(Ignore April 30, 2017 publish date – this was published on December 23, 2020)

 

And they all came from this little brown store:

 

Considering what 2020 has been like, it would seem that this Christmas would be an ideal time for some of this stuff to hit the market. I’m not really selling any of it, but it gives me a good excuse to present the next round of finds that Mom held on to.

Let’s start with this sure-to-impress-your-friends lovely phone receiver cover (might need a spot of polish):

 

I can’t believe it, but I actually found another one here on Etsy: https://tinyurl.com/SuchClass

So if you’re looking for a non-working Princess phone that wears protection for 20 bucks, I’ll understand if you pass mine up.

 

Perhaps I could interest you in a sure-fire way to quickly find the right key on your key ring:

 

No? Well, surely this Stretch Strapper is up your alley (can be used as emergency handcuffs………..in private):

 

Traveling back to 1975 any time soon? You’ll want this unopened “Crossroads of the Revolution” commemorative license plate to attach over your front New Jersey license plate. Don’t live in New Jersey? Move!

 

While you’re still in the patriotic mode, consider purchasing an America’s Heritage Liberty Bell candle (also unopened). Perhaps you can use it to illuminate your rear New Jersey license plate:

 

Flying to Australia in the near future? While it may not be patriotic (or permitted, given the current air travel restrictions during the pandemic), just mix in a few local words like “mate” and wallaby” into your conversation as you wave your (unopened) Qantas Travel Kit in the faces of any authority figures in your way. You will be welcomed with open opens that will promptly throw you into a quarantine cell:

 

A couple of Dad items: Who isn’t into fire alarm boxes and Indian head/Buffalo nickel decanters (while still smelling their best)?

This is the one you’ve always heard about, but could never get your hands on………Avon’s Fire Alarm Box “Avon Spicy” after shave:

 

Even better………… Avon’s Indian Head/Buffalo Nickel after shave, aptly-titled “Wild Country”:

 

You’d rather smell bad? Then try this United States Tobacco Company tankard (or maybe it’s a personal hand-held spittoon to keep yer tabacky juice off yer duds):

 

This might actually be a rarity. I’ve found similar ties online, but none with the “Larry Hagman – Karl-Lorimar Home Video” label (Hagman starred in the “Dallas” TV show and narrated the 1987 smoking cessation video that this tie refers to):

 

Impress your friends! Make believe you’ve been to Taiwan with this lovely souvenir:

 

Mom and Dad were smart. They bought this one pair of somewhat rigid shoes that all their children wore while learning to walk. We all may walk a little funny these days because of that, but Mom and Dad must have saved at LEAST 10 bucks on shoes for each of us:

 

You’ve all probably heard of “Don McNeill’s Breakfast Club”, but did you know that it ran for 35 years on radio and TV (1933-1968)? Neither did I (nor do I care that much). But Mom was apparently a fan – I found this 1947 Yearbook of DM’s BC:

 

And while I had no real interest in its content, one page caught my eye:

 

A blowup of the story:

 

“…the day when television is an everyday reality” just sounds so strange.

 

Can you imagine watching TV with friends this way?

 

A little earlier in that decade, Mom and Dad met at IBM World Headquarters in Manhattan. She saved some postcards of the time (I used to collect these and I’ve NEVER seen these ones before…………and none of them are currently on eBay).

This is where they worked – 590 Madison Avenue:

 

These are images of the Employees’ Club Room and Club Library. If you look very closely at the first two, you might be able to make out “THINK” signs on the far end walls:

 

These pictures are of the IBM facility in Endicott, NY – about 150 miles northwest of Manhattan (quite a haul just to get to work). I know I have pictures of Mom being there:

 

I also found a lot of stamps, but only one small group was meant for postage – these 10 from Greece:

 

The items in Mom’s collection were from decidedly non-postal sources:

 

She even saved a newspaper article telling her where to redeem them:

 

So why are they still here?

 

 

That’s it – I hope you enjoyed this trip through the………….……………wait!

I just found one more useless thing under all the other junk. I can’t imagine why she’d save this (or who’d want to buy it):

 

(Thanks, Mom.)

 

 

(ignore April 30, 2017 publish date – this was published on December 25, 2020)

 

You just KNEW that Christmas this year couldn’t be normal. To start with, a big storm with a couple of inches of rain and 50-70mph winds started things off a couple of hours before midnight. The below video shows the early, easy part, but by the time I got to bed after midnight, it was pouring and the wind was so loud against my building, I wondered if I’d be able to go to sleep (I did…………and quite nicely, thank you, but it must have been a bitch for Santa to fly through).

 

I woke up somewhere between 6:30 and 7am and could tell right away that we had lost power. I saw on the news that the state had prepared for this by importing electrical company crews from as far away as Texas, so outages were expected to be widespread and lengthy.

Oh God…………..no desktop and my iPad’s wi-fi comes from that computer when it’s on. Plus, it’s still rainy and windy and fairly dark…………what will I do all day? I wouldn’t even be able to read anything unless I put a flashlight in my mouth (not with MY gag reflex!).

Whenever we have outages, it takes forever for PSE&G to show up…………….Merry Christmas to me.

I looked out my LR window just before 7am and could see that another building and the parking lot’s light fixture were dark, but everywhere else was well-lit:

 

That’s not good – it means it’s a tiny outage and not a priority, given all the much-larger outages that must have occurred.

I need a Christmas miracle.

At around 7:30 am, I heard a truck outside and some guy yelling. I looked out the window and it was a PSE&G truck! By 8:30, three of them were opposite my window:

 

The power came on at 8:59am! I’m saved from the worst Christmas ever! 2020 is losing it!

It was still a miserable day outside, but it could have been a hell of a lot worse.

I made believe I got a Christmas present when I opened up a package that arrived a couple of days ago. I had ordered a timer/clock for the kitchen – nothing exciting – and then I read the instructions. See if you can follow all this:

Egad!

 

Fortunately, it’s an intuitive item, so they really weren’t needed, but OH MY GOD……..what if you really had no clue and had to depend on what this says?

Later on, I realized I had a mini-project that I wanted to do before today, but today would be OK. So I did.

I had noticed more than the usual few holiday decorations on tenants’ front doors and took a fast cruise through the building before anyone saw me (“Hey – why are you taking pictures by my front door?”).

They’re a bit rushed and not my best work, but it’s not like I’m trying to impress Santa at this point, so here’s what I shot:

This represents about a quarter of the apartments and none are mine.

(“Meowy Catmas”?)

 

 

Fortunately, my turkey dinner was pretty good (yes – I made it myself).

 

Goodbye, Covid Christmas.

 

 

 

(ignore April 30, 2017 publish date – this was published on December 27, 2020)

 

And before you break into the old “Deck The Halls”, let me introduce the modern adjustment:

 

This’ll be a short one – only two items……….and they’re both my t-shirts: one for Christmas and one for New Year’s Eve. They’re what all the cool kids are wearing (or at least that’s what this cool kid has been telling himself for years).

How many years? The first one is fairly recent……….maybe 5 years? The second one has a 1992 copyright date on it, so 28 years sounds about right.

 

CHRISTMAS

You don’t know who Krampus is? In some parts of the world, he’s considered to be Santa’s other half: one rewards good children, while the other…………..um, let’s just say that he takes care of the rest of them (Google Krampus – quite interesting).

 

NEW YEAR’S EVE

This one never goes out of style:

…….except maybe this year (see comments).

 

 

 

COMMENTS:

 

Dr. A. Fauci: “The CDC strongly recommends that you NOT place your lips on ANYTHING this year and probably the next one.”

