Family: A Miracle This Christ-mas

Back in September, I wrote a piece entitled "First Contact" which highlighted my efforts to reconnect with lost relatives.  Just last week, another cousin, finally did respond to my reach out to him.  He is the half cousin of the first lost cousin who did reach out to me back in September.  The experience has been nothing short of amazing.

If you can imagine knowing about someone your whole life, but never having the chance to meet that person, then you can imagine that is what has happened here.  My mother's youngest brother, married a beautiful woman after he migrated to NY from the deep South during the late 1960's.  Their marriage was unfortunately short lived due to his less than honorable behaviors.  The ex-wife (my aunt) and my mother stayed friends for many years, that is until my aunt moved herself and her two children back to the South.

Most of us 35 and older can remember when long distance calls used to cost almost as much as your entire local calls on your phone bill combined.  There even was an all out war during the late '80's through the late 90's for phone companies to sign subscribers up to local and long distance phone call memberships which packaged their calls into a lessor bill.  Then came the cell phone and cable companies adopting phone call capability.  To make the long distance phone call prices even lower, by the mid 2000's along came VoIP phone calls, also known as Voice Over Internet Protocol.  This three headed competitive monster grew throughout the 2000's decade and has made separate charges for long distance and local bills a thing of the past.

Now today with the cellular phone, cable and VoIP explosion, we can make long distance calls with virtually no worries about a long distance call impacting our cellular bill like land line phone calls used to.  Unfortunately for my mother and aunt, they missed that curve.  Too much time and too few calls over that time had left them with fond and friendly memories from a time in the '70's and '80's long past.

I was always curious about my aunt and her two children when I was younger.  My mother could never find my aunt's number by the time I was well into my 20's.  Then I got so busy with my own life, wife and children I never took the time necessary to press any of my other known relatives on the matter.  My uncle passed passed in the mid 2000's.  His life had taken some difficult turns and he never, ever took time to for the welfare of his two long lost children down South.  I remember my grandfather not being too proud of my uncle's behavior up in New York and the issues he got involved in.

Well, I've been calling myself a modern man, who is not afraid of using Social Media and modern computer technology.  This has paid off.  I've traced my family roots back to a man born in the mid 1860's.  He was the father of my grandfather, my mother's grandfather, my great grandfather.  He was either born a freed slave or freed after being born a slave.  His children, my grand aunts and uncles stayed mostly in the South but some did migrate as far North as Ohio.

Then I did the ultimate.  After confirming his partial information, via an online family history search company, I reached out to my long lost cousin via the Social Media.  He, his sister and mother have all reached back to me and my family.  It has been nothing less than cheers and tears.  We have all agreed that we cannot change what has happened in the past, but we can change how we interact with one another from here forward.f  We must go past the Sins of Our Fathers for not keeping us together and find a way to acknowledge our common heritage and existence.  I've chronicled the emotions of this history in my poem "The Sins of Our Fathers".

There are other relatives that I would like to bring into the fold.  Those relatives include my cousin's half brother who still lives in the NYC area.  I am still hoping to hear back from my extended relatives up in Ohio.  I feel as if the spirit of our great grandfather is somehow coming alive through me and calling for his offspring to finally reach out and greet one another after 50 or more years of being apart.

Reach back to me family.  Reach back.

The Payphone...and NYC Past

The Payphone...by John S LES

I was in Times Square a few days ago.  While walking around, I saw this strange metallic, boxy thing sitting near the corner of one of the blocks.  It was at first familiar and then a little strange to see, since there wasn't many of them around.  At least not like they once were.  Yep, I'm talking about a payphone booth pictured above. 

Many old timer from NYC will remember the payphone booths down in the subways.  They had accordion like doors that you could close for privacy.  However, most of them were pretty rancid and had a odor of urine in them.  But I do remember them.  Every now and then you might see one of them in an old police movie from the late 1960's or early 1970's.  Heck, I remember when payphones were still dialed using the rotary dialer instead of the push button numbers.

Even more, I still remember when payphones were all located on almost every street corner and when they were actually telephone "booths".  They were booths with doors that you could close and have privacy - or change into your Superman costume.  Those booths eventually gave way to a much simpler telephone booth design.  One that didn't have a door and four walls.  It simply had either short aluminum or Plexiglas side walls for privacy. Nothing else.  That was not quite the same as the old booths, but it was the best that you could get.

