I love you too, mike hoyts ! Keep the faith, and keep telling it like it is ! There is indeed almost infinitely more to NYC than crime, no matter how much the media may misrepresent it.
This web page is proof positive that Ridgewood, Queens, NYC, NY, is and was, and (hopefully) shall always be, a community !
Mock, you can see the bright yellow sign for Selinger’s Furniture in the distance, in this image of the Wyckoff Avenue el station, between the right (near) end of the train, and the green control tower :
O.K., Mock, we lived on the same block (Cornelia between Cypress and Wyckoff) between 1970 and 1991. You wrote your house was “a couple of doors down” from the house in the middle with the big floral tree.
Was your house closer to Wyckoff Avenue than that “house in the middle” ? I always liked those two-family gray brick houses between that more modern house in the middle, and the synagogue at 1616 Cornelia, near Wyckoff Avenue, because of the wide sidewalk and old large trees in front of them. They still seems luxurious to me.
I knew the Greek hot dog guy. He kept his wagon in a garage on Cornelia between the synagogue and Wyckoff Avenue. He’s the brother of Teddy, the Greek guy who owned the Bank Restaurant, now managed by his sons, on Seneca between Catalpa and Myrtle next door to Rudy’s Konditorei (bake shop). I’ve seen the Greek hot dog guy at Myrtle and Seneca.
The Ridgewood Theater had a Bruce Lee double bill in early November 1980 : “Fists of Fury” with “Chinese Connection”. I saw part of it the night of Saturday November 8, 1980.
Jack McCabe, SFP Class of 1974 (the last class to graduate from the old building on 186 North 6th Street in Williamsburg) was and is a (Grateful) Dead Head and amateur musician, not an athlete, except maybe in intramurals. He and some other members of his class agreed among themselves what parts of the old building each would take as a souvenir upon graduation. I’m not sure who got the sign over the front door.
“For the first time since mid to late 70’s I probably will be going back to Ridgewood this Saturday!”
Here’s hoping the 25 year absence doesn’t cause you moderate to severe culture shock !
“Now after hearing about Father Kelly, maybe I will skip seeing St. Brigid’s again.”
On the contrary, if you’re going to visit your old block, why not stop by St. Brigid Rectory and offer your condolences and get-well wishes for Father Kelly ?
For those present and former Bushwick and Ridgewood residents who wish to express their condolences and get-well wishes to Monsignor James Kelly of St. Brigid parish, the address is :
St. Brigid Rectory
409 Linden Street
Brooklyn, New York 11237
For those present and former Bushwick and Ridgewood residents who wish to express their condolences and get-well wishes to Monsignor James Kelly of St. Brigid parish, the address is :
St. Brigid Rectory
409 Linden Street
Brooklyn, New York 11237
For those present and former Bushwick and Ridgewood residents who wish to express their condolences and get-well wishes to Monsignor James Kelly of St, Brigid parish, the address is :
St. Brigid Rectory
409 Linden Street
Brooklyn, New York 11237
For those present and former Ridgewood residents who wish to express their condolences and get-well wishes to Monsignor Kelly of St. Brigid Church, the address is :
St. Brigid Rectory
409 Linden Street
Brooklyn, New York 11237
To return to the grim present for a moment, off topic, Monsignor James Kelly was mugged in his St. Brigid’s rectory bedroom earlier today for $ 60 cash. The rectory is on Linden Street between Wyckoff and Cypress Avenues. 1010 WINS and CBS and ABC TV news are calling it “Bushwick”, but it is really lower Ridgewood or Wyckoff Heights. Channel 7 Eyewitness News is describing the mugging as “brutal”. Father Kelly fought back, forcing his attackers to flee through the same window that they entered through. He says he forgives his attackers. He may have facial fractures and has reported difficulty seeing with his right eye. Possibly more on TV news today and tonight at 6, 10 and 11 p.m. This happened three blocks from the former RKo Madison Theater and five blocks from the Ridgewood Theater.