 

Agolf Twitler: “It’s a HOAX! Everyone’s telling me that they love (and highly recommend) a fantastic, new hydroxychloroquine-infused, bleach-flavored lip gloss that protects your lips from anything. My staff uses it to kiss years, tears and rears and they have been ordered to endorse it by my daughter, who – coincidentally – is the exclusive seller of this unbelievable product (and look who SHE has to kiss).”

 

 

(Note to WordPress: Please do not post this until January 21, 2021)

 

 

(Ignore April 30, 2017 publish date – this was published on December 30, 2020)

 

One of my little joys in life is going out on photo walks. I get a mile or two of exercise while I shoot all kinds of things that catch my eye. Then I’ve got 50-100 photos to take home and edit and post………….maybe here on the blog or on the site I moderate for the Hackensack city historian (http://www.hackensacknow.org/).

I have a lot of latitude on that site. Nice Hackensack sunset? Posted. Construction? Posted (it’s history some day). Leslie West died? Posted. Why? Leslie Weinstein was born and raised in Hackensack.

So I’ve been real busy this crazy year because photographing/scanning and writing about all the “found treasures” have been what’s kept me sane during the pandemic (and I’ve got a LOT more to do, so if the posts aren’t to your liking, let me know and I’ll take you off the list).

I try to get out at least once a week, but lately, either I’ve got too much to do or the weather’s crappy, so once a week has started becoming once a month – not good.

But I found an hour on a nice day on December 23rd and headed for the Hackensack River Walkway – a couple of blocks from home. There’s always something to shoot there.

 

THE VIDEO

 

THE STILLS

Ducks:

(sorry for the duplication with the video still)

 

Squirrels:

 

Small seed-eating birds:

 

Larger (and successful) fishergull:

 

Signs that all of them are ignoring:

 

All this eating is making me hungry………..time to go home.

 

 

Unrelated to anything:

When I was signing into YouTube to post the walkway flick, I came across this very cool little video. The guys have chops and the little girl has Jagger down cold (well, maybe “cool” is a better word):

 

A nice note to end the year on (actually, a bunch of notes).

 

I have hope for a better 2021…………………..but not much.

I hope I’m wrong.

 

See ya.

 

 

 

(ignore April 30, 2017 publish date – this was published on January 20, 2021 – Inauguration Day!)

 

                                                   2020 IMAGE FOLDERS

(Plus 9 stragglers from the first half)

 

Annoying facts (similar to those of the first half):

Included are 259 images and 7 videos I photographed on 176 of the 184 days of Jul-Dec. Not counted as more than one are the ones with multiple images in them. A full 74% were taken from my apartment (why do you think I like living here? It’s a lazy photographer’s dream).

It’s become a MAJOR chore to do this on an annual basis, what with me taking about 14.6K photos this year. I DO try to lessen the load with daily placement of good pix into folders of varying subject matters and editing those folders on a monthly basis, but still…………

And instead of just throwing everything I shot into monthly categories to show some semblance of order, these will have a daily sequence.

To make this MORE time-consuming, I’m adding information to most of the images because I get a lot of “Nice pic – what the hell is it?” questions.

So let’s see how it goes for the 2020 second half. Feedback is appreciated.

 

And if you’re a glutton for punishment, here’s the post for the 2020’s first half pix:

https://iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com/?p=10658

 

The first-half Stragglers

May 5 – I just liked the crossing shadows that the upper wood made. BTW – that’s Holy Trinity School behind it, where all the Leafe kids learnt readin’, writin’, and cipherin’:

 

June 13 – Meanwhile, across the street, the Holy Trinity Church’s steeple gets framed by a pair of cranes:

 

June 23 – A man on a ladder – near a man with two ladders – gets handed a ladder, while a man with a shopping cart (possibly in the market for a ladder) goes by………and I get to capture all this top-flight drama from my living room:

 

June 24 – A construction worker dances a dangerous Twist six floors over Main St:

 

June 25 – Two more laddermen put up a confusing sign:

 

June 28 – Nice parking space if you live here:

 

June 30 – 3 odd, same-day pix from the same building:

 

So much for the first-half leftovers………….and now – on with the show!

 

JULY

July 3 – Victory! (no idea over what……………finding her car?):

 

July 4 – All of these were taken on the Fourth of July. Hackensack fireworks were Covid-cancelled, so some kind soul set off his own under a full moon – the only two fireworks shots I got this year:

 

July 3 and 4 – Well, I DID get some some local parking lot pyro video on the 3rd and the Empire State Building’s display on the 4th – some 10-12 miles away (see YouTube video in this link):

http://www.hackensacknow.org/index.php/topic,3951.0.html

 

July 7 – Don’t look for this in an upcoming issue of Rolling Stone:

 

July 11 – During and after the rain:

 

July 12 – No idea what’s going on here, but thanks for the thumb’s-up (and I hope your son’s head grows back):

 

July 14 – Interesting assortment of people:

 

July 15 – Two thoughts when I saw this pic: the Easy Rider movie and E-Z Wider rolling papers (Wider Rider):

 

July 16 – I took this photostitch at a portable, 1-day Covid testing site at Hackensack High School:

REGARDING ALL PHOTOSTITCHES AND ENLARGEMENTS: Click once or twice on the image for full enlargement. To go back, click however many times you did to get to the final enlargement and then hit your back button to return to the post.

 

July 16 – This was the most interesting sign at the testing site, so if you ever get dry mouth, go here:

 

July 16 – When I got home, I found these droopy wires partially blocking the church lot where I park. I called somebody and it got fixed the next day:

 

July 17 – New metal bench coming off a dolly……it was installed in the new sidewalk:

 

July 17 – Natural blonde?

 

July 18 – What a cute dog!

 

July 24 – Shelter from the storm:

 

July 25 – That horrible moment when you discover you’ve been ticketed………multiple times:

 

July 25 – Practicing for when it rains:

 

July 25 – C’mon, Mom – get with the program and pink it up!

 

July 25 – Giving Mom a well-deserved pat on the shoulder:

 

July 25 – Couldn’t let him in without a mask:

 

July 25 – Sun…

 

July 25 – …set

 

July 27 – Lazy dog…..and that mask now serves a dual purpose:

 

July 28 – Wire Dance:

 

July 28 – Shot through a window screen:

 

July 29 – Two construction shots from home (Hackensack Hospital and Main St):

 

July 31 – Tree trim:

 

July 31 – A sight I don’t usually see coming down Main St:

 

AUGUST

August 1 – Start the month off with a tall, thin, yellow smile:

 

August 1 – She was told to have a seat…………so she did:

 

August 1 – A Mickey Mouse shirt and flaming shorts? This is a very confused young man:

 

August 1 – No leash? No mask (that I can see)? And wearing 1 1/3 sleeves? More confusion………..

 

August 2 – This was a pretty cool story and you can read all about it here: https://iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com/?p=11128

 

August 3 – Fan of the fan:

 

August 4 – Burn up that watermark!