There is little doubt that the explosion in mobile phones in the last twenty years has made payphones almost a thing of the past.  Here is a link to a simple Google search for NYC payphone images.  Remember any of those images?

In fact, speaking of the past, an organization called The New Museum launched a project entitled "Recalling 1993" last March in New York City.  You called a toll free number from one of the now 5,000 payphones still located in NYC, and from there you would hear a recording of the 1993 history that has passed at the location of that phone.  The voice recordings where lent by some celebrity actors, publishers and various other New Yorkers who lived and could recall what the City was like in 1993.  This was featured in a CBS News article.  Click here.  There is a link to the recording sample within the article.

It would be a shame if all payphones disappeared in NYC or anywhere else.  They were once a great thing to use as I was growing up.  It is hard for me to fathom that one day down the road, I may have grandchildren with me sitting around a campfire...and they may ask me something like this, "Granddaddy...what was a payphone like?  Did you ever use one of those?"

Yes.  Hundreds of times.

Now whether or not you grew up in New York City...can you imagine those questions becoming an actual possibility?  Well...it's not too far off.

A City That Never Sleeps...And Spirits That Never Quit

It is said that New York City never sleeps.  However, just over a year ago, on October 29th, 2012 the city withstood one of it's toughest natural disasters on record...Hurricane Sandy.  There was additional damages in the surrounding areas of New Jersey, Connecticut and Long Island.  Hurricane Irene had hit the same tri-state area just 14 months earlier.  Most New York City dwellers thought that they would avoid the brunt of damage from Sandy, just as they had did for Irene and a handful of other big hurricanes over the past 30 years.  However, that would not be the case this time.

This generation of New Yorker City residents will long remember watching both the East River and the Hudson River breaching Manhattan on it's west, south and eastern shorelines.  They will never forget seeing video footage of subway tunnels, as well as the Mid-town and Brooklyn Battery tunnels also under water.  Lastly, who can forget the horrific flood and fires in Breezy Point, Queens?  There's plenty more to point out and many stories to remember from a year ago.  By the time Thanksgiving had come last year, most of us were simply thankful for food, and for being spared from any greater loss of life or property.

I remember visiting my mother last Thanksgiving.  She still resides in Lower Manhattan.  Yes, by Thanksgiving of 2012, the East River waters had long since receded, however, when you walked around downtown and could still see the waterline on the buildings - it brought it all into prospective.  Seeing the FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) generators parked on 34th street, three weeks after Sandy and lines of crookedly parked cars, with condensation filled windows, stretching six or seven blocks - all having signs on them indicating that they were damaged by Sandy and could not be moved - really brought things into perspective that Thanksgiving day.

Here is a link to the Huffington Post Dot com, with some dramatic pictures for those who would like to see some visual reminders of that horrible aftermath.

In spite of it all, New York City is back.    

Just a couple of weeks ago, this past November 8, the Philippines was struck by a typhoon, which packed winds up to 200 miles per hour.  I've known, grown up and even work with friends of Philippian heritage.  On behalf of all New Yorkers and Americans everywhere...I extend condolences and prayers to the survivors and relatives of this disaster.  

This highlighted text is a link to NBC news which will direct you to reputable sites for donations to the disaster in the Philippines.

An Apple Pie Dish Recipe Delivered!

A relative sent in her own family recipe on apple pie making.  Perhaps you have one too and would like to send in for comparison?  Feel free!  Enjoy!


Dawnn's Deep Dish Apple Pie


Ingredients

Deep dish pie crust

10 - 12 medium apples

1 - 1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/2 cup sugar (plus extra tablespoon)

1/4 cup light brown sugar firmly packed

3 to 4 tablespoon flour

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg


Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Combine apples, lemon juice, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg.

Mix well and pour into deep dish crust



Topping

3/4 cup of flour

1/4 cup of sugar

1/4 cup of brown sugar firmly packed

1 stick of butter

Mix flour, sugar, brown sugar and butter with fork

Sprinkle topping on pie


Bake on cookie sheet about 50 minutes 

The Hottest Selling Apple...Before The Apple Generation...