Warren, thanks for the examples. I can check these titles out with the help of the Internet Movie Data Base. Most are beyond my movie experience. If “The Spirit of St. Louis” starred James Stewart as Charles Lindbergh, I saw that on TV about 38 years ago. Some of the late ‘50’s and early '60’s movies I saw in theaters as a kid may have been “duds” in terms of revenue and media critical opinion, but my overall recollection of moviegoing as a kid is one of having lots of fun. Examples (among many) that come to mind, that I saw at the RKO Madison as a kid are two Roger Corman thrillers, “The Premature Burial” (1962) and “The Man With The X-Ray Eyes” (1963) and the black and white WW II film, “The Train” (1965), starring Burt Lancaster.
Thanks for the update, Warren. Yet another old movie theater becomes a church ! Any news on a brand new multiplex cinema opening in Queens Center on the opposite side of Queens Blvd. ?
Rich Dittus, I e-mailed you privately at your Ave Maria U. e-dress. Hope to get a reply from you soon.
To keep this on topic, there was also the Chopin Theater, at Manhattan and Greenpoint Avenues, where Joe Kuceluk and I saw “Cry Of The Wild” and “Bigfoot” in January 1974, and where our SFP classmate, Bob Dunas, saw “The Exorcist”, later in 1974.
One of the last few times we met face to face, Labor Day 1985, was by the LIRR tracks at 68th Street and Otto Road. I was walking home from a cinema in Lefrak City, Queens, where I had just seen “Godzilla 1985” with Raymond Burr. That cinema is no longer there. You expressed mild amusement that “Godzilla” had been remade. As I recall, we met that way several times, while I was walking back to my Ridgewood home after having seen a film elsewhere in Queens, anywhere from 4 to 7 miles away, from Jackson Heights to Kew Gardens, mostly Forest Hills and Elmhurst, in between. Once, we sat on your front stoop and talked with Kathy and your kids. I remember Kathy mentioning one of your kids putting pennies on her pregnant belly. I also recall walking around your block with you a few times at night in summer 1987 after seeing “Robocop” at the Elmwood (also no longer there), talking about meeting at a Pat Costa concert at St. Adalbert’s in Elmhurst, yet that fell through somehow.
Jim Mannix, I will look forward to you posting your mother’s memories. “Gorgo” must have been awesome, on the Valencia’s huge screen, and booming sound system ! My dad was going to take me to see it at the Ridgewood Theater (which see on this site), in the Queens neighborhood of the same name, where we lived, but I was only six, and he was afraid I would be scared, so he didn’t.
Good comment about the ceiling ! The Valencia was one of those extremely ornate movie palaces in which, if the film was of insufficient interest, one could always enjoy looking at the decor !
My dad remembers the Valencia’s beautiful ceiling, as does a friend of mine, age 56, who, as a small boy, thought it really was the sky !
Thanks, DavidH, that’s a great story ! The date of that “first blackout” was Tuesday, November 9, 1965 !
I wonder how many theaters in the NYC area were showing “The Tingler” and “Wait Until Dark” during the blackouts of November 9, 1965, July 13, 1977 and, most recently, August 14, 2003, and so gave their audiences more than they had bargained for ! The screen is supposed to go black near the end of both films.
Bway, my uncle has just answered me. He was only inside the Rivoli once. He does not remember when it stopped showing movies. All he remembers is that it had a balcony, and that the interior was probably very ornate, but that he never saw the interior with the house lights on.
Thank you, Camden, for your comment. “None of this changed until around 1965 or so.” Interesting that it took as long as it did for Federal laws making segregation illegal passed in the mid-1950’s to be implemented throughout the USA. When were the civil rights marches in Selma, Alabama ? 1964 ? 1965 ? Did the Watts, L.A. riots occur in 1965 ?
I have NO idea why John Dafgard was nicknamed “Rocky”. If I’d known he came to SFP from St. Brigid’s, I’d forgotten.
Was Bob Dominiani the SFP Class of 1972 valedictorian ? I ask, partly because he reminds me of my Class of 1973 valedictorian, Frank Tellian, who also became an MD and a shrink. Yet, Frank had a sense of humor. Right before the graduation ceremony, we were all in the gym in our white tuxedo jackets, and Frank asked everyone to take out their handkerchiefs and drape them over our right wrist, and all walk out like the Waiter’s Convention. I’m not sure if any of us did. Regarding being a psychiatrist, Frank told Joe Gasperetti at Columbia, (who then told me) “It takes one to know one !”