 

August 5 – Roomie swipes my face coverings:

 

August 5 – The victim was no match for that stomach-bump:

 

August 5 – Poor kid never saw a dead fence before (nice boots!):

 

August 5 – Maybe they can make a new fence from this:

 

August 6 – This is one of the few good shots of a fish crow:

 

August 6 – Usually, they’re flying around with stupid things in their beaks:

 

August 6 (and October 5 and 14) – The Two-Minute Stupid Fish Crow video:

 

August 6 – Same sidewalk, different purposes:

 

August 6 – The local – and rather iconic – Sears – was to close in September, so I took photos and video leading up to the close. The video is here: https://iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com/?p=11195, but I did want to include one unusual shot I took in this post of some of the faceless staff waiting for the end:

 

August 6 – OUCH! As you may have seen in the above video, after the Sears shoot, I tripped on an uneven street next to a construction site on my way home and – while protecting my camera – I landed smack on the top of my shoulder and sprained my AC joint. I didn’t even notice the arm problem (second pic) until after I got home. Fortunately – after 4 months of physical therapy – I’m pretty much back to normal:

 

August 6 – I was so angry and in pain from this incident that I polished off a bottle of Hennessy and bit a big chunk out of this wheel:

 

August 8 – Another daredevil 6 floors over Main St:

 

August 12 – My injuries turned yellow:

 

August 12 – I’m sorta filling in for a missing bird:

 

August 14 – On the left is my hat pin (I’m the king of my hat). When I took this picture, someone was selling the same pin (or trying to) for $50 on eBay. I had never seen a silver-colored one before until I found this one on a site in Spain for about 5 bucks:

 

August 15 – A lot of people in my neighborhood do this:

 

August 15 – Something bad must have happened in the time between these two shots:

 

August 17 – Strange clouds on my birthday:

 

August 17 – Besides that multi-unit project that I shoot from my east-facing living room window, I also get to shoot this one from my north window:

 

August 19 – And here’s another from that north window:

 

August 21 – Another dopey fish crow with something it can’t eat in its beak……..especially when it’s sitting in a tree and can’t put it down:

 

August 23 – I don’t know if that tinting is legal in NJ, but it looks cool:

 

August 24 – I’d love to know this guy’s shirt story:

 

August 26 – I DO know this guy’s shirt story because I read it here: https://iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com/?p=11433

 

August 26 – This guy needs at least one more hand:

 

August 27 – If I read this woman correctly, she’s a Coronavirus nurse AND a census-taker. Double-hero!

 

August 28 – I’m not reading ANYBODY correctly in this pic. It just looked strange so I shot it:

 

August 29 – Didn’t know they did cars too. Hey – why not? They used to BE one!

 

August 29 – Someone’s getting a welcomed delivery:

 

August 29 – Cool-looking hearse:

 

August 29 – Mount Cloud erupts:

 

August 30 – Hackensack has decided to give itself a really unfortunate nickname: “The Sack”. This is a mural just off Main St:

Could you guess? I’m not a fan: http://www.hackensacknow.org/index.php/topic,3980

 

August 30 – Here are 3 other shots I took while on Main St:

 

August 30 – Good way to finish the day’s shoot:

 

August 31 – Are these guys fighting over a bike?

 

SEPTEMBER

September 1 – Nice wheels!

 

September 1 – Slightly ominous-looking:

 

September 4 – These are two pictures taken 2 minutes and 11 seconds apart as the reflecting sun sets:

 

September 5 – Nice double image:

 

September 5 – Something I don’t see every day:

 

September 5 – Another double image. Her top says “Hell was boring” (so she came to Hackensack instead?):

 

September 6 – How to ruin nice wheel covers:

 

September 8 – Interesting message:

 

September 10 – Rain on the roof:

 

September 11 – (STITCH) Considering the date, the clouds behind Manhattan remind me of the smoke coming out of the WTC 19 years prior:

 

September 11 – Same date……..I think you know what this one’s about:

 

September 11 – Still the same date………I think my eyeball burst a blood vessel in sympathy. Nothing serious, no problems and it went away:

 

September 12 – Part of Fairleigh Dickinson University on the Teaneck side of the Hackensack River:

 

September 15: Blue Jay from my living room window:

 

September 15: White Manna is a FAMOUS burger joint (ask Guy Fieri) that’s 3 blocks from where I live. In this pic, it appears that the place gives you gas on one side and it Hertz on the other:

 

September 16 – When I first saw this scene, I was half-expecting this thing to raise one of its steel legs in the air:

 

September 16 – This strange-looking vehicle is an Uber Eats delivery bike:

 

September 16 – Gotta show off that tummy ink:

 

September 16 – Remember when the smoke from the California fires was heading east? This is what sunset looked like when it got here:

 

September 19 – More carried kids:

 

September 20 – Flower girls:

 

September 22 – Six days later, the California smoke is still hanging around:

 

September 23 – Yelling Guy Smokes! video:

 

September 26 – Love to know what this guy was rejoicing about:

 

September 26 – Or what this shirt is about (besides money):

 

September 26 – This is a job I’m glad I don’t have:

 

September 27 – I see these women every Sunday morning outside of a church and their outfits are a joy to view. There will be more upcoming:

 

OCTOBER

October 1 – The Birthday Fairy:

 

October 1 – Sometimes, the better shot comes right AFTER sunset:

 

October 2 – Did this guy drive into the back of a flatbed truck? (No, but it looks that way):

 

October 2 – This shows the moon and Mars (tiny white dot in upper left):

 

October 3 – Remember the uglified wheel covers this guy painted last month?

 

October 3 – Speaking of uglified…………..

 

October 4 – Imagine paying thousands of dollars a month (when it’s finished) to live in this Main St-fronting building (this is the back) and finding out there are freight train railroad tracks right next door:

 

October 4 – Pretty creative bicycle – now built for two:

 

October 4 – I found all these little blue pinwheels on the lawn of the Bergen County Courthouse, but was never able to find out what they represented:

 

October 4 – Would this be your first choice of a name for your pizzeria?

 

October 4 – There used to be a Woolworth’s Five and Dime at this location on Main St many years ago, so it’s nice that they’ve kept the name and the color scheme for this new multi-unit residential project. I’m guessing that one-bedroom units go for a nickel, two-bedroom ones are a dime and the penthouse is five and dime? Sign me up!

 

October 4 – Remember that propped-open storm grating in August? Perhaps these are the brand new replacements:

 

October 4 – I’d hate to tell people that I lived in a place with a name like “The Current” or “The Modern” (in Fort Lee) because the automatic response is “The Current/Modern what?”. Adjectives are not names. However this one might work if you use the picture on the left with all the electrical wires. Then “The Current” could be a noun:

 

October 4 – North and west are the same direction?

 

October 7 – The view from Foschini Park:

 

October 7 – A park resident:

October 7 – At first glance, this guy could have been kidnapping this child and throwing her in the trunk. It turns out to probably be her grandfather, who might pass for Chris Mathews, late of MSNBC:

 

October 7 – Oops! (I heard this happen – they cleaned it right up):

 

October 8 – Art behind my building (I had to shoot fast from a distance, so the composition isn’t great):

 

October 10 – Dark laundry day:

 

October 10 – Three buds:

 

October 10 – Awkward grabby guy:

 

October 11 – Sidewalk and street traffic:

 

October 11 – Higher on the tire:

 

October 13, 14, 15 – 6:06pm, 6:11pm, 6:05pm:

 

October 15 – When I took the picture, I thought the guy was in a hole:

 

October 17 – Hmmm………..I wonder what that guy’s looking at. It sure ain’t what she’s looking at:

 

October 18 – More Sunday morning color:

 

October 19 – (More stupid fish crows) The Bergen Bench Players put on a show for a spellbound audience:

 

October 19 – This one flew from the garbage can to a fence with his prized piece of aluminum foil, started to shake it and then dropped it. I’m sure his friends were impressed:

 

October 19 – ……..and this one watched from the garbage seats:

 

October 19 – But the real reason I visited the Union St Park – about a mile down the street from me – was not avian stupidity, but rather the work depicted in these 3 images:

 

October 19 – Then I went home and was underwhelmed by this pic taken from my north living room window of the 435 Main St project:

 

October 23 – More progress on the same project. I think this is the extent of what they’re taking away from my view of the Sears tower:

 

October 24 – This was such a nice fall colors shot when it included the river. What will the future occupants think when they see me constantly aiming a camera in their direction?