An apple a day...keeps the techno-phobics away.  Excuse me, I meant to say the doctor away.  Fooled you right?  You thought this was going to be about Apple Inc.  Ohh no..."Houston, we have a problem."  You see...today every time we hear the word "apple" we almost automatically begin to think of the great Apple Inc computers and mobile devices of the past 30 years or so.  Below is my 2005 iMac machine which proved to be a very solid machine during the height of it's short lifetime.  

No no no...folks I was talking about the original apple.  You know the kind that you eat?  Oh yes this is them below!  These are the original "apples" that used to set the world on fire when you simply mentioned their name.  Red apples, green apples, tart apples, sweet luscious and of course Macintosh apples.  Once again...an apple a day keeps the techno-phobic away...or at bay...or out of the way.  Especially when the Fall season hits the Northeastern parts of the United States...and our luscious apples become ripe for the seasonal apple pie making!

When I was a child, during the Fall season, there used to be just two words that would set every child's ear on fire wanting to grab themselves a peek in momma's kitchen.  Those two words were "apple pie".  In addition, depending on your home grown family palette, the only other pies that spun your head around would be sweet potato and pumpkin pie at this time of the year.  Seemed like everyone's mother had some kind of family or self learned recipe.  Or the moms actually called each other on the telephone and shared some secret recipe to add something a little different to jazz up their well know apple pie version.

Back then the kitchen phone always had the longest cord in the house.  My mother would stretch it to it's furthest reaches in the kitchen while she spun pie plates, pie crust, butter, fresh cut apples, Carnation milk, cinnamon spices, vanilla extract flavoring, brown sugar, etc, etc...

Pictured below is two recently made apple pies by a longtime friend of mine.  She loves showing off her tremendous cooking skills over on City Island!

Apple pie making has been a long standing tradition throughout many parts of the US.  Many people have their own family recipes for making these.  There are also plenty of online recipes for making these.  When I was growing as a kid in NYC...you could walk up and down the stairs in your building just before Halloween (and certainly during Thanksgiving) holidays and smell the apple pies, the pumpkin pies and the sweet potato pies cooking in someone's apartment.  Hopefully this will be a tradition that will never ever leave the American scene.

If any of my readers have a recipe for making apple pie that they would like to share, please feel free to do so in the comment section.  For now...please pass me two scoops of vanilla ice cream...and a nice, warm slice of apple pie!  

Stop Hatred...Pass It On...

SHOW LOVE AND COMPASSION FOR HUMANITY - PASS IT ON!

The following are the thoughts of great minds and this link is to a great song.

"Let no man pull you so low as to hate him."
Martin Luther King Jr.

"Hate has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one."
Maya Angelou

"Racism is man's gravest threat to man - the maximum of hatred for the minimum of reason."
Abraham Joshua Herchel

"All the war propaganda, all the screaming lies and hatred, comes invariably from those who are not fighting."
George Orwell

"Why is propaganda so much more successful when it stirs up hatred than when it tries to stir up friendly feelings?"
Bertrand Russell

"If you and I are having a single thought of violence or hatred against anyone in the world at this moment, then we are contributing to the wounding of the world."
Deepak Chopra

"Lord make me an instrument of thy peace.  Where there is hatred, let me sow love."
St. Francis of Assisi

There comes a time when good people must no longer sit on a fence, rather we must step down from that fence and cast our voice and our actions into action and reality.  The reality that we are all connected and must join our energy together for the betterment of humanity.

How We Dress And Our Age

When we were youngsters, we used to dress to impress.  Then after we settle in and settle down with our lives, loved ones or careers, dressing for impressing becomes a thing of the past, unless we are going out to someplace special.  Over the summer, I've had coworkers come right into work from staying on the beach with their families and then come into work, put on their uniform and get to work.

However, just this weekend, one of my coworkers came in wearing something, that none of us could figure out.  Are these shorts, or pants that got shrunk?  Or a combination of both - shants?  Those shoes...are they loafers, boots?  Or a combo of both and lets just call them boafers?  The socks...well...they just go with the shoes.

