The spot

I find myself near where I sit everyday for lunch, where I usually smoke a cigar. A little cigar. I don’t ask for much, just a spot where I can sit for a 30 minutes and collect my thoughts and enjoy a cigar. Today was not to be that day. Somebody else is in my spot. It’s not a big deal but it does change my plans somewhat to the point where I am uncomfortable.

I am also uncomfortable because I’m wearing my Doc Martens which are supposed to be orthopedic if they’re not, at least not for me. Now I got my spot back since the guy that was sitting here has moved on. His wife showed up and he was waiting for her.

He’s probably 10 to 20 years older than me. I can’t fault him for he didn’t complain about the cigar nor give me any dirty looks he just sat there looking at a building across the street. Now he and his wife are walking up 5th avenue and I am sitting where I usually sit.

It is a nice and quiet day at the fruit stand. Hardly anyone is in. The cigar I am smoking is a little bit larger than the ones I usually smoke but it is more full.

I am staving off depression once again. Maybe it’s because it’s that time of year where summer is winding down and school is starting. That is more than likely the reason.

Bill is home with no work coming in which understandably upsets him. Mike is still looking for work; nothing is happening on that front despite filling out applications for him online.

I find myself watching what I say so it’s not to give away how old I am. And that is because I am generally a few decades older than the people I work with. I like my job, I like the location and I am older than other people around me.

That never used to be the case, most of the time I was younger than everyone else. That is not the case anymore. The people that I see that are older to me, look a lot older than me.

I am dictating all of this, because I felt a bit paranoid about writing on the desktop that I sit at at the fruit stand. Do they watch? I don’t know, but I’ve been doing this for a few months now and no one has said anything. But no one said anything at the cigar shop until I was found out.

Then it all came crashing down around me. I suppose that could happen again. So here I am dictating into a phone and we’ll have to correct the typos and *Miss heard* things that I have said like *miss her* misheard.

Mike Carlucci just popped into my head. My former guitar teacher. He taught me two or three times and it didn’t go much further than that. But he was a good guy and I *could send him a friend* considered him a friend. A lot of the times during the lessons I would sit and smoke Marlboro and fuck about music talk about music.

Maybe I will keep the misheard things as well as typos just to prove a point to no one but myself. Yeah you’re everywhere that I’m not
August 21 2026
* misheard

The Roches popped into my head. Specifically ‘We’ which opens Maggie, Terre and Suzzy’s debut. I can’t explain but I fell in love with them the first time I heard them. It may have been at WFMU in East Orange, visiting my brother Frank while he was on the air.

I seem to remember Frank playing ‘The Hammond Song’ and mentioning Robert Fripp doing Robert Fripp things in the middle of the song. The Hammond Song is probably their most well-known song. It was even covered by Terry Hall when he was in the Colourfield after his time in the Specials and Fun Boy Three.

I am playing the Hammond Song right now, in fact playing their first album. Their first record was released in June 1979. I probably visited Frank’s show that summer and going back to school in September, I got some strange reactions from classmates who only knew me as a punk rock new waver.

My high school classmate from Harrington Park, the late Jim Carley mentioned the Roches used to sing in his church for the holidays and I do not think he was impressed.

I didn’t much care for their next album, Nerds. It was more of a rock and roll album with various downtown musicians like Fred Smith from Television and Jay Dee Daugherty from the Patti Smith Group among others backing them up.

I did enjoy some of the songs when I finally saw them live at Town Hall. ‘The Death of Suzzy Roche’ was funny and got a few laughs as well as a round of applause. I just played the whole Nurds album and it was better than I remembered. It’s been about 46 years since I last played it and I am certainly not the same person I was when it was released in September 1980.

I also saw the Roches when they played the Bottom Line as the Caroling Carolers singing holiday songs at Christmas time. A few of those songs wound up on We Three Kings, a collection of holiday songs that got a lot of play at Farfetched during that time of end of the year.

It always interested me in the cross-section of people that generally loved the Roches. At Farfetched people would come up to the counter and ask who was playing, and when they found out it was the Roches, they would tell their tales of how much they loved those sisters from New Jersey.

I think my favorite Roches album would be Keep on Doing. Jet Watley and I bonded over that one. It is a little bit more produced than their first one was also produced by Robert Fripp.

I had a crush on Maggie Roche. There was just something about her, her voice hitting those bass notes while her sisters sang higher notes. I always hoped she would wander into arfetched since I think she had lived in the area.

It never happened though and I am quite sure I would have been quite a fan boy if it had happened. Not like I was with Mick Jones from the Clash but close enough. Sadly Maggie passed away a few years ago. I was greatly saddened by the turn of events.

The Roches are no more.

Terre played in Hoboken a couple of times at Jim Mastro’s 501 Social Club, but I could never get it together. There is always a chance that I will get it together should Terre come around again. Suzzy also plays shows with her daughter Lucy Wainwright Roche and that is always a possibility.

Ocean Boyfriend from the song The Troubles. Just a refrain that they sing at the end of that song. I always thought Ocean Boyfriend could be a good name for a band…

Meanwhile at the fruit stand it is as quiet as a tomb. No one around, few friendly faces these days. Marcus, while not such a friendly face but handsome nonetheless, is gone. Jimmy Chile has been reassigned to the major fruit stand.

Brian, who is also handsome as well as friendly, is leaving tomorrow since he was filling in for the housekeeper who went on vacation to Montenegro and is coming back on Monday. A few weeks ago I mentioned to Jimmy Chile that I was so bored I was willing to perform fellatio on Brian just to do something different. Jimmy laughed.