 

October 24 – I don’t think I’ve ever seen a going-out-of-business sign on a car before. Who would be able to read everything on the sign while it’s passing by – Evelyn Wood? (you might want to Google that name) Usually, the roof holds a Domino’s Pizza sign:

 

October 24 – These are 3 consecutive shots taken as I dial back the distance on this rather astounding reflection and then a 4th after it calmed down a bit:

 

October 24 – Hmmm…………..a cigar or a blunt?

 

October 25 – These are sections of scaffolding piled high on a construction site:

 

October 25 – Equally colorful are my favorite church ladies:

 

October 27 – What exactly are self-cleaning elevator buttons? Did my finger clean off the touch of the prior person going to the same floor?

(The answer: It means turning dirty, high traffic public touchpoints into cleaner surfaces you can see.

NanoSeptic Skins and Mats turn dirty high traffic, public touchpoints into continuously self-cleaning surfaces. Powered by light, NanoSeptic surfaces utilize mineral nano-crystals which create a powerful oxidation reaction. Working 24/7, the surface continually oxidizes organic contaminants. Unlike traditional disinfectants and cleaners, the NanoSeptic surface uses no poisons, heavy metals or chemicals, and nothing is released from the surface since the nano-crystals are molecularly bonded to the material.)

Got that?

 

October 27 – I took that elevator to go up to “2” for my shoulder physical therapy, where – during my first exercise – I noticed this cute little Halloween figure next to a rather interesting name. Did one ID the other? Who knows? Shoot first and ask questions later:

 

October 27 – This day – 4 days before Halloween – was when the therapists would have their Halloween party during their lunch break. The theme this year was lumberjacks (?) and every therapist looked the part for the full work day – not just at the party – so my shoulder got worked on by someone in a flannel shirt and jeans (one of the therapists in the below pic I took before I left – let’s just say it was the redless non-conformist).

I didn’t stick around for the party, but I did introduce them beforehand to an appropriately-humorous song that I think was played at the event:

 

October 31 – Halloween! In the first pic, a young boy discovers his father’s favorite alter-ego. In the second one, all this buzzing around from door to door has made this bee too pooped to fly:

 

NOVEMBER

November 3 – It looks like all one piece. Where does the bike end and the rider begin?

 

November 3 – Oddservation on “Last Week Tonight”:

 

November 5 – An unusual assortment of shapes at Physical Therapy:

 

November 5 – Jackhammer cigarette break:

 

November 5 – Death of a traffic island (and a traffic cone):

 

November 5 – For want of a “T”……..Geez, you can even see the quarter that’s “suck” and there are only 5 words to proofread. You deserve to be fined 25 cents!

 

November 5 – This is the day I was invited to shoot from the roof of the big project across from my living room window – the 389 Main St project……….the one that now blocks my great view of the Hackensack River that I had for 31 years.

While I waited for the project superintendant in the garage, I took a shot of this original artist’s conception of the building that was on his work desk. I have no idea what the yellow tube paperweight contained:

 

November 5 – Of course, the first thing I did when I got on the roof was to shoot a multiple-image photo stitch of the river that lined up and turned out well (many don’t when you try to line them up hand-held):

 

November 5 – Aliens on the roof:

 

November 5 – West view (the top 2 windows on the right are my bedroom windows):

 

November 5 – The traffic island destruction from 6 floors up (while I’m laying on my stomach at the edge):

 

November 5 – PHOTOSTITCH – Main St looking south. On the horizon, you can barely make out some of the Manhattan skyline in the haze:

Interesting story: Right on Main St where the next block begins (after where the truck and red car are crossing Main St) is where the south-facing stage for the annual Main St Festival is erected.

In 2015, the entertainment headliners were the Village People, whose “dressing room” was in the big brick building on the left. That building is the……Y-M-C-A !

I happened to take a few pictures that day if you’re interested:

http://www.hackensacknow.org/index.php/topic,3206

 

November 5 – A rather weird photostitch of Main St and the demolished traffic island taken looking straight down:

 

November 5 – Taking Down The Traffic Island video (from ground level and 6 floors up):

 

November 6 – Awwww!

 

November 7 – Great costumes, but they’re both about a week late for Halloween:

 

November 7 – Best news of the year:

 

November 8 – An odd assortment of things:

 

November 8 – It must be Sunday:

 

November 8 – Side view, upper floors, 389 Main project:

 

November 9 – return to 389 Main’s top floor to shoot apartment views from Main St side (east) and Ward St side (north). No roof access today:

 

November 9 (same shoot) – These are two photostitches showing west views. I took the first one for me. My unit is right above my watermark. The wide window on top is my big living room picture window, from which I take most of my pictures, including NYC:

 

This one shows everything than can be seen – side-to-side – from this unit (you can see parts of the building I’m in on both ends of the stitch):

 

November 10 – What the hell is he carrying (besides a drink)?

 

November 10 – Usually, everything makes sense when you show the entire item. But when you only show part of it………….fingers start scratching heads:

 

November 10 – A cute little squoil behind my building:

 

November 10 – Remember this scene? Someone added a wheelbarrow…………I don’t think it helps:

 

November 14 – From my kitchen window (overlooking the roof):

 

November 15 – A quick-moving, nasty little drencher came through this evening:

 

 

November 16 – Two more reflection shots taken 15 seconds apart. I had to compose quickly to capture the plane coming in for a landing at Teterboro Airport:

 

November 17 – The winner of the Oddest Christmas Door Mat award lives right below me:

 

November 19 – A view from the Physical Therapy room (why is there an apostrophe in “Sundays”? Jerk, indeed!):

 

November 21 – Momma, the bike mechanic:

 

November 21 – Probably not Rosie the Waitress from the old Bounty commercials:

 

November 21 – Hon and Dearie again:

 

November 21 – I have a friend named Eric Leefe (no relation), whom I’ve written about many times on this blog. He’s been wheelchair-bound for his entire life (Cerebral Palsy), but he fronted bands on Long Island back in the day and still writes songs and puts out albums. He once told me that he wanted to be remembered in connection with the 1980s music scene.

He mentioned the 80s so often that I told him early on that my nickname for him was “Eight-Oh”. I’ve called him that almost all of the time since we met 7 years ago.

On 11-21-20, I saw a rubber band on my desk and instantly thought of Eric because it looked like it had formed an eight and a zero, so I had to take a picture of it.

Good thing I did because once I picked it up, I could never get it to form the same shape again.

So here’s my friend Eric – the “Eight Oh” yellow rubber band:

 

November 27 – These are two shots from my south-facing window – one near and one far. The near one was two houses away where a crooked chimney was being repaired/stabilized. Everything was a little off-kilter and I felt bad for the man trying to navigate on this crooked structure.

The far one was about a mile away where Hackensack Hospital was building a large addition. Both pictures were illuminated by early-morning sunlight:

 

November 28 – Faceless walker with an umbrella on a sunny day:

 

November 28 – It looks like it’s cold on the far side of the street and warm on the near side, as the cold man observes the warm woman lugging a pink crib – something you definitely don’t see every day:

Interesting shot to end the month with.

 

DECEMBER

December 1 – Two interesting exterior shots of a food establishment on Anderson St – about 3 blocks from me:

 

December 2 – A GREAT sunrise!

