Thanksgiving Day 2009

Here in the northeastern United States the weather is a very nice 60 degrees, with the sun shining through the clouds. By this time of year we are usually very thankful for weather like this because we won't see much of anything similar until spring.

In years past Ridgewood High School would play Fairlawn in football on Thanksgiving morning. This year Paramus is visiting Ridgewood so I wonder who they could burn in effigy? We used to burn Freddie Fairlawn and, as the picture of the water tower suggests, go and deface something in Fairlawn. I'm sure these acts suggest some sort of school spirit but then as now it is looked down upon by those in charge of our youth's moral upbringing.

Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays and one which I can clearly remember over the last 40 years or so. It probably has something to do with the food and family dynamic but fortunately for the holiday it doesn't require one to be able to cook or have ones own family present. In fact, some of my favorite memories are of times when I neither cooked or was with my own family. These moments to me demonstrate the beauty inherent in this time of year. People tend to allow for one more at their table, more than at any other time of the year. This custom speaks, as Abe Lincoln once said it, "to the better angels of our natures." To me it is just a gentle reminder of the vast potential we all have inside of us. Cheers!

Turkey Day Game 1986

From Left to right
Warren Lessing, Jim Noone, Mark Novy, Dave Rorty, Matt Fau, Hank Cannon, Tom Leyden, Bill Novy, Frank Marshall, Marc Russo, Kevin Rodgers, Andy Cahill, and Joey V.

An annual tradition since the early 1960s, these guys have played in all kinds of weather on Thanksgiving morning. I personally participated once in a monsoon and once in sub-freezing, frozen tundra conditions. While age and proximity don't permit my joining them I do marvel at their efforts to maintain friendships through the years.

If you are in the vicinity of Glen School around 9 AM this coming Thanksgiving you should drop in to say hello. There is always plenty of beer and the first one is using opened by halftime.

The Yellow Pages

This entry could be called either the Yellow Pages or the pages which have yellowed. Hard to imagine why I have saved this old copy of the Ridgewood Yellow pages but I did. These sort of things usually would have been thrown away long ago when my parents moved from Ridgewood in 1978 to an apartment in Manhattan. I suppose it made the initial trip because it contained useful information. The subsequent move they made to Hilton Head in 1984 should have spelled its doom, though again it made the trip along with everything else.

After this it should have been hurled away when my parents moved to Florida in the late 1990s but I had by this time grown accustomed to seeing it on a book shelf in my room and whisked it away back to New Jersey for safekeeping. It has since come with my back to New York City where it has a familiar spot on my book shelf.

RHS Class of 1973 Website

This class is starting to plan their 40th reunion in 2013.

RHS Class of 1973

RHS Class of 1980 30th Reunion Web Site

Here it is:

RHS Class of 1980 30th Reunion.


7 August 2010

Ramsey Golf and Country Club
Ramsey, NJ

Yankees Now and Then

I first remember rooting for the NY Yankees during the 1964 World Series which they lost in 7 games to St. Louis. For the next 12 years the Yankees were not very good, and they taught me what it means to be loyal to your favorite team.

The Yankees of my youth had Mickey Mantle in his declining years, where I saw him at Yankee Stadium hit some line drives that invariable would fall short of being home runs. It was hard to watch him struggle and do his infamous trot back to the dugout after making out. In addition to learning the meaning of loyalty I also learned something about compassion.

The final lesson I learned from rooting for the Yankees in my younger days was that not all people are endowed with the same skills and talents. If you ever saw the ragtag bunch who donned the Yankees pinstripes in the mid-1960s and early 1970s you will know what I mean. There were some diamonds in the rough like Thurman Munson and Bobby Murcer but most were very average guys like Horace Clarke, Jerry Kenney, Danny Cater, Gene Michael, to name a few. It's not that they didn't try, only that they had a tough act to follow. The teams which had preceding them had been very good for 40 years and as everybody knows that sort of dominance can't go on forever.

Now that my team has won its 27th World Championship I'll savor it for a while. I won't forget the disappointments of my youth and the hard lessons which they represent. These sort of things provide guidance and help us endure the inevitable hardships to come. Though for now I am counting the days until Spring Training, when my team will defend its crown. This choice of a favorite team was made in my youth and now seems so logical. Of course there were times when I questioned it. I can't exactly say why I stayed the course but it is days like today when I am glad I did.

RHS 1975 35th Reunion Plan

Jay McDonald posted the following to Facebook:

Talk has started regarding a 35th get together. There is a survey the committee is reviewing with a variety of questions including some alternate dates. Hopefully that survey gets sent out soon!

More updates here as they are made available. You might check here , too.