meetings to evaluate their child’s individual program and progress, or lack thereof. It is therefore no surprise that voluntary meetings, such as Open School Night, can be notorious […]

600 Schools

by 11/14/2002
Neighborhood: East Harlem

The average Special Education teacher’s career lasts a grand total of approximately two years. It’s the one fact I remember on the road to my Master’s Degree. Actually, remember two. I also remember that teaching in the inner city is the second most stressful job in these United States, next to being an inner city […]

Riceman

by 11/08/2002
Neighborhood: Harlem

When you walked through the door that first time in September, you became a Riceman …always a Riceman … never a boy, kid, lad, young guy … just a Riceman. Founded in 1938, and in 1940 relocated to a six story red brick building on the corner of what was Lenox Avenue and 124th Street, […]