 

December 5 – Remember Momma the bike mechanic? Here she is going 1 for 2 throwing a Frisbee:

 

December 5 – Mr. NYFRSH is also Mr. NJNOMASK, according to his hat:

 

December 5 – Camera-shy dog stares at my watermark:

 

December 5 – Uh-oh! Political “humor”. Looks like election fraud. Call Rudy!

 

December 5 – Two more photostitches taken near sunset – one near and the other far:

 

December 12 – Fashion battle! I think I’m leaning to the right on this one (and THAT doesn’t happen very often!):

 

December 13 – Final Sunday church lady shot of the year:

 

December 13 – I don’t know who gets all of these Christmas goodies, but I know my name’s on one of those packages:

 

December 13 – Somewhere, a crèche is missing its child:

 

December 13 – There’s nothing special about this shot. I just liked the bright-colored towels in the sun:

 

December 13 – A house of worship across the river in Teaneck:

 

December 13 – Four sunset reflection shots:

 

December 16 – These look like a bunch of used face masks shot from underneath, but why and what do they represent, if anything?

 

December 16 – Actually, there are about 27 of them, I think, and they represent each Physical Therapy appointment I attended for my shoulder (I had “graduated” the day before. The facility wouldn’t let me use my bandanna mask, so I got a new one from them on each visit). My 7’ roommate – who stands guard by my front door – holds onto them for when I need one quickly, like whenever the doorbell rings. He also keeps a new one in each of his two pockets. I guess this kinda makes up for him paying no rent:

 

December 17 – This is the only semi-significant snowfall we’ve had this winter so far (we were supposed to get 10” and wound up with about 4):

 

December 18 – Another blazing sunrise:

 

December 18 – Can this Hackensack crane successfully pluck this century-plus old chimney from its base across the Hackensack River in Bogota?

 

December 18 – Are you getting tired of these sunset reflection shots yet?

 

December 19 – EVERY Saturday, this car dealership puts out these balloon displays, as if seeing balloons makes people REALLY want so much more to buy a car:

 

December 19 – Kids. Why walk on a cleared path when you can trudge through the snow?

 

December 19 – Interesting-looking vehicle. BTW – the restaurant’s name is “Noches de Columbia”:

 

December 20 – Some slob dumped a pile of crap in the parking lot and the fish crows went wild:

December 20 – The Fish Crow Feast video:

 

December 22 – These guys are just happy they’re not fish crows:

 

December 22 – A few days earlier, I had to go through a 4-hour nuclear stress test and during the treadmill part, had all these electrodes attached to me. When I got home, I realized that somebody forgot to remove them, so I had to. I stuck all 10 of them together – complete with chest hairs – and made a show of “returning their property” to them on my followup visit. BTW – I passed:

 

December 22 – Four days after trying to uproot that old chimney, the Hackensack crane now thinks it can yank the Empire State Building out of Manhattan. Good luck!

 

December 23 – 4 pix from a stroll on the Hackensack River Walkway (the video for this is in my previous post, “2020 – Escape from the apartment for an hour”):

 

December 26 – A walking, faceless hooded parka:

 

December 26 – Day-after-Christmas party?

 

December 27 – New Christmas clothes for his kids?

 

December 27 – Sunset near the hospital:

 

December 30 – Stunning sunrise on the year’s penultimate day (the second shot is my view from home of the top of the New Jersey tower of the George Washington Bridge – about 6 miles away):

 

December 31 – Cleaning up after early celebrations that this is the final day of this horrible year:

 

December 31 – What better way to end an extremely sucky year than seeing a little girl make one final big splash to wash it all away? I shot this in late afternoon on 12-31:

 

So, how have I spent the first couple of weeks of 2021?

Putting this monstrous post together – hope you enjoyed it.

 

 

(ignore April 30, 2017 publish date – this was published on January 25, 2021)

 

And no one in the family even knew that this mystery existed – including me – until I came up with it this week.

So I found this old brown envelope with a 1944 postmark from the Navy Department sent to someone I’ve never heard of at a company I wasn’t familiar with.

My father WAS fighting in WWII at the time, but he was in the Army.

Also in the envelope was a letter dated November 9, 1944 – same as the postmark:

The letter accompanied 6 – 8×10 B&W photographs (“official Navy photographs”, as the letter states), that showed naval ships.

The photos reminded me of an old naval heroics TV show called “Victory At Sea” that I used to watch in the ‘50s:

 

Each picture had a file number and official Navy information on the back. Here are the 6 pix. Following each image is what’s on the back. They are shown sequentially by file number:

 

So why has this envelope been in our non-Naval family for so long? There’s GOTTA be a reason/connection.

As I write this on January 25, 2021, I think I’ve figured it out (maybe). The two clues are in the company address and my “Sergeant Dad” post of last November 30 and the wild card clue is his mother: our Nana.

 

Although her letters to him on the war front that I have were from 1945, I recalled one of them mentioning a job other than her Air Associates job in Teterboro. I found the letter, but no mention of the name of the other company………………..until I noticed a crossed out return address on the envelope:

It’s the same company and address that the envelope from the Navy is addressed to.

OK, so why the big naval interest when her son was in the Army? Well, Dad was in the Pacific and had to ride a bunch of naval vessels to invade various islands that the Japanese soldiers occupied.

I realized that there was one place that was mentioned on both the backs of the photos and in Dad’s war itinerary: LEYTE, which is in the Philippines.

Two more things cinched the deal: there’s a common date mentioned on the back of every picture: October 20, 1944.

And here’s Dad’s itinerary for that year………….check the date:

 

NERVY NANA HAD PETITIONED HER BOSS TO ASK THE NAVY FOR OFFICIAL IMAGES OF THE NAVAL INVASION OF LEYTE…………when and where her son was fighting in WWII until the following November 15. And she got them! The images were sent to her on November 9.

I guess it’s the only sort of “connection” that a loving and very worried mother could come up with when her son was in great danger halfway around the world.

(And pretty quick action by the US Navy during a world war, no? Her boss must have had some pull there.)

Way to go, Nana!

 

Case closed.

 

 

(ignore April 30, 2017 publish date – this was published on January 30, 2021)

 

These were found in a folder that was inside a raggedy manila envelope. The folder was labeled “COMMITMENT”(?). There were a lot more photos in the folder, but these were the……..uh, “best”. Mom had worked for Teaneck in the Violations Bureau for 30 years and was known to every cop in town.

Why she had this particular collection in that folder is beyond me, but here they are, in sequence. If they have information on the back, that will follow each picture:

This is westbound Route 4 in Teaneck near the Englewood border in 1948. I have no idea why the police needed to take pictures of a real estate office on the highway, but I’m including them so we can all add new meteorological terminology to our vocabularies via the description that was on the back of the second image: the weather was………“Dull”:

 

These show two hit-and-run accidents on May 3, 1953. I’m not sure why the Teaneck police shot one of them in Englewood (second photo):

 

Big-time crime on November 19, 1957: two “trailors” stored on a large gas station lot. I wonder if the station got off on a technicality (the spelling error made by Lt. Det. E. Norton):

Hey……….does the “E.” stand for “Ed”? I seem to recall an “Ed Norton” from the 50s (“Hey, Ralphie boy!”). Note: further research reveals a TPD Lt. Det. Edwin Norton, so “Ed” it is!