Many thanks to my coworker for allowing me to take this picture and saying that it was okay to publish.  Everyone in the office had a nice laugh and he came into work on a weekend day dressed as comfortable as he wanted to be.  That's the way it should be.  Unless of course...you're dressing to impressing...

Egg Creams Found!

Not too long ago, I reminisced about Egg Cream drinks.  Well, it too me some weeks, but I ventured out to a homemade ice cream store on Long Island and found a place that still makes them.  I posted the picture above on Facebook and immediately received comments from friends about places in Ridgewood, Queens that used to make them, as well as current places in Bayside, Queens that still make them.  It was pretty amazing of how such a little picture produced an immediate reaction and responses.

If you know of any other places that still make good, authentic style Egg Creams, please do share the information with me/us here.  I'm sure that others out there, young and old would enjoy the taste of a good old fashioned Egg Cream drink.

Thanks!

First Contact...

So...I did manage a first contact with a long lost cousin.  He was a cousin that my mother used to babysit.  Then due to some unfortunate reasons his mother had to break up with my uncle and move to another borough and then another part of the state.  I sent him a second text message, since I had not heard from him from my first message.  I basically said that we weren't responsible for the mistakes of the adults who made us.  What we were responsible for was for having knowledge that each other existed and not at least reaching out and that perhaps a phone call could heal some wounds in our past on both sides.

He called me within 3 minutes.  Our conversation and the emotions were overwhelming.  He immediately called my mother, because he had not spoken to her since he was a child.  She cried, as I told him that she would.  Then he called me back and I let him know how I had felt about everything that had happened at the time that our family fractured.  There were a lot of wounds there.  None of it our fault.  He knew the names and locations of several lost cousins.  He asked if I was planning a reunion.  All I could say was perhaps, if that's what everyone wanted to do.  But for now, it was just great to reconnect wit him.  The last time I spoke with him, I believe I was 13 and he was maybe 2 or 3 years old.  Sadly, both of his parents and his younger brother have passed on.  He has his own family, a wife and kids.  But now he will never ever be alone again.

As heartwarming as that was, it appears that the female cousin rejected my message and Facebook friendship offering.  I'm pretty sure that she is related to me.  All information points in that direction.  Then there was another cousin down in GA, who may not even realize that when his mother left NYC...she was moving him just hours closer to where his father's side of the family originated.  It will be interesting to see if he reaches back out to me.

Searching For My Roots...

In recent months, I've been commenting on my ancestry in small and large conversations.  The more I've been talking, the more I've been wondering about my family's roots.  Many stories have been handed down via hearsay, and old tales.  However, there hasn't been much factual information like pictures or solid names and events to associate my family to beyond my mother's parents.  My father's family background is a whole other story.

With this new age of information, all you have to do is get a name and some sparse information and see what happens.  Well I did just that.  I spoke to my mother recently and took the information she gave me to start some searches.  Eventually I ended up on two family history search sites.  That eventually lead me to find relatives that span from the state of Georgia all the way to Cleveland, Ohio.

I called my mother and was able to confirm some of those findings in confirmations with my mother.  I then searched local phone directories out of state and called at least three phone numbers.  I also located two others and reached out to them on Facebook.  So far...no one has called back or friended me on Facebook.  It's a little disappointing, but to be fair from their side of the equation...how can you inquire with a complete stranger...even if they claim to be a relative and know a few names in your family tree?

I will update as this progresses...if it progresses at all?  It's Labor Day Weekend...I hope everyone tries to bear in mind the 100 year plus history of Labor Day here in America.  It was a day off given to Americans by Congress, after overworked laborers protested during the Industrial Revolution.  People lost their lives standing up for fair wages and even days off.  The social battle between labor and management led to our government finally getting involved after lives had been lost during some conflicts.

As a settlement, overworked Americans who had worked endless hours were given ONE extra day off for the year...pretty laughable when you think about it.  Happy Labor Day weekend!  Cheers to my once missing and now found family members.

A Flat Tire On Your Bicycle?

When I was an adolescent, say 10 or 11, and had my first bicycle, I remember going over to the local auto mechanics store with my buddies and buying a patch kit for my bicycle tires.  Some of the nickle and dimes stores also carried patch kits for bicycles.  Either way if me or one of my friends got a flat tire, we would whip out the little $1.00 kit and sit down and fix our flat in less than 15 minutes (you had to account for some glue drying as instructed).  Next thing you know, we'd be back up and riding around with our buddies again.

