Actually, it’s these guys….ahem, girls……..and they really are sisters:

They appeared on The Uncle Floyd Show that was taped as the Fourth of July show in 1984. I don’t know them and never heard of them before or since.

And they don’t seem to exist online.

So why have I suddenly decided to post about them?

UFS cast member Scott Gordon has a weekly 8pm Tuesday night show of old UFS clips that’s been running on StageIt.com for well over 200 weeks called “This WAS The Uncle Floyd Show”. On May 6, 2025, he ran that 1984 show (#217, if you’re counting).

The sisters were well-received by the StageIt group and lots of comments were made – mainly about how they were un-Googleable – nobody seemed to know anything about these girls.

As the show’s photographer back then, I seemed to recall shooting them and posted that I’m gonna have to dig those pix up.

The show ended at 8:50pm. Before 9pm, I managed to find a 41-year-old sheet of slides in the archive containing images of the habitless sisters. I scanned most of them by the time I went to bed and finished the rest (plus editing) today. Now I’m writing it up.

I’ll probably post the link in the TWTUFS #218’s chat next Tuesday.

That might be interesting, so if this appeals to you at all, you can get a $5 ticket for the show here: https://www.stageit.com/the_uncle_floyd_show_with_scott_gordon/this_was_the_uncle_floyd_show_218/118947

 

Meanwhile, if you’d like to see the Top Ten shots I took in the studio that night in 1984 (well, you’ve already seen one of them), here you go:

First song (two shots):

 

“July-4-Floyd” is about to interview them as two of the ladies eye me suspiciously:

 

The next song (two shots):

 

Last shot with Floyd:

 

Last silly pose:

 

At this point, the girls had their choice of ANY of the handsome men in the studio. Here is their unanimous choice:

Way to go, Yogi! I hope you survived the night!

 

My parting shot after not getting picked:

 

 

So this is how I make something out of nothing. Yesterday, I knew nothing about these ladies. Last night, I found out that I photographed them 41 years ago and today, I’ve made a post about these non-nuns.

 

Hope you enjoyed it.

 

 

 

 

You remember that Federal Credit Union Bank on the corner of Main St and Passaic St that they tore down last year, right? The one I shot from home and on-site?

 

It looked like this when they finished up last June:

 

Well, that whole lot – from Main to State St – has sat vacant until recently. How recently? I took these two PANO shots on February 3:

Still totally vacant.

 

On March 17, I saw some people and their cars on the lot:

 

The next day, I saw the first piece of equipment:

 

On March 19, stuff was happening:

Here we go! (Is that a hole-driller?)

 

Click to enlarge this dirt auger (I don’t know what else to call it):

 

Ground-level shots were not yet useful:

 

After holes were drilled, little pink flags were inserted (markers?):

 

Interesting juxtapositioning:

 

Back to ground level for a quickie or two:

 

Video tribute to dirt augers:

(I’m sure that’s not their name, so who will be the first to post a correction with the video?)

 

Actually, here’s the word from Chris, the project manager:

“That large auger is for predrilling holes up to 20’ deep. It’s just an attachment for an excavator.”

 

While you’re here, Chris, can you tell me about the purpose of the much-taller unit seen here behind the auger?

 

“Sure – the vibration rig is owned by Menard. They are a globally recognized firm specializing in soil compaction/ ground improvement. By improving the soils density, we can then pour foundations without risk of the sandy Hackensack mix settling.”

 

These are 3 photos of the rocks being poured into that rig to make the ground better able to support what’ll be built on it:

 

But I’m always going to stick in dirt auger shots when I can:

 

The tops of both machines:

 

And the ground-level side view:

 

After the top pic grabs a shovelful of rocks (not shown), it dumps them into the vibration rig:

 

Rinse and repeat:

 

Vibration rig at work (from home):

Vid21

 

Border Patrol?

 

My other shooting location (big window in back):

 

Eight little pink flags and a stick:

 

A big Tanis cement mixer backs in to get hooked up to a cement pumper:

 

A second cement mixer awaits its turn on State St:

 

The on-site mixer is not yet hooked up to the pumper. Meanwhile, a third mixer gets in line on State St:

 

The on-site mixer’s connection to the pumper – its rear chute – is now attached and ready to relay cement to the pumper, but now there are FOUR mixers in view: two on-site, one on State St and one on Main St, about to make a right onto Passaic St, where the mixer entrance is:

 

There’s no on-site room for it right now, so this mixer is told to go around to the waiting line:

 

And so it sits………….