Then, after the ceremony, back in the gym, there was Danny Ahern impersonating Hitler on top of the bleachers, with just about all 125 of us giving him “Seig Heil !” at the top of our lungs.
I have no idea what happened to Bill Joel, nor am I sure why I did not know, or do not remember him, from St. Brigid’s. The same goes for John Dafgard.
Your description of Bob Dominiani reminds me of the extremely driven law students pictured in the films, “The Paper Chase”, and “Legally Blonde”.
What was the longest you remember waiting for the B-55 ? It runs every few minutes most of the day and night but, I think, once an hour in the small hours.
That must have been an interesting walk from Halsey and Wyckoff to Cooper and 64th late at night or in the small hours. I usually get off the L at Halsey when I go to Ridgewood Savings Bank.
Speaking of RSB, I kept meaning to visit your SFP 1972 clasmate, John Dafgard, there, but he left the main office at Myrtle and Forest before I “got a round tuit”. I also recall John working at the Ridgewood library at 20-12 Madison, between Forest and Fairview Avenues, when we both attended SFP (1971-72).
Thanks for acknowledging my great memory for detail. Thanks for the correction on Vicki Craft.
I remember the K of C at the southwest corner of Catalpa and Fresh Pond. A newer building with a “Hamburg Savings Bank” ad painted on the side, as I recall. Yes, I was in Class 101, the scholarship class. Wow, three guys to a locker ! With my class, it was two – I shared a locker with Andy Kobel, whose older brother, Peter, was with you in the class of 1972.
Thanks for mentioning Bob Dominiani. I had been thinking about him. I remember chatting with another classmate of yours, Bill Joel (I wonder how many times he got asked / joked with re : music star Billy Joel from Plainview, L.I. ?) at the math fair at Pace College in March 1972 about Bob D, and how he was already reading Greek books. That impressed me.
My SFP Class of 1973 classmate, and best friend, Terence McHale, recalled that what Joe Graif said he got from his cursillo was that he didn’t have to impress people anymore. I remember him coming into my Class 301 in spring 1972 and saying, “You might think you’re a Christian, but how many times a week or month do you tell your mother that you love her ?” Made me think.
When I would visit Terry McHale in Chicago in the early 1980’s, sometimes we’d be at the Loop late at night or the small hours, after a movie. The subway only ran once every 45 minutes then, so sometimes we’d walk back to Terry’s place on the Near West Side (near Notre Dame and U of I Circle campus).
Once, Terry mentioned meeting Joe Kriz in Chicago, mentioning me, getting Joe’s address on North Mozart for me to meet up with him, but I never did.
Thanks for the compliment on my memory ! I’ve been exercising it alot lately, on this and other message boards !
I thought “Stuck in the Middle With You” was about your fraternity experience. Interesting that you say it describes much of your subsequent life.
I only knew Joe Graif a bit, but I remember him well. My first experience of him was when I was a sophomore at SFP and he was a junior. I was at my locker, and he was bellowing in my ear, and at others, for some unknown reason. I remember Rich Danderline smiling in the background then. Next year I was a junior and he was a senior. I knew him from his talk in my classroom about the cursillo experience, and an April 1972 folk concert, in which he was part of the “14th Street Canarsie Line” group. They did “Let The Sun Shine In” from “Hair”. I also spoke with him about his music appreciation mini course, and the Gyorgy Ligeti composition, “Atmospheres”, used in “2001 : A Space Odyssey”. Last thing I read about him in an SFP newsletter was that he was married to Vicki Craft, M.D. He was a Ridgewood boy (lived on Fairview Avenue near Madison Street) from Miraculous Medal parish in upper Ridgewood. Very smart and musically gifted. Hung out with Gerard Boehme, Fred Serna, Joe Kriz, Roderick James, of the SFP Class of 1972.
Warren, I actually enjoyed the Spanish subtitles of “Godzilla”, especially when French was being spoken and there were three languages going on at the same time. I tend to be “Bored Of The Rings”, to echo the Harvard Lampoon, so I would probably closely study the Spanish subtitles, so as to learn Spanish, when the film itself got boring. It was interesting watching “Godzilla”, seeing how the English was translated into Spanish : “He’s a scumbag !” became “! Es despicable !” (despicable).