Well last summer, my younger kids had a couple of flats in their bike tires.  I went to a local department chain store and much to my surprise - they did not have any bicycle tire repair kits.  All they had were replacement tires - both the inner tube and the outer tire, but not patches to repair a poked hole in your tire.

What's even more fascinating is that when you shop for bicycles...I remember that the $100 to $150 mark usually meant that you were getting a good, serviceable bicycle that could take a decent beating and still hold up for a few years.  I shopped for bicycles two summers ago and found out that even some department store bicycles in the $200 and $250 range weren't good bicycles.  There were a lot of complaints for bicycles under $150 and when the price went north of that mark, the complaints didn't really improve all that much.  That was especially for department store sold bicycles.  The issues surrounded the frame and gears that came with such inexpensive bicycles.

I found both scenarios mind blowing.  First, I'm going to lose some brain cells for thoroughly searching for a bicycle for less than $200.  Then when I do find a bike, if I ever get a flat tire on it, I'm going to have to buy a whole new tire and tube as a replacement, if the tires on this bike ever gets a flat.

Feel free to write in if any of you have experienced the same.

Bounce, Rock, Skate - The Disco Rollerskating Era!

I really do feel sorry for this younger generation that is in their teens and 20's.  Just go to any club or bar where they are hanging out and all you see is them doing is standing around and texting one another.  It's pretty amazing.  Now it's not that I haven't observed us "older" folks in bars or clubs, whipping out our cell phones and tapping away.  It's just different with us older folks.  We don't "live" on our phones.  We sort of tap it, fill in some information and then move onto the next social interaction that we were involved with.

When I think back to my teen years and the way my generation interacted with one another at pizza shops, soda shops, dance clubs and of course - Roller Skating  rinks.  Yes it was great to be a teenager in the mid to late '70's and early '80's and have a bunch of friends that joined you at a roller rink.  We were part of the disco rollerskating generation.  You could find roller rinks in cities and suburbs alike.  My generation interacted with one another through dance moves on the skating floor and social clicks at the tables.  Heck - even standing in line was part of our learning how to socialize, attract and interact.

How can this young generation learn any of those skills?  How can they learn how to actually talk, dance or simply interact with one another?  They are too addicted to their smartphones/mobile devices and actually call a group electronic chat "socializing".  For those who know me present day, it is hard for them to imagine that I was actually a very shy kid.  I didn't like standing up in front of a crowd and talking.  I was always cool talking among my circle of friends, but I wasn't that way around strangers.  Getting involved in athletics and going out to the dance clubs or roller rinks forced me to extend my friendliness out towards people, outside of my comfort circle of friends.

Personally, I think roller rinks should be brought back simply as a national mental health emergency.  Force these kids to spend less time on their phones and more time interacting with one another, exercising and learning some cool dance moves at the same time.  My most favorite song of the rollerskate era had to be the "Bounce, Skate, Roll, Rock" by Vaughan Mason and Crew.

Here are two links:  link #1 and link # 2 that you can view and get an idea of what that era was like.  It would be nice to see today's younger generation getting out there and interacting with one another in a more dynamic way.  My advice to young people today...bring back the roller rinks and disco rollerskating.  Fellas, learn how to talk to a young lady with some manners and in English, not abbreviations.  Oh and your pants have to be worn up to your waist in order to rollerskate.  As for the young ladies...learn how to dress and look sexy without having to come all out of your clothes and rolling your pants down at the waist. Style and form and function will never get overrated in a roller rink.

Rollerskate dancing..it's crazy, it's fun and it's still very, very cool.  Now let's all just bounce...rock...skate...roll...

Corn Beef And Hash

I spent the past week vacationing in Florida.  We were actually able to spent time on the east, central and west coast.  The Floridian restaurant food was awesome at all locations.  One thing that I did notice was that the corn beef hash, a simple breakfast food here in NY, was prepared slightly different from one place to another.

Growing up my mother would make a simple plate of corned beef, scrambled eggs and some hash browns on Saturday and Sunday mornings.  Even when I went to a friends house or many NY restaurants, the presentation of a corn beef hash order was ever so slightly different, but pretty much looked like the same basic meal that I had as a kid.

