Now and then, when I find myself taking technology for granted, I try to step back for a few minutes and imagine what my grandfather would have thought about the technology advance over the last 17 years since he died. My grandfather always seemed surprised and delighted by advances in technology. He would marvel at…
One of the things I missed noting here on the blog last year was that August 25, 2020 would have been my grandfather’s 100th birthday. I missed it because I wasn’t writing much at the time. Indeed, the only post I wrote last August was on COVID conversations. That means today, August 25, 2021, my…
Sometime last week, I had a dream that I was explaining to someone where my grandfather’s service station was in the Bronx. My grandpa, along with four of his brothers, owned and operated a gas station in the Bronx for somewhere in the neighborhood of 35 years. They finally sold the business in 1985. The…
Although it hardly seems possible, it was three years ago today that Grandpa passed away. I remembered this about a week ago and then forgot about it until about 10 minutes ago. I just went back and read the eulogy I gave for him five months later, wondering if I did him justice. I think…
I has a strange dream last night. First the setting: my parents, it seemed, owned a beach house of some kind (parts of which were being redone). I remember standing on the beach in the back yard while holding one of Mom’s golf clubs. A wave came by and pulled me into the ocean and…
The other day I was thinking to myself that I hadn’t had a dream about Grandpa in a long time. In fact, the last time I dreamed about Grandpa was on April 21 of last year. So it really has been a while. Well, last night I had a dream about Grandpa, but he played…
My diary reminded me that today would have been my Grandma’s 85th birthday. It’s been nearly ten years since she died. I’m not the only one who forgets from time-to-time. It happened to Grandpa too. Probably more than once. But the last time on record was January 17, 1997: I called Grandma to wish her…
It was two years ago today that my Grandpa, Paul Friedlander, passed away. I mentioned a few days ago how I found a tape of him, when I interviewed him for a profile I was doing back in college for my journalism minor. I only listened to a short snippet of the tape, but maybe…
Back in my senior year in college, I had to do a “profile” as part of my journalism minor. I decided to do a profile on an lifelong New Yorker, my Grandpa, Paul Friendlander. The resulting profile was called “A Big Apple A Day” and it was great. I even thought about submitting it somewhere,…
I left the office half an hour later than usual and had to stop at the grocery store on the way home to pick up a few things. I was trying to figure out what to do tonight (Wednesday evening is the one week night evening where there is nothing good on TV). I arrived…
After the disappointing Oktoberfest, Jason headed off to a photoshoot and Jen and I headed over to Central Park. We entered the park at 84th and Park Avenue and made our way around in almost random fashion until we reached the North Meadow. On the north end of the north meadow, we climbed a rock…
My Grandpa would have been 86 years old today. I have written about him before, but figured that his birthday is a good time to write about him some more. Television melodrama often has one character passing away before another character can say “I love you,” or before they can tell the person how much…