I agree, though, that a language should not be forced on someone who does not want it. The headsets you mention are a good idea.
Rich D : I too remember when the G and the L were the GG and the LL ! Many times returning to Ridgewood from Greenpoint I would give up on the GG and walk to Bedford Avenue on the L, like in June 1975 when Joe K, Rich Dittus, Jack McCabe and I saw “Ladies and Gentlemen The Rolling Stones” at the Meserole Theater. So you were “dazed and confused” from being “trampled underfoot”, so you needed a “whole lotta love” before “goin' to california”, or maybe “kazhmir”, for a “misty mountain hop” with “four sticks” and some “custard pie” for some “rock n roll” ? Whoo ooo yeah yeahuh I know my Led Zeppelin too !
After getting off the L at Myrtle Avenue, did you wait for the Myrtle Avenue B-55 bus or just walk to Cooper and 64th ?
Odd that I don’t remember Joe K raving about “Lovely Rita – la Dolce Vita”, because I remember almost everything, and Joe K was nothing if not vocal about any girl he had the hots for.
Yes, Joe was a major Dylan fan, and at times could cut Dylan with his own songs (perform them better) but now he’s extremely soured on Dylan and other ‘60’s music stars still functioning. He referred to Dylan, Keith Richards and Ron Wood playing together at the July 13 1985 “Live Aid” concert as “Three Stooges” and the “three ugliest m.f.’s on the face of the earth !”
Odd in retrospect that you weren’t a regular at Joe K’s 1973 Friday night Dobbin St. stoop parties + amateur nights ! I was, and remember your SFP classmate, Charlie Wassermanm being there a few times, once blowing us all away with how well he performed CSN’s “Suite : Judy Blue Eyes” as some of us began to sing along. Charlie also contributed the following comment to the “ranks” part of one evening :
“Br. Fabian : A week before ‘It’s Academic’, you asked me to get my hair cut for the show. I did, and we lost. F.U. !”
(guitar) Refrain : You gotta lotta nerve to say you are my friend !
John Kiley : I too remember the Wagner as pornographic in the late ‘60’s. My cousin Fran and I would snicker over the titles there like “Devil’s Bed” and “Let’s Play Doctor”.
Yes I was on the same weekend as Rich Dittus. I don’t think you were at my table, but I remember you were there, and remember you subsequently performing The Eagles' “Best Of My Love” and Steeler’s Wheels' “Stuck In The Middle” at an SFC folk concert, and saying that the latter song reminded you of times spent with some SFC buddies of yours.
I remember Byhoff’s at Myrtle and Weirfield well, bought many records there, CD’s as recently as March 1991. Hitler’s Inferno ?
Sounds like “The Producers” !
That weekend you worked St. Paul’s was the cursillo I was on.
Last spoke with Joe K this past January and he mentioned his wife Mona knew Kathy Kennedy from Yonkers. Joe’s into Petula Clark now rather than Dylan.
The voice of Mercedes McCambridge as the demon must have sounded awesome on the State Lake’s sound system ! Ditto the animal sounds and loud banging.
Glad you had fun, but I hope you didn’t get possessed or “Repossessed” !
Did you play your tape of the backward-spoken parts backward, so you could hear “I am no one !” Or did you hear “Turn me on dead man !” or hear John Lennon say, “Stupid ! You’re playing this backwards !”
Perhaps because the Wagner Theater at 110 Wyckoff Avenue between DeKalb Avenue and Stockholm Street used to show German films in the old days. No, it’s not necessary to provide Spanish sub-titles, but it would be helpful, and may even help Hispanics learn English, by hearing English and seeing Spanish, simultaneously.
“If they don’t understand English, that’s their problem.” Immigrants many years ago didn’t get stuff in their own language, so why should they get it now ? Do two wrongs make a right ? I agree, immigrants should learn English, but in the meantime I think they should get whatever help in their native language.
I love you too, mike hoyts ! Keep the faith, and keep telling it like it is ! There is indeed almost infinitely more to NYC than crime, no matter how much the media may misrepresent it.
This web page is proof positive that Ridgewood, Queens, NYC, NY, is and was, and (hopefully) shall always be, a community !
Mock, you can see the bright yellow sign for Selinger’s Furniture in the distance, in this image of the Wyckoff Avenue el station, between the right (near) end of the train, and the green control tower :
http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?6398
O.K., Mock, we lived on the same block (Cornelia between Cypress and Wyckoff) between 1970 and 1991. You wrote your house was “a couple of doors down” from the house in the middle with the big floral tree.
Was your house closer to Wyckoff Avenue than that “house in the middle” ? I always liked those two-family gray brick houses between that more modern house in the middle, and the synagogue at 1616 Cornelia, near Wyckoff Avenue, because of the wide sidewalk and old large trees in front of them. They still seems luxurious to me.
I knew the Greek hot dog guy. He kept his wagon in a garage on Cornelia between the synagogue and Wyckoff Avenue. He’s the brother of Teddy, the Greek guy who owned the Bank Restaurant, now managed by his sons, on Seneca between Catalpa and Myrtle next door to Rudy’s Konditorei (bake shop). I’ve seen the Greek hot dog guy at Myrtle and Seneca.
The Ridgewood Theater had a Bruce Lee double bill in early November 1980 : “Fists of Fury” with “Chinese Connection”. I saw part of it the night of Saturday November 8, 1980.
DABOC :
Jack McCabe, SFP Class of 1974 (the last class to graduate from the old building on 186 North 6th Street in Williamsburg) was and is a (Grateful) Dead Head and amateur musician, not an athlete, except maybe in intramurals. He and some other members of his class agreed among themselves what parts of the old building each would take as a souvenir upon graduation. I’m not sure who got the sign over the front door.
“For the first time since mid to late 70’s I probably will be going back to Ridgewood this Saturday!”
Here’s hoping the 25 year absence doesn’t cause you moderate to severe culture shock !
“Now after hearing about Father Kelly, maybe I will skip seeing St. Brigid’s again.”
On the contrary, if you’re going to visit your old block, why not stop by St. Brigid Rectory and offer your condolences and get-well wishes for Father Kelly ?
For those present and former Bushwick and Ridgewood residents who wish to express their condolences and get-well wishes to Monsignor James Kelly of St. Brigid parish, the address is :
St. Brigid Rectory
409 Linden Street
Brooklyn, New York 11237
For those present and former Bushwick and Ridgewood residents who wish to express their condolences and get-well wishes to Monsignor James Kelly of St. Brigid parish, the address is :
St. Brigid Rectory
409 Linden Street
Brooklyn, New York 11237
For those present and former Bushwick and Ridgewood residents who wish to express their condolences and get-well wishes to Monsignor James Kelly of St, Brigid parish, the address is :
St. Brigid Rectory
409 Linden Street
Brooklyn, New York 11237
For those present and former Ridgewood residents who wish to express their condolences and get-well wishes to Monsignor Kelly of St. Brigid Church, the address is :
St. Brigid Rectory
409 Linden Street
Brooklyn, New York 11237
For those present and former Ridgewood residents who wish to express their condolences and get-well wishes to Father Kelly, the address is :
St. Brigid Rectory
409 Linden Street
Brooklyn, New York 11237
To return to the grim present for a moment, off topic, Monsignor James Kelly was mugged in his St. Brigid’s rectory bedroom earlier today for $ 60 cash. The rectory is on Linden Street between Wyckoff and Cypress Avenues. 1010 WINS and CBS and ABC TV news are calling it “Bushwick”, but it is really lower Ridgewood or Wyckoff Heights. Channel 7 Eyewitness News is describing the mugging as “brutal”. Father Kelly fought back, forcing his attackers to flee through the same window that they entered through. He says he forgives his attackers. He may have facial fractures and has reported difficulty seeing with his right eye. Possibly more on TV news today and tonight at 6, 10 and 11 p.m. This happened three blocks from the former RKo Madison Theater and five blocks from the Ridgewood Theater.