 

More high crimes and misdemeanors uncovered by Lt. Det. Norton on July 12, 1958:

 

Here’s some more of his photography on July 8, 1960:

 

These last five accident photos are undated and contain no information:

 

In the same folder, I found this July 24, 1962 letter attached to the November 5, 1963 picture below it, though I’m not sure if they’re related. And what is “Year Yard”? Could it be “Rear Yard”?

 

So many questions…………….especially, “Why did you bring these particular photos home to keep?”

 

We will continue to guess. Thanks, Mom.

 

The things some people collect!

 

(…………like I should talk, right?)

 

 

 

(ignore April 30, 2017 publish date – this was published on February 4, 2021)

 

As I’ve mentioned previously, my father was an executive in two Chevrolet dealerships. Occasionally, I find little Chevrolet goodies amongst all the family history.

Here’s a 1962 booklet from the first dealership:

 

Years ago, I found this old Chevy in the lot where I used to park my car:

 

A closeup of the bumper sticker:

 

We were brought up to believe that Chevrolet was the United States and Ford was the Soviet Union. That’s why I’ve never owned a Ford (which probably WAS really based in Moscow instead of Detroit).

So when I found this 320-page book – “SIXTY YEARS OF CHEVROLET” – (year #60 was in 1972), I figured that this must be some sort of early Chevy bible cherished by Dad that I could now reveal to the world:

 

Inside this 9” x 11.5” hardcover book were a couple of pages of pictures and text of every year’s cars, beginning in 1912: every model of every full-size Chevrolet, Corvette, Corvair, Vega, Chevy II, Chevelle, truck, Nomad, El Camino…………and I’m sure I missed a few.

I don’t have the time or patience to scan them all – quick frankly, most of them are boring – so I’ll just pick out maybe one page from most of the decades that I find interesting and insert some personal preferences/involvement that may or may not be of interest to you.

THE FIRST CHEVROLET (1912):

 

The 100,000th Chevrolet (1925):

 

1934 Chevrolet:

That middle one is interesting-looking (though the tiny rear window looks dangerous). At least now the wheels don’t look like spoked wagon wheels:

 

The Master Deluxe line (1941):

I’ve never heard of the Master Deluxe line, but the evolution is evident:

 

Personally recognizing what year the car was made (beginning in 1953):

I must have begun to take notice of year-to-year design differences when I was about 6. ’53 and ’54 Chevys always looked the same to me:

 

………..until I looked at their taillights (‘53s have boobs and ‘54s don’t):

 

Speaking of taillights, here’s another Dad goodie: 1959 Chevy taillight cuff links (which I’ve shown on this blog previously):

 

For the next decade, EVERY year of Chevy looked distinctly different to me. ’53 to ’65? No problem. ’66 and up? No clue.

I’d be curious if the same thing occurred with any of you car aficionados out there, but perhaps with different cars in different year groupings.

 

One omission, I think (I haven’t read every word of this book), is that I could find no mention of almost everyone’s favorite Corvette – the 1963 Split-Window coupe.

Here’s the 1963 Corvette page. The top pic looks like it might be that model but there’s no “split-window” mention and I can find nothing relevant when I searched the 0837 model designation number:

 

Here’s a nice shot of a customized split-window coupe:

 

After that Corvette page, there are 77 more pages in the book that I didn’t really care about, so I’ll finish the book with a 1972 page:

 

One final goodie: I bought this little 1964 Bonanza on eBay a long time ago because I watched the show:

 

Just found its 3:33 soundtrack on YouTube, if you’d like to hear it (it’s pretty lame):

 

So now I wonder what this very special, super-rare book is worth. I’m surprised I’ve never seen it anywhere before or even heard of it. And not finding it on eBay would be confirmation of its great value.

And eBay has……………………thirty of them, priced as low as $6.69.

(sigh!)

As famous SNL news spinster, Emily Litella, said nearly every week on “Weekend Update”:

 

 

 

 

 

(ignore April 30, 2017 publish date – this was published on February 9, 2021)

 

In response to my previous post about Chevrolets, I got an email from old friend and past president of the Bergen County Historical Society (AND Teaneck town historian), Bob Griffin, that stated:

“My second car was a 1960 Chevy Bel Air. I loved it. The first was a 1949 Buick Special (3 hole, if you know what that meant ). Two people could lie down in the back seat, full out, and not touch either side (very important at drive-in movies in Denver during the late’50s).”

It made me realize that I failed to mention my own ownership of Chevys and other brands in that post, so that’s what this post will be about.

And I have to make a slight correction to my statement that “……. I’ve never owned a Ford”. While I’ve never owned a car with a Ford nameplate on it, I DID own a Mercury product that was made by Ford. More on that later.

I bought my first car – a gold-and-white 1956 Dodge Custom Royal – from a classmate at Bergen Catholic High School. Except for the dual exhausts, it looked exactly like this one:

 

You’ve heard of four-on-the-floor? This car didn’t have that (it was automatic), but it DID have four-on-the-door:

I don’t recall it looking exactly like the above, but it WAS over a half-century ago and what’s shown WAS a replacement for that year and model (which may originally have had chrome buttons to match the rest of the dashboard).

And I didn’t have the car long enough for those buttons to imprint on me.

Coming home one night from Palisades Amusement Park, I took her out on Route 80 to see what she could do. Happy to hit 100 for the first time in my life, I shut her down and went home.

The next morning, I drove the car to school, but only got as far as 4 blocks from home when the engine died without a sound – it just stopped, never to start again.

Oh, NO! Not only did I have to use the school bus again, but my senior prom was in two days and I had been anxious to impress my date and another couple with my snazzy wheels.

Of course, Mom wasn’t willing to let me use her 4-door, battleship gray ’61 cheapo Chevy until the very last minute (I think she enjoyed torturing me for two days) and it was embarrassing to use that car (good thing proms are held at night when things are less visible).

On a side note, the prom was a disaster because I started to really not like my date about a week before the event, but a commitment was made, so………….

I think I danced the first and last dance with her and spent the entire rest of the evening talking to my friend’s date, whom HE wasn’t getting along with. If the school was smart, they should have had a fee-based date exchange at the door and made some money.

My father later used his automotive connections to have a used engine installed, but I don’t think his connections were as great as I had hoped: that engine died within two weeks and with it went my dreams of my first summer of driving.

I don’t recall how long it was before I got another car – a 1960 Pontiac convertible – but here I am with it in our driveway in April, 1966 (baby moon hubcap!):

That car was a lot of fun.

 

The next car was a black 1963 Pontiac Grand Prix. I had always liked the design and lines of this car, but I thought it could look so much better…………..maybe even hot, so I had it painted an electric blue, jacked it up and made the front slightly higher than the back. Deep-dish chrome-reversed wheels were the icing under the cake.

I also gave it a name – something that was semi-popular back then. “Prix-fection” was somewhat known for being a one-of-a-kind eye-catcher that a few people thought was a GTO, which was smaller and faster. This was taken in August of 1968:

A couple of people gave me pictures they took of the car. Here I am pulling out of the Fairmount Diner parking lot in Hackensack with my girlfriend in the Fall of 1968:

One person who gave me a picture of the car was my mother, who took this candid shot from her bedroom window. I’m polishing the car while my sister Geri gets to mow the lawn:

 

At one point, I acquired a ’64 Chevy Impala Super Sport while I still had the GP. The picture is not of my car, but mine was the same color and model:

I have a story about that situation that you may find interesting. Back in the ‘60s, the place to be in the evening was Main St in Hackensack, where EVERYBODY cruised the drag up and down either showing off their cars or looking to meet someone cute (or both).