 

Time for me to do some ground-level work.

Instead of approaching it from the view I’ve been showing, I went around the other end to approach the unseen area from Main St.

Mind you, there’s a wraparound chain-line fence beginning from the last Main St business. It’s possible to shoot through a fence link, but most are too high to be framed-through properly.

Then there are the low smiley-face openings that are fairly useless, but the best shots come from the unintentional spaces between the fence-covering sections.

This first one was held high over the top of the fence. I couldn’t really see what I was shooting, but a little creative cropping made it look like I could:

 

I can’t see any of this from home, so these views are all new to me. You can see the wall of the Main St business next door on the right:

 

Slowly, I inch my way down Main St………..

You can see the cement pumper hose coming down in the top middle:

 

This one shows the mixer truck(s) and the ground part of the pumper:

 

Getting closer to Passaic St:

 

At the Main & Passaic corner:

 

Finally, I can turn a bit to the north and see the beautiful church steeple on my block, my building (looking at this picture, it seems amazing that I can shoot anything that’s this far away with my little pocket Canon), two cement mixers feeding the big cement pumper and where that cement is being pumped to (somewhere I can’t see from home):

 

(By the way, I’m shooting all these perimeter pictures with my iPhone)

 

And then I get to the wide-open entrance where the cement mixers and pumper enter and exit. Time for a panoramic shot of the entire scene (while being careful to stay on the public sidewalk):

In my opinion, this is what the iPhone camera was made for – these wonderful PANO shots……………they’re so complete and so clear! (Click this one twice to fully enlarge.)

 

Lastly, I made the next right onto State St, where I met Chris, the project manager. We’ve only spoken once, but he was a big help to me and I invite him to comment on anything he sees here or if he feels my layman’s information is incomplete or incorrect (Chris: stick to email if I’m really off!).

 

He was locking up the gate, but I asked him if I could step inside to get a shot of this excavator sitting majestically on this large pile of dirt.

“Sure”

The excavator dwarfed the much bigger distant cement pumper…………click!

 

Right now I’m at least 2 weeks behind, so have patience. I WILL get these out………….hopefully by Christmas.   😉

 

 

 

 

I recently found a very small black-and-white print dated November 19, 1957 that I remember coming across every decade or two, so I recall all the details.

I was walking on a street (Wyndham Rd, Teaneck, NJ) a few blocks from my home and saw a tree being buzz-sawed down in front of a house. For some reason, the thought immediately popped into my mind that it would be cool to get a picture of the tree falling – hopefully, at a 45-degree angle.

I ran home, begged my mother to let me borrow her cheap little camera (a Brownie?) and ran back just in time to catch the tree falling and caught it at almost 45 degrees.

So, in my semi-convoluted way of thinking, this is my original, premeditated, stop-action photo – the one that led me to success in my beloved right-brained, music photography career after pleasing my parents with the left-brained one I got my degree in (chemistry).

BTW – they eventually came around on career #2 and if you want to read a story related to that, go to bobleafe.com and enter 03-037 into the search box.

Hang in there – these WILL get better eventually……………give it 50 or 60 years   😉

 

Before the new 2009 Yankee Stadium, before the 1976 renovation of the previous Yankee Stadium, there was the original 1923 Yankee Stadium.

I’m not sure that two of these pictures were taken in 1959 (could have been ’60 or ’61), but the third one was signed outside the Stadium in 1959, so they’re all being put under the 1959 blanket.

Back then, players used to get dropped off by their wives or friends while kids and a cop stood around. I have no idea who these particular players are and I can’t find the negatives – if they exist – to blow them up and try to ID someone.

No one seems to be screaming for autographs. Everyone appears to be respectful and satisfied to view the comings and goings of the players (as I apparently was to take pictures from across the street).

 

I DID get one autograph in 1959. The Ol’ Redhead – Yankees announcer Red Barber – signed my 15-cent program outside the Stadium after a game. I would have preferred to get announcer Mel Allen’s sig, but you take what you can get.

 

 

My mother – a staunch Republican – decided to volunteer newly-teenaged me to the local Nixon for President headquarters, which was a few blocks from our house in Teaneck, NJ. I don’t recall what I did there, but I decided I deserved one of the huge Tricky Dicky posters for my efforts, so, at some point, I took one home. The story I’m sticking with is that the campaign was already over and stuff was being dispersed (you buying that?).