Warren, thanks for the examples. I can check these titles out with the help of the Internet Movie Data Base. Most are beyond my movie experience. If “The Spirit of St. Louis” starred James Stewart as Charles Lindbergh, I saw that on TV about 38 years ago. Some of the late ‘50’s and early '60’s movies I saw in theaters as a kid may have been “duds” in terms of revenue and media critical opinion, but my overall recollection of moviegoing as a kid is one of having lots of fun. Examples (among many) that come to mind, that I saw at the RKO Madison as a kid are two Roger Corman thrillers, “The Premature Burial” (1962) and “The Man With The X-Ray Eyes” (1963) and the black and white WW II film, “The Train” (1965), starring Burt Lancaster.
Thanks for the update, Warren. Yet another old movie theater becomes a church ! Any news on a brand new multiplex cinema opening in Queens Center on the opposite side of Queens Blvd. ?
Rich Dittus, I e-mailed you privately at your Ave Maria U. e-dress. Hope to get a reply from you soon.
To keep this on topic, there was also the Chopin Theater, at Manhattan and Greenpoint Avenues, where Joe Kuceluk and I saw “Cry Of The Wild” and “Bigfoot” in January 1974, and where our SFP classmate, Bob Dunas, saw “The Exorcist”, later in 1974.
One of the last few times we met face to face, Labor Day 1985, was by the LIRR tracks at 68th Street and Otto Road. I was walking home from a cinema in Lefrak City, Queens, where I had just seen “Godzilla 1985” with Raymond Burr. That cinema is no longer there. You expressed mild amusement that “Godzilla” had been remade. As I recall, we met that way several times, while I was walking back to my Ridgewood home after having seen a film elsewhere in Queens, anywhere from 4 to 7 miles away, from Jackson Heights to Kew Gardens, mostly Forest Hills and Elmhurst, in between. Once, we sat on your front stoop and talked with Kathy and your kids. I remember Kathy mentioning one of your kids putting pennies on her pregnant belly. I also recall walking around your block with you a few times at night in summer 1987 after seeing “Robocop” at the Elmwood (also no longer there), talking about meeting at a Pat Costa concert at St. Adalbert’s in Elmhurst, yet that fell through somehow.
Peter Koch
Jim Mannix, I will look forward to you posting your mother’s memories. “Gorgo” must have been awesome, on the Valencia’s huge screen, and booming sound system ! My dad was going to take me to see it at the Ridgewood Theater (which see on this site), in the Queens neighborhood of the same name, where we lived, but I was only six, and he was afraid I would be scared, so he didn’t.
Good comment about the ceiling ! The Valencia was one of those extremely ornate movie palaces in which, if the film was of insufficient interest, one could always enjoy looking at the decor !
My dad remembers the Valencia’s beautiful ceiling, as does a friend of mine, age 56, who, as a small boy, thought it really was the sky !
Thanks, DavidH, that’s a great story ! The date of that “first blackout” was Tuesday, November 9, 1965 !
I wonder how many theaters in the NYC area were showing “The Tingler” and “Wait Until Dark” during the blackouts of November 9, 1965, July 13, 1977 and, most recently, August 14, 2003, and so gave their audiences more than they had bargained for ! The screen is supposed to go black near the end of both films.
You’re welcome, Bway. Perhaps the congregations at those churches speak “Spanglish” besides, and/or rather than Spanish.
Bway, my uncle has just answered me. He was only inside the Rivoli once. He does not remember when it stopped showing movies. All he remembers is that it had a balcony, and that the interior was probably very ornate, but that he never saw the interior with the house lights on.
Thank you, Camden, for your comment. “None of this changed until around 1965 or so.” Interesting that it took as long as it did for Federal laws making segregation illegal passed in the mid-1950’s to be implemented throughout the USA. When were the civil rights marches in Selma, Alabama ? 1964 ? 1965 ? Did the Watts, L.A. riots occur in 1965 ?
Rich D :
I have NO idea why John Dafgard was nicknamed “Rocky”. If I’d known he came to SFP from St. Brigid’s, I’d forgotten.
Was Bob Dominiani the SFP Class of 1972 valedictorian ? I ask, partly because he reminds me of my Class of 1973 valedictorian, Frank Tellian, who also became an MD and a shrink. Yet, Frank had a sense of humor. Right before the graduation ceremony, we were all in the gym in our white tuxedo jackets, and Frank asked everyone to take out their handkerchiefs and drape them over our right wrist, and all walk out like the Waiter’s Convention. I’m not sure if any of us did. Regarding being a psychiatrist, Frank told Joe Gasperetti at Columbia, (who then told me) “It takes one to know one !”