I had glasspack mufflers on the GP, so it sounded as good as the car looked…………except to a Hackensack cop on Main St who pulled me over and told me, “I don’t want to see this car on Main St again tonight!”

“Yes sir!”, I said.

I went straight home and grabbed the SS and headed back to Main St, where I passed the cop, gave him a big smile and waved. Fortunately, he left me alone.

Hey – I did exactly as he ordered………….what could he say?

 

A year later, I had sold the GP and the SS and got a ’68 Pontiac GTO, for which I can find no pictures other than this one that Mom took:

My GTO story: I was driving down the Garden State Parkway late one night c.1970 to get to the Shore for some reason, when a Jaguar XKE pulls alongside of me and the driver made some racing gestures. The road was deserted, so I took off (and he kept up).

You know how most speedometers usually list speeds up to 120 – even though you never go that fast? We did………..and more.

You know the spaces between each set of numbers on the dial? I don’t know for sure if the needle can really go far past 120, but – as I recall – I went two spaces past it.

If I’m right, I hit 140 before the Jag walked away from me!

Simulation:

How embarrassing! (and how grateful I was that no vehicle with flashing red lights and a siren pulled me over).

(Uh…….the statute of limitations doesn’t go beyond 50 years, does it?)

If it does, then I, uh…..dreamt it! Yeah – that’s it.

 

Sometime in 1970, I got a little 1960 Austin-Healey Sprite that looked like the below image (not sure about the interior color, though). It was quite the opposite of my previous cars: no power and ZERO protection if someone ran into me:

It was like driving a tin can, but it was the best car I ever had for driving around in midtown-Manhattan traffic! I remember zipping in and out of traffic on Eighth Avenue. There were no blind spots………….you could see everything!

Unfortunately, that’s all I remember about the car, so all other driving in it must have been pretty boring.

 

Can’t have that, so I bought my first new car: a 1971 Mercury Capri (this was the Ford product I mentioned earlier).

This is the only shot I have of it as it originally existed. Once again, I’m polishing my car – this time, in the driveway – while I’m talking to my suddenly very long-haired sister, Geri (my hair also got longer, but it’s flat………that would change very soon):

This was taken – unbeknownst to us – by Mom from a different bedroom window. BTW – you can see her previously-mentioned battleship gray ’61 Chevy in the garage.

 

Soon after that, I added a white vinyl roof, exploded my hair, put my bike in the car and wore short-shorts (hey – I had the legs for it):

(photos by Mom)

 

During the ’73-’74 school year – while I still had that car – I was a student at one college and a faculty member at another:

 

One evening sometime later, I was invited to dinner at the home of a friend of mine and his wife. He lived in Wood-Ridge, NJ, near the Carlstadt border. I parked on the street. It was the last time I’d ever drive that car.

Sometime during the evening, we heard a very loud crash outside. My friend ran out to check on it. He came back, looked at me and shook his head in the same manner a doctor might when someone dies and he doesn’t want to say it.

He brought me outside. Some drunken maniac had barreled down the street, sideswiped a couple of cars and smashed into mine.

Not only was it totaled, but I had parked in front of the last house in Wood-Ridge. The accident pushed my car in front of the first house in Carlstadt. Officers from two police departments were arguing about jurisdiction.

My friend drove me home.

 

I had to get another vehicle fast and wound up with a Chevy Vega:

The thing burned a lot of oil and I didn’t keep it for long because my father came through with something interesting.

 

At the time, he was working in a Chevy dealership in Bayonne. He was close with his boss, who informed him of the possible availability of a practically-new Chevy Nova Concours company car that the boss’ wife either didn’t want or couldn’t use for some reason.

They’d be willing to let it go at a pretty low price. We took it.

Here I am with it in the summer of 1977:

 

I kept that car for about 14 years, decided to sell it to someone I knew who needed a car, and bought a car I’ve always liked the look of:

It was a 1983 Datsun 280-ZX.

 

One final Mom-from-the-bedroom-window shot from when I brought it over to show Dad in 1990:

 

I kept that car for 8 years and was then in the market for a new one. Here’s the picture that sold me on the 1998 Chrysler Sebring Coupe (in Paprika!):

 

For a while, I owned two cars once again. I kept the Z at my parents’ house and brought the Sebring over to take this shot of both (note the “For Sale” signs in the Z):

 

The Sebring from another angle:

 

I’ve now had this car for 23 years! And it hasn’t even reached 27,000 miles yet! And before you start making jokes about the little old lady with the low-mileage car who only used it to drive to church on Sunday, you should be aware that I park this car IN a church lot, where it sits for many days at a time, so I don’t even follow the little old lady’s example.

There’s one segment of the family that may remember that I drove this new car to a mini-family reunion in North Carolina in 1998 – the longest trip I’ve ever driven it on. And if I didn’t make that trip to NC, it might not even be at 25,000 miles yet.

 

Time to wrap up this saga.

Did anyone notice that I’ve never owned a car with 4 doors? That was considered to be the epitome of uncool behavior in the late ’60s. If your car was in the shop and you had to borrow your parents’ van or 4-doored vehicle and you showed up to meet your friends while driving it, you were ragged mercilessly for driving a mommydaddy car. To this day, any 4-doored vehicle is a mommydaddy car to me and I’m shocked that that term can’t be found in search engines. Trust me – it existed.

One other observation: the Chevy father’s son’s list of cars started and ended (so far) with Mopars.

 

Finally, the last images will be the Sebring and not the Sebring.

Last week, we had one of the larger snowfalls in recent memory. For the first time ever, I got plowed in by an inattentive plower. And for the first time in a half-century, I had to shovel snow to get out.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to shovel the whole pile – just enough to squeeze by to the left and barely miss my neighbor’s car.

 

It’s probably a good thing that I didn’t include all this in the previous post. It’s bulky enough as it is.

 

 

 

 

(ignore 4-30-17 publish date – this was published on February 16, 2021)

 

My mother never really talked about any of this stuff – at least not to me (plus – as the eldest – I was out on my own for a lot of this) – so the revelations uncovered by this dive into bags of family history are eye-opening and welcome – especially to a photographer-offspring. If any of what’s here is news to my siblings, all the better.

Fortunately, she did these things sparingly over the course of a couple of decades, so I don’t have to write a book about each thing.

 

POLITICS

I knew she (and my father) were involved in local Republican politics – she was a Republican Committeewoman from Teaneck (not sure if Dad held a similar male post) – but I didn’t know about her photographic involvement.

I found about two dozen pix – including a couple of musicians and sports figures – at political events, so I’m just going to post them chronologically.

1964 – When Barry Goldwater ran for president, Mom worked at Goldwater HQ on Cedar Lane in Teaneck:

(I remember that when Barry lost, Mom came home VERY late on Election night, but it is NOT known if those hours were spent at the establishment to HQ’s immediate left in the picture.)

 

Though she never photographed Barry, she DID photograph his son, Michael, at what she referred to on the back of the print as “Teaneck’s Cow Palace” – a name/place that no one I’ve asked in town seems to be able to identify:

 

Official status!

 

1966 – As far as I can tell, this has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with politics, but these are the sports figures I mentioned above, so I’m including it because it’s SO rare that my mother – a Brooklyn Dodger fan – would photograph any NY Yankees (who I shot a TON of, beginning 14 years later), but here is her shot of Steve Hamilton (l) and Clete Boyer (r) onstage at Palisades Amusement Park on July 8, 1966. It’s likely that she was there because my younger brother was a Clete Boyer fan:

The “Next Performance 8pm” sign on the left probably does NOT refer to these guys. Further research shows that the Yankees played a twi-night doubleheader that day against the Washington Senators (they split it) and both men played in the first game – which started at 5:03pm – and Boyer also played in the second game, which started at 8:57pm. Hamilton pitched one inning and Boyer went 2 for 7.