I displayed it over a window in my bedroom, which now had another occupant, whose crib is seen in the lower left of the below image. I festooned the poster with other campaign leftovers, which included six Nixon buttons and two signs. All of this was a setup for my supposedly developing sense of humor. At the time, I was an avid MAD magazine fan. MAD came out with an issue that had dual covers: one congratulating JFK for his victory (shown below) and the other doing the same for the later-defeated Nixon.

Guess which one I put on the poster (I’m sure Mom was thrilled).

The picture’s composition may be related to the room’s composition (I also think I was standing in the doorway) and this may have been the only way to get the full poster, etc., in the shot. The white of the upper left may be a door jamb that was too close to the flash.

This may be the only image I’ve ever shot that shows what film was used.

I kept this poster folded up in our attic for years, but when I cleaned out the house after my parents died, it was nowhere to be found (but I have my suspicions about its absence).

 

 

 

These were the two nuns in charge of the 8th-grade classes at Holy Trinity School in Hackensack, NJ, in early 1961.

On the left is Sister Anne Roberta from 8A (my class) and on the right is Sister Rose Felicia of 8B. My two classmates were Kathy Gingras in the background and Linda Guerra in the foreground.

I have no idea why I had a camera at school. I seem to barely recall having my own dinky little camera that used large-ish film and I’m pretty sure I took other pictures of classmates, but these were the only two I found.

I also recall that I was trying to sneak the 8A shot from the vicinity of the classroom door before Sister Anne realized what I was doing and react. I took this the second she came into view. I don’t recall any negative reaction.

Sister Rose was too close to have been a snuck shot. I’m guessing she didn’t care one way or the other…………..too cool for school, I guess.

There’s one interesting thing I remember regarding the 8A windows: sticking my head out one of them in early October, 1960, to see the Richard Nixon motorcade go by on Main St (a block away) during his failed presidential campaign against JFK.

No sighting of Tricky Dicky, of course, but I was fine with that after recently seeing his face WAY too much (see 1960 post).

 

As a paperboy for North Jersey’s The Record newspaper back in the early 60s, I sold a lot of subscriptions, which won me some prizes and trips, including ones to see the Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia and the New York Rangers in NYC at the old Madison Square Garden, which used to be on 8th Ave between 49th and 50th streets.

But in 1962, I won the biggie (along with about 40 other carriers): a bus trip to Washington, DC, to see all the sights over a two-day period:

 

 

My mother brought me to The Record to catch the bus and – OF COURSE – had to take some pictures, but I didn’t mind. It was a happy occasion.

She took this picture near the Record delivery truck bays. I’m 4th from the right in the light jacket/white socks and cool loafers, smiling and giving her a number 1 salute (at least I hope that’s what I was doing):

 

As the letter noted, we stayed at The Virginia Lodge – just across the Potomac in Alexandria, VA – and visited all the major monuments, plus the Treasury and the White House. We didn’t get in the WH – maybe JFK wasn’t home that day – but there’s a picture of me below, standing in front of the White House fence, wearing my Record Honor Carrier sweater.

One very odd thing that I recall about the motel: I had brought a portable radio and everyone in the room was happy that it could pick up our beloved WABC-AM in New York……………..but it did so only when the bathroom door was open! If anyone needed to take a shower, a shave, or a sh………………ampoo, the tunes ceased until he came out. Weird.

 

I also recall being at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier for the Changing of the Guard. We also went to the nearby Iwo Jima Memorial, which I don’t recall, but I found the below picture amongst my other pix from that trip, so I guess I was there.

 

Obviously, I didn’t take the next picture, but I did take the three after that (recently).

Me at the White House wearing my Honor Carrier sweater:

 

 

The Honor Carrier sweater survived!

 

 

Another Honor Carrier goodie that I saved………..looks almost brand-new:

 

My mother saved my carrier bag. I recently filled it with newspapers, but the front-page pictures were in color – something that didn’t exist in 1962 – so I made it a black & white.

 

The Record did a story about the trip the day after we left:

 

It was a great first trip without my parents, which means that most of the subsequent ones WITH them were not so great, but I guess that’s what happens when you get a little taste of freedom.

After 1962, I imagine that I got involved with teenage stuff, high school, college and work and didn’t really begin to start documenting anything until I finally found some photographic footing in the 70s.

 

LATE FIND!

A few years after making this post, I found this rolled-up and cracked image from that trip amongst my parents’ possessions in 2021. I don’t recall being at the Capitol, so I don’t recall having our picture taken. And I’m wearing the old Honor Carrier sweater: