I Like Birds

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Well it’s a Friday on a holiday weekend. I can actually feel the stress melting away outside. Last year it was work for me on the weekend, but I did wind up having that Monday off. And judging by the few entries from last year, it was in the midst or perhaps the beginning of the uneasy truce between me and the possum. I generally try to be friends with my co-workers and I did well with Don and Raymond and Sean- all former employees of the cigar shack. I am still friends with Thomas and Jerry Vale I reckon.

But trying to be friends with the possum proved fruitless, no matter how much I tried and I certainly did try quite a few times. The possum and I even talked once about how Zack loved to gossip about who was gay, and I told him Zack’s suggestion that the possum and his cousin might not be cousins at all, perhaps they were lovers, which was a thought that never entered my mind until Zack brought it up. Just about everyone in Zack’s line of vision or whoever crossed his path was possibly gay. Rashawn and Ben were likely suspects.

I have lousy gaydar so I could never tell unless I was staring down at the top of their heads or looking at their legs as they rested on my shoulders. It is fascinating that so many heterosexual men (mainly) think of man on man action, much more than most participants in man on man action.

Most of the time I responded ‘I don’t know’ to the question of ‘Do you think blah blah blah is gay?’. I really couldn’t say and I really didn’t care in any event. There were a handful of men at the shop that were or are gay, some out about it, others still lurking between the hangers. We knew each other and knew better than to let others in on the secret, at least for their own discretion. A couple of times I did see some furtive moves in the man cave, unknown to others that were sitting back there. Anyone watching the camera would have picked up on it.

I keep hearing from customers and friends, offering support as well as drinks and cigars. Tonight I will probably stop by Maxwells and say hello to RoDa. Bill is driving to Atlantic City once again tonight and it has been a while since I’ve seen RoDa. Tomorrow some customers from the cigar shack are going to be in town so I plan on saying hello to them. Then on Sunday its Harpy’s birthday and Susan from Farfetched is throwing him a party since he’s turning 60.

I was invited to go to Rumson with Rand & Lisa, but these other events were planned a few weeks ago. Hopefully they will keep me in mind the next time they are Rumson bound. So it’s a holiday weekend. Weather permitting I will take out the guitar and perhaps do some busking by the river tomorrow. I have to work on my playing since now that I am free, the Art Hams will reunite on June 10.

Hoboken is having a city wide event called the Sounds of Hoboken and Rand came up with the idea for a reunion. I asked for the day off from the possum before I got the sack so now I have plenty of time to practice. I can’t say if there will be anyone else joining us though I’m sure we wouldn’t turn anyone away. We’ll take any help we can get, like we always had.



03 Cool for Cats

I Like America

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For some reason I find myself thinking of something that happened about 27 years ago, it could have been around this time of year, give or take a few months. I was living in my first apartment in Hoboken with my dear friend Jet Watley. Jet was working at Tower Records in the Village at the time and he always used to get free things all the time. Usually records, promo items, invitations to listening parties and tons of posters and all that. One particular time he got tickets to see Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus at Madison Square Garden.

I had never been to the circus so it was somewhat exciting to me. I asked my friends Mike and Arrot if they wanted to go and they seemed into it. I had four tickets and Arrot explained that her sister April was coming in that night by train from Vermont and arriving at Penn Station, located right below Madison Square Garden. So it seemed to be working out perfectly. Mike, Arrot and I took the Path train into the city and walked one block west to Madison Square Garden where we met up with Arrot’s sister April.

Both Arrot and April were attractive young women and Arrot explained that before we go back to Hoboken we would be going to see the circus directly above us. Then April introduced us to two men she met on the train from Vermont. Klaus and Viktor were their names and they were in New York City for the first time. They had nowhere to go, and the only person they knew was April. I did not have any extra tickets for Klaus and Viktor so we didn’t know exactly what to do.

Since they were tourists, the three of them, why not do something that tourists do? So we walked to the pavilion at Madison Square Garden and found some kids who were looking to buy tickets for the evening’s performance. They asked how much we wanted for the tickets and I told them they were free, they could have them. They didn’t expect that and their faces showed an unbridled happiness that one doesn’t see too often, either then or now.

We walked over to the Empire State Building and wound up spending time on top of the world, looking at Manhattan at our feet. It was a beautiful sight and a beautiful night. But then again there are only so many things and angles that you can see at the top of the Empire State Building so we decided to head back to Hoboken. We figured out that April, Klaus and Viktor would stay with Mike and Arrot who lived around the block from the Elysian Café.

We dropped off their gear and made our way to the pub where it was crowded with quite a few friendly faces. We all talked to our friends and sat and drank and April being the new girl in town found herself on a barstool, surrounded by a few guys who wanted to know who she was and perhaps know her a little better than that. Arrot was with Mike and wasn’t paying much attention to what her sister was doing and I spent some time and energy wondering if Klaus and Viktor were gay or just European. All of a sudden Arrot came up to me as I sat and talked with Mike and told me she couldn’t believe it. There was April perched on a barstool, surrounded by men and having a few drinks. She had a problem with that since April was only 14 years old.

She wasn’t looking or acting 14 years old, she looked like a twenty something Audrey Hepburn. We decided to go back to Mike and Arrot’s apartment where we all got a little jazzy with something that Klaus or Viktor had with them. We lay on the floor feeling quite nice, Viktor’s head in my lap and still I couldn’t tell if it was the Gay or European conundrum. It turned out he was European. Still I was infatuated.

Infatuated enough to accompany Klaus and Viktor to Newark Airport the next day on a shuttle bus that I rode round trip. I probably looked disheartened when Viktor mentioned seeing his girlfriend when they got back to Germany. I came back to Hoboken, not heartbroken, just had a nice adventure with a pair of nice guys and a precocious 14 year old girl. I never saw Klaus or Viktor again and I don’t think I ever saw April again, come to think of it.

Just a little something that popped into my head, triggered when I saw a Newark Airport shuttle bus this afternoon.





07 Born in Time [#] 1
Happy birthday Bob Dylan.