But not in Florida.  Their corn beef meals varied as drastically as my Google image search on the topic.  I know not everyone may even like a simple breakfast like corned beef and hash.  But, for those of us who do, you have to admit that when you wake up hungry in the morning and need a quick hot meal to hit the bottom of your stomach - this one sure does the trick.  Add on some southern style grits...and now you're really hitting the someone in the gut.

Oh yes, I did mention grits.  If you don't know, or you don't like, just drive south of the border in the US...and you'll soon find out just how much Southerners love them!  Grits were a staple in my home for many years.

Does anyone have a home made recipe for corned beef hash that they would like to share with the rest of us?  I never cataloged any of my mother's recipes for it.  If any one does have, please feel free to share.

Pizza and A Milkshake For 1 Dollar

I remember when the local pizzerias around my neighborhood would sell us a slice of pizza and a milkshake for exactly one dollar.  It was a great bargain at the time.  It stayed like that during my 4th, 5th and 6 grade years and gave me and my schoolyard friends good reason to avoid the lunch in school.  It was also a magnetic way of getting dozens of me and my friends together at lunchtime to hang out and cause a little mischief.  However, when I attended 7th grade, a new pizza shop on 14th Street raised the price of the pizza/milkshake combination by one nickle.  That was a pain in the neck.  Who wants to carry around a single nickle or a dime to make a combo package?

Either way, the price increase became one of those turning points in my life when I realized, that even something as seemingly untouchable as a slice of pizza and milkshake were also going to be affected by inflation.  Candy bars, bubble gum, potato chips and soda had already gone up in price.  But as a kid, I always felt that the price of pizza and milkshakes would never go up.  But they did.

So that inconvenience of carrying around an extra dollar, or loose change to continue to buy my lunch time food is by far a bargain at today's prices for that same combination.  I'm sure the generations before me bought a slice of pizza and a milkshake for even less.  Here in America...it's just one of those things.  The inevitability in the rise of prices in capitalism...sort of like the inevitability of a heavy thunderstorm at some point in the year.

My mother would give me a couple of dollars to ensure that I had lunch money.  Today I'd have to give my kids anywhere from $10 to $15 dollars to do the same.  Seems like some innocence has been lost.  It's not a wonder why the kids today have nothing but dollar signs in their eyes.  They too need to survive as the economy becomes more steep.

Egg Cream Soda's At Rosie's

As a kid growing up on the streets of the Lower East Side, there's one experience that I wish my kids could have had.  That experience was being served an Egg Cream soda drink from their favorite neighborhood convenience store like me and my generation had experienced.  Today there isn't any store you can walk into and buy penny candy, a box of jacks, a box of Cracker Jacks, Lays Potato Chips and paddle ball and then wash it all down with a Egg Cream soda served right from the fountain.

The Egg Creams were always served in a fancy drinking glass that were throwbacks to drinking glasses from the 1950's.  Every time you sat in Rosie's and had a drink, you always felt like you were going back in time to an earlier period in New York City history.

Rosie's is long gone from East 7th street.  But the art of making a good Egg Cream isn't gone.  The basic ingredients are still milk, seltzer and a good chocolate syrup.  There are various arguments on which ingredients that go in the glass first and which syrup that you should buy.  No matter how good or bad you made that egg cream...unless you have a nice, thick, old style glass to drink it from.

If anyone knows of any other ingredients that can be added to an Egg Cream outside of the ones above...please feel free to share.

My First Knish

My immediate family is from the South.  We are African American.  Our family palate consisted mostly of Southern country style foods, much like you see in some of today's modern Southern restaurant chains.  However, I remember having my first knish down on the Lower East Side, that my mother bought from a street vendor.  Having that knish was the first of many steps that I would take throughout my life in trying out different foods from many different cultures.

I remember that it wasn't even a whole knish.  I had to split the knish with my sister who was older than me. I'm pretty sure that it had a little mustard on it and I remember my mother looking at me, waiting to see if I even liked it.  I did.  The part that I liked the best was the skin in the corners.  It was always nice and chewy.  The bland potato stuff in the middle was only offset by the dabble of mustard.  As time went on, I eventually discovered cheese in placing cheese in a knish.  Definitely much more flavorful and interesting.