Then, after the ceremony, back in the gym, there was Danny Ahern impersonating Hitler on top of the bleachers, with just about all 125 of us giving him “Seig Heil !” at the top of our lungs.
I have no idea what happened to Bill Joel, nor am I sure why I did not know, or do not remember him, from St. Brigid’s. The same goes for John Dafgard.
Your description of Bob Dominiani reminds me of the extremely driven law students pictured in the films, “The Paper Chase”, and “Legally Blonde”.
Rich D :
What was the longest you remember waiting for the B-55 ? It runs every few minutes most of the day and night but, I think, once an hour in the small hours.
That must have been an interesting walk from Halsey and Wyckoff to Cooper and 64th late at night or in the small hours. I usually get off the L at Halsey when I go to Ridgewood Savings Bank.
Speaking of RSB, I kept meaning to visit your SFP 1972 clasmate, John Dafgard, there, but he left the main office at Myrtle and Forest before I “got a round tuit”. I also recall John working at the Ridgewood library at 20-12 Madison, between Forest and Fairview Avenues, when we both attended SFP (1971-72).
Thanks for acknowledging my great memory for detail. Thanks for the correction on Vicki Craft.
I remember the K of C at the southwest corner of Catalpa and Fresh Pond. A newer building with a “Hamburg Savings Bank” ad painted on the side, as I recall. Yes, I was in Class 101, the scholarship class. Wow, three guys to a locker ! With my class, it was two – I shared a locker with Andy Kobel, whose older brother, Peter, was with you in the class of 1972.
Thanks for mentioning Bob Dominiani. I had been thinking about him. I remember chatting with another classmate of yours, Bill Joel (I wonder how many times he got asked / joked with re : music star Billy Joel from Plainview, L.I. ?) at the math fair at Pace College in March 1972 about Bob D, and how he was already reading Greek books. That impressed me.
My SFP Class of 1973 classmate, and best friend, Terence McHale, recalled that what Joe Graif said he got from his cursillo was that he didn’t have to impress people anymore. I remember him coming into my Class 301 in spring 1972 and saying, “You might think you’re a Christian, but how many times a week or month do you tell your mother that you love her ?” Made me think.
When I would visit Terry McHale in Chicago in the early 1980’s, sometimes we’d be at the Loop late at night or the small hours, after a movie. The subway only ran once every 45 minutes then, so sometimes we’d walk back to Terry’s place on the Near West Side (near Notre Dame and U of I Circle campus).
Once, Terry mentioned meeting Joe Kriz in Chicago, mentioning me, getting Joe’s address on North Mozart for me to meet up with him, but I never did.
John Kiely :
Thanks for the compliment on my memory ! I’ve been exercising it alot lately, on this and other message boards !
I thought “Stuck in the Middle With You” was about your fraternity experience. Interesting that you say it describes much of your subsequent life.
I only knew Joe Graif a bit, but I remember him well. My first experience of him was when I was a sophomore at SFP and he was a junior. I was at my locker, and he was bellowing in my ear, and at others, for some unknown reason. I remember Rich Danderline smiling in the background then. Next year I was a junior and he was a senior. I knew him from his talk in my classroom about the cursillo experience, and an April 1972 folk concert, in which he was part of the “14th Street Canarsie Line” group. They did “Let The Sun Shine In” from “Hair”. I also spoke with him about his music appreciation mini course, and the Gyorgy Ligeti composition, “Atmospheres”, used in “2001 : A Space Odyssey”. Last thing I read about him in an SFP newsletter was that he was married to Vicki Craft, M.D. He was a Ridgewood boy (lived on Fairview Avenue near Madison Street) from Miraculous Medal parish in upper Ridgewood. Very smart and musically gifted. Hung out with Gerard Boehme, Fred Serna, Joe Kriz, Roderick James, of the SFP Class of 1972.