Their north-facing shadows indicate that this photo was probably taken between 11am and 1pm.

BTW – the Park sat atop the mighty Palisades on the Jersey side of the Hudson River. If you look through the picket fencing, that bluish-looking land on the horizon is Manhattan. Yankee Stadium in the Bronx is only a mile or two beyond that.

 

 

1967 – Similar to me shooting on Tom Snyder’s “Tomorrow” show in 1981, Mom shot William F. Buckley’s “Firing Line” show 14 years earlier on April 10, 1967. Mr. Buckley is on the left:

 

Two guests that day: film director Otto Preminger and psychologist/writer Timothy Leary:

 

(From another post on this blog): On October 28, 1967, she photographed George Romney (Mitt’s father), Teaneck’s Max Hasse (who I knew from his involvement at Blue Cab) and others on Cedar Lane. Maybe they were going to the Imperial Diner? George looks ready to shake Mom’s hand:

(George ran for the Republican Party nomination in the 1968 presidential election.)

 

 

1968 – The Neptune Inn – on Route 4 in Paramus, NJ – hosted a pre-election event on September 6, 1968, featuring Governor of Maryland and Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Spiro T. Agnew. Republican photographer Eunice K. Leafe did not have the best seat in the house from which to take pictures:

 

On October 12, 1968, Bergen County Sheriff Joe Job, Eunice Leafe and Teaneck councilman Max Hasse posed in front of Nixon HQ in Teaneck. Mom apparently had Joe sign the pic later, “To Eunice with best wishes Joe”:

 

October 26, 1968 – Big day for Eunice: Richard Nixon’s presidential campaign came to the steps of Fort Lee, NJ, high school and she’s a program official, according to this:

 

On the nixonlibrary.gov site, I found a detailed schedule for the day. Nixon had an apartment in NYC (810 Fifth Avenue, corner of E. 62nd St), where he (RN), wife Pat (PN), daughters Tricia and Julie and Julie’s husband, David Eisenhower – Ike’s grandson – stayed the night before the Fort Lee rally.

In the Platform Committee list, you’ll see the name “Nelson Gross” – the Nixon state chairman, who will pop up in a 1969 picture. A more-familiar surname just below that list is EHRLICHMAN. John was the advance man for this campaign and, of course, a key figure during Watergate:

 

I found two photos that Mom took of Nixon:

In the second photo, the man on the left may be familiar to some older NJ residents. He’s Congressman William B. Widnall, who was in the House of Representatives for 24 years.

 

The rally lasted a little over an hour and then headed for the next stop (Bloomfield, NJ).

 

 

1969 – I have no information where this event took place or why, but Lionel Hampton was the entertainment and the man next to the girl in the second picture is the aforementioned Nelson Gross. Next to him is Lionel Hampton and the gentleman on the far right is Anthony Statile – a GOP county chairman (sorry, un-ID’d man in tan):

 

December 30, 1969 – This is another no-info (where, why) pic except for the names. Yankees announcer Frank Messer is on the left and Yankees star catcher, Elston Howard – who lived in Teaneck – is on the right:

 

 

1970 – March 11: At some unknown event, NJ Governor William Cahill signs a picture for Mom (I don’t know what caused that black blotch below his shoulder). Below that, she poses with Gov. Cahill and others………….and that signed picture (as if anyone could see the signature):

 

September 13, 1970: Another event at the Neptune Inn, whose sign says:

Bergen County Republican Organization

Nelson Gross Day

Sen. John Tower

I don’t know what “Nelson Gross Day” is all about, but he doesn’t show up in any of the pictures. I wonder what attracted Texas Senator John Tower to the event (and I have no idea what’s up with his eye in the middle pic):

 

 

1972 – To me, the guy with the light-colored tie is a very young-looking version of the man I knew as Jack Terhune (inset), when he was a Teaneck police lieutenant in the ‘80s. He became the County Sheriff and then the state corrections commissioner, Leonia borough administrator and…………..I don’t know what else, but he was always very nice to me – probably because of his friendship with Mom:

 

That’s probably why I still have this refrigerator magnet:

 

 

1973 – (Mom horning in on my territory in the year I shot my first concert – I’ll take Led Zeppelin over Lou Monte ANY day.)

March 24, 1973 – I don’t know where or why, but this IS the great Lou Monte. According to Wikipedia, “Lou Monte was an Italian American singer best known for a number of best-selling, Italian-themed novelty records which he recorded for both RCA Victor and Reprise Records in the late 1950s and early 1960s”:

 

May 4, 1973 – Again, no info other than Mom is shown with US Senator James L. Buckley of New York. James was the brother of previously-shown William F. Buckley:

 

 

Jumping ahead a decade………

1983 – (Sometime in September) This is Pope John Paul II and it may be the best shot my mother ever took:

Is the Pope a politician? (https://www.quora.com/Is-the-Pope-a-politician)

 

Sometimes.

 

 

 

 

PARKING TIX

 

 

So I found this little (5.5” x 7.5”) Fotomax book with plastic spiral binding and 10 plastic pages that were made for inserting two 5” x 3.5” in each page, which was actually about 5.25” long to accommodate a similar-sized piece of white paper on which you could write the where and when info on the edge:

 

I thought I would just scan each page, but scanning through the wrinkly plastic proved to be problematic. Besides, the pix were out of sequence and needed a good amount of editing (some were beyond hope, as you’ll see), so I’m presenting them in order and cleaned up to the best of my ability.

My parents traveled all over the world and I know I’ve got a manila envelope somewhere that’s filled with Mom’s global photos, but I haven’t uncovered that yet.

This little book isn’t about the sites/sights of the world. This is a niche subject that I’ve never seen displayed before, but it’s one Mom had some familiarity with.

I think this item from my site – especially the last sentence – will make sense of all this when you see the pictures:

 

In order, they are:

2-21-72, Hilo Airport, Hawaii:

 

2-8-73, Madrid, Spain:

 

2-18-74, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil:

 

4-12-75, London, England:

 

8-12-79, Greece:

 

9-8-82, Oslo, Norway:

 

9-19-83, Florence, Italy:

 

9-12-84, London, England (is that Lovely Rita?):

I just noticed something in the background: The Dog & Trumpet pub. The illustration under the ampersand looks familiar, so I found a more recent closeup – courtesy of Alamy.com:

I wonder if the pub is aware of RCA’s ownership of that image. I would imagine so, given that “His Master’s Voice” is too well-known an image to NOT be aware of it:

 

9-21-84, Paris, France:

 

11-12-95, Australia (no idea why this pic is included in the Fototmax book…………part of the business, I guess):

 

November, 1995, Australia, NZ: The Aussie meter person is probably smiling because it’s the first time anyone – a crazy Yank, no less – ever asked to take his picture while writing a ticket:

 

And so ends Eunice’s World Ticket Tour 1972-1995. Has anyone ever before seen so much dedication to such an obscure photo niche for so long a period of time on a global basis?

 

The I-May-Be-Related-To-This-Person Department:

Three days before I wrote this, I took this picture from my living room window of two Hackensack Parking Enforcement personnel chatting in the municipal lot behind my building:

The standing officer is the older brother of someone I went to grammar school with two blocks away. He once gave me a $57 parking ticket (we’ve since become friends).

At least I didn’t have to pay the fine to my mother.

 

Maybe I should take a picture of HIM tossing papers into the air?