The advantage of growing up in downtown New York City was the fact that there were so many Jewish delis in the area, so you were guaranteed a pretty good knish no matter where you went.

But the genius of that whole experience was that my mother engineered that moment.  She was teaching us to try different things and to not be afraid, or confined to any one thing.  As we walked to different places along the streets, my mother was always quick to stop in and get me and my sister to try something different.  Jewish, Spanish, Asian or Caribbean food - anything was possible when it came to my mother making sure that we tried different food from different cultures.  Whether the food was bought from a store or given to us from neighbors - we tried everything.

Food sharing was a great conversation starter.  It drew people together in a conversation no matter where they were standing.  They could have been on a bus, a train, in the hallway of your building, or while shopping at the supermarket.  Of course mostly the women from that generation cooked.  But some of the men from that generation cooked too.  They usually had a specialty...like cooking on Thanksgiving or barbecuing during the 4th of July or Labor Day.

Today's generation don't know their way around a kitchen all that well.  If the food packaging doesn't say microwavable, just add water or heat and serve - these young people are lost.  They get their food starter conversation started - in a restaurant.  It's so much more impersonal at that point.  Because none of their spirit is involved in the process.  The food is being cooked by someone else in the kitchen

What is one of your favorite dishes to prepare for guests or family?  Feel free to write in and share.  :-)

Examples Of Some Of My Own First Life Lessons...In A Pinch

Here are some of my first lessons that I learned at various times when I was a kid.

1. Splinters!
When you had a foreign object stuck in your finger (a splinter for example) and it had to be removed, and you did not have access to alcohol or a hospital.  If all you had was a needle and a lighter...you could burn the tip of the needle to sterilize it and then gently pick away at the foreign object until it was removed.  No way was this minor surgical procedure highly recommended at all times.  But there were times when it was necessary to do.  Lesson learned.  Also I learned to stop picking and playing with dirty old wooden boards.

2. Devils Eggs...
I know this won't be original...but when I was a kid, I use to love eating boiled eggs.  After a while it did get boring to that egg in nothing more than a few sprinkles of salt.  That is until I went to a neighbors house and they introduced me to Devil's eggs.  It was a new and more interesting but simple way to eat a boiled egg.  Simply put...the boiled egg yolk had a splash of mayonnaise added to it.  And in some cases they would even sprinkle some seasonings on that mix of egg yolk and mayo.  Yum, yum!  Never again would I get bored with eating a boiled egg.

What Is NY Generations?

Welcome everyone!

For several months I have been contemplating creating something that represented a long lasting and positive change in everyone's everyday life.  Some of you already know me from my 6 other blogs that I have created here online.  This time - this blog is not just for entertainment.  Although I will try to blend in some entertaining elements where possible, this new blog is for actual positive and constructive interaction between people from across town, across cities, boroughs, states and countries.  My idea for this blog is as simple as this - create an opportunity where people can simply share.  To share knowledge, wisdom and vicarious experiences from one generation to the next.

All of us can remember a moment or two when we sat down with a parent, grandparent, or some other trusted caregiver who shared information with us about cooking or building or creating something from almost nothing.  As we advance forward into this new century and increasing technological world, we need to be able to pass knowledge down from one generation to the next.  That's how I came up with this idea of NY Generations.

I wanted to give us the living, a platform to share things that might NOT be in books or even part of common knowledge.  It might be something we learned from our parents, older friends or grandparents.  It could also be something that we learned as we were going along in life.  Something that was tried and tested by happenstance or good fortune.  Either way...here now is the platform to share what we've learned...with those coming up behind us.

Although I entitled this blog "NY Generations" it is in no way limited to New Yorkers.  I'm starting out with New Yorkers because that's where I live.  But I am more than happy to open the doors to people from all over the world who would like to join in. 

All you have to do is either leave a comment about something you would like to share in the comments section below.  Or you can just leave a brief email, voice mail, or KIK or Skype message.  You can see all of that information on my profile, so just click it. That's right folks, I'm using every possible form of social technology possible to bring us all closer.  That way it will be even easier to share some knowledge...from one generation to the next!