Tag Archives: 13 Riverview

4th of July

Today is the fourth of July. The country is 232 years old. Or at least the Declaration of Independence was stated on this day. Actual independence didn’t happen until a number of years later. In 1976 was the bicentennial. A major event. My father was working in the World Trade Center at the time and a few months before, there was a plan to have a party in the offices so we could watch the tall ships and the fireworks from on high.

That was the plan until rumors started floating around about how gangs were going to be roaming the streets mugging the deep influx of tourists. That scared my father enough so that we spent July 4th in the backyard of 13 Riverview Avenue in Lodi, which despite what you may have heard is not the same thing.

My brother Frank had promised to take me to see the fireworks that night. He was at a party with his wife Elaine though and didn’t show up. There were plenty of firecrackers to keep me amused. My brother Brian wound up with me in the back seat of his car while him and his buddy Eddie drove around River Road in Fort Lee that night where I heard the fireworks going off overhead, not actually able to see them due to the tree tops blocking the view.

It wasn’t that bad, I still got back home and met up with my friends. I stole a pack of Marlboro’s from my mother and got caught but was let go when I explained it would be easier to light a firecracker with a cigarette rather than using matches or lighters. Somehow that worked and I walked away with a hard pack of Marlboro’s in my pocket. That’s probably when I started smoking.

Me and my friends whiled away the remaining bicentennial hours blowing up whatever we could. My sister Annemarie worked in a hospital at that time and gave us all warnings about people in the emergency rooms due to playing with fireworks, so we were careful, though a firecracker did go off in my hand, leaving my thumb and index finger numb for a few hours.

My brother Frank tried to make up for his absence the next day and gave me a copy of Abbey Road which is the first Beatles album I ever owned. I forgave him and soon got every much into the Beatles.

This year, it’s been overcast and muggy. Rained a bit today. Hoboken is like a ghost town today. I rode around, wound up by Battery Park. Bill was spending time with his mother, didn’t make it down there. I rode around, the streets crowded with tourists everywhere as well as Statues of Liberty.

The Feelies sounded great, but I couldn’t see them. I wound up outside the park and listened. Brenda was saying thank you after each song, I wonder if her mother asked her to. I was bored and decided to ride back to the Path train, taking it to Exchange Place and riding home from there.

Not much else going on today. Bill’s staying at his mother’s apartment since the fireworks will be going off 100 yards from her bedroom window. Here’s some pics.

The fans

A Klaus Nomi Statue of Liberty

The Feelies somewhere in the trees

Taking Liberties

The way in is the way out

Mennonites at the Path train!

Careful with those fireworks and have a happy Fourth of July!

Love Is Like Oxygen

A beautiful Saturday. For the third day in a row actually. Today feels like spring, definitely. Last night I watched the first DVD from Saturday Night Live’s musical guests. Elvis Costello, Patti Smith, The Blue Brothers, Grateful Dead, Bill Joel, Carly Simon, Peter Tosh and Mick Jagger et al. It was ok. Had it on for the music more than the video though seeing Patti Smith so young with Ivan Kral and Richard Sohl still alive and in the band. Ivan is still alive, Richard passed away.

TV was on the menu again last night, the usual suspects. I neglected to mention how great it was to see Michelle Obama on the Colbert Report the other night. She was well poised and funny. I wouldn’t mind having her as a First Lady. It would definitely be an improvement over who we have now. Watched Futurama which is almost always great and then Bill Maher who had Cornell West on, as well as politician and writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali, blogger Markos Moulitsas from the Daily Kos. Kos was great and got his point across better than Cornell West, at least what he said struck a chord in me. But right now I forget what it was. I am a fan of Cornell West, and plan to check out his books sometime. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, while easy on the eyes was so soft spoken you can barely hear her.

Yesterday at work I had a very interesting chat with Vivek and Lydia about religion. Lydia, from Estonia, really didn’t have religion in her life. Vivek is Hindu and I covered the Atheist angle. It was due to the Pope being in town. Spoke to Billie in DC. He has bronchitis as well as bad allergies and with his compromised immune system, he’s not having an easy time of it. He was also fed up with the mess of things the Pope made while he was in Washington DC..That darn Pope pissing off people where she goes. At least the six victims of sexual abuse by pedophile priests probably weren’t pissed and the old man in a gown. Same jerk who said that homosexual couples that want to adopt children are intrinsically evil.

After Bill Maher I tuned in to VH1 Classics which had a block of Bruce Springsteen videos on honor of Danny Federici, recently deceased keyboardist/accordionist from the E Street Band. About 2 hours actually of mainly live videos going as far back as 1975. That’s when I would have loved to have seen him. Frank and Elaine as well as Annemarie and Brian were going to see him constantly it seemed. I was too young to go, especially since they wanted to get their freak on and not watch their 13 year old brother.

Bruce was so skinny then, and quite the performer with a four hour show each night. I felt sad at Danny Federici’s passing, though not as much as Harpy and my family. I think the album that he features prominently on is The Wild and the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle. That’s the album I heard the most when growing up in 13 Riverview. Four of my favorite Bruce songs are on that. Sandy (Fourth of July, Asbury Park), Kitty’s Back, Incident on 57th Street and Rosalita. One of these days I’ll get the rest of the album. Here’s a clip of Danny Federici’s last appearance with the E Street Band last month.