----1964-----1964----- age 14----- 9th grade JHS/ 10th grade HS---- 1964----_____1964_____ Mother age 36/37_____ Father age 41/42____ Major age 4/5---- The period 1959 to 1963 is taking so long I've decided to work on it and 1964 simultaneously, adding to each as I go. Had I known that there would be so much info for 59-63 I would have given each year its own page- or two rather than wrestle with these endless "addendas"....... ....... ....... ...... ...... ..... ...... ..... ...... ...... ....... NOT PROOFREAD........ ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ....... ...... 1964: The Transition Year-------What I remember about 1964 is: There was an awful lot of snow on the ground in early January and more coming down. I was in mary Seuffert's house upstairs at age 14.2 looking down at it in the big parking lot for the fancy restaurant, Riccardo's, that existed behind our two-family house. She had that 19th Century pig-iron stove in the back room kitchen lit (had windows back and side). Quite a view of the expanse of snow in the lot from up there. We had the yard but she had the great view. The wood/coal heat from that stove was so much snugger that modern heat (especially our two near-worthless little heaters)and had a MUCH nicer smell. She'd want to play that three-dice game, Bunko, with me or anyone else who came by and would make us tea. She usually only had one visitor at a time, though. Due to rent control law rules she kept up everything the way it was when the place was first built, which was for the building of the Triboro Bridge a mini-block away in 1936. They were planning on lighting up that bridge for the 1964 World's Fair and we on our block wondered how it would affect our block as our little street aimed right at the main part holding up the suspension cables that would get the most illumination...... ...... I recall walking alone through the narrow, curving ancient streets of Lower Manhattan down near Wall Street in Early 1964. There was LOTS of snow on the ground and NO traffic so I was slogging right down the middle of the old small streets on the snow with only a rare car slowly trying to get through the snow in a building-dense area of NYC!!! Yet some little shops were open as was the Chock Full O Nuts coffeee place (All black workers inside). I went to where a stamp store had advertised. Must have been a Saturday right after a Friday night/ Saturday morning snowstorm as Lower Manhattan between South Ferry and a bit above Wall Street was usually dead on Saturdays as it was mostly dense offices and small stores. No dept. stores. It was also where my parents had gone a few times for the cheapest eyeglasses in NYC at some upstairs area of rooms in previous years ("Pildes" ?). Anyway, the stamp store was on the left when walking north and I bought some stamps for my collection ( Typical little nerd, but