-Peter Koch
Warren, I actually enjoyed the Spanish subtitles of “Godzilla”, especially when French was being spoken and there were three languages going on at the same time. I tend to be “Bored Of The Rings”, to echo the Harvard Lampoon, so I would probably closely study the Spanish subtitles, so as to learn Spanish, when the film itself got boring. It was interesting watching “Godzilla”, seeing how the English was translated into Spanish : “He’s a scumbag !” became “! Es despicable !” (despicable).
I agree, though, that a language should not be forced on someone who does not want it. The headsets you mention are a good idea.
Rich D : I too remember when the G and the L were the GG and the LL ! Many times returning to Ridgewood from Greenpoint I would give up on the GG and walk to Bedford Avenue on the L, like in June 1975 when Joe K, Rich Dittus, Jack McCabe and I saw “Ladies and Gentlemen The Rolling Stones” at the Meserole Theater. So you were “dazed and confused” from being “trampled underfoot”, so you needed a “whole lotta love” before “goin' to california”, or maybe “kazhmir”, for a “misty mountain hop” with “four sticks” and some “custard pie” for some “rock n roll” ? Whoo ooo yeah yeahuh I know my Led Zeppelin too !
After getting off the L at Myrtle Avenue, did you wait for the Myrtle Avenue B-55 bus or just walk to Cooper and 64th ?
Odd that I don’t remember Joe K raving about “Lovely Rita – la Dolce Vita”, because I remember almost everything, and Joe K was nothing if not vocal about any girl he had the hots for.
Yes, Joe was a major Dylan fan, and at times could cut Dylan with his own songs (perform them better) but now he’s extremely soured on Dylan and other ‘60’s music stars still functioning. He referred to Dylan, Keith Richards and Ron Wood playing together at the July 13 1985 “Live Aid” concert as “Three Stooges” and the “three ugliest m.f.’s on the face of the earth !”
Odd in retrospect that you weren’t a regular at Joe K’s 1973 Friday night Dobbin St. stoop parties + amateur nights ! I was, and remember your SFP classmate, Charlie Wassermanm being there a few times, once blowing us all away with how well he performed CSN’s “Suite : Judy Blue Eyes” as some of us began to sing along. Charlie also contributed the following comment to the “ranks” part of one evening :
“Br. Fabian : A week before ‘It’s Academic’, you asked me to get my hair cut for the show. I did, and we lost. F.U. !”
(guitar) Refrain : You gotta lotta nerve to say you are my friend !
John Kiley : I too remember the Wagner as pornographic in the late ‘60’s. My cousin Fran and I would snicker over the titles there like “Devil’s Bed” and “Let’s Play Doctor”.
Yes I was on the same weekend as Rich Dittus. I don’t think you were at my table, but I remember you were there, and remember you subsequently performing The Eagles' “Best Of My Love” and Steeler’s Wheels' “Stuck In The Middle” at an SFC folk concert, and saying that the latter song reminded you of times spent with some SFC buddies of yours.
Hi John Kiely, and welcome !
I remember Byhoff’s at Myrtle and Weirfield well, bought many records there, CD’s as recently as March 1991. Hitler’s Inferno ?
Sounds like “The Producers” !
That weekend you worked St. Paul’s was the cursillo I was on.
Last spoke with Joe K this past January and he mentioned his wife Mona knew Kathy Kennedy from Yonkers. Joe’s into Petula Clark now rather than Dylan.
Peter Koch
The voice of Mercedes McCambridge as the demon must have sounded awesome on the State Lake’s sound system ! Ditto the animal sounds and loud banging.
Glad you had fun, but I hope you didn’t get possessed or “Repossessed” !
Did you play your tape of the backward-spoken parts backward, so you could hear “I am no one !” Or did you hear “Turn me on dead man !” or hear John Lennon say, “Stupid ! You’re playing this backwards !”
Perhaps because the Wagner Theater at 110 Wyckoff Avenue between DeKalb Avenue and Stockholm Street used to show German films in the old days. No, it’s not necessary to provide Spanish sub-titles, but it would be helpful, and may even help Hispanics learn English, by hearing English and seeing Spanish, simultaneously.
“If they don’t understand English, that’s their problem.” Immigrants many years ago didn’t get stuff in their own language, so why should they get it now ? Do two wrongs make a right ? I agree, immigrants should learn English, but in the meantime I think they should get whatever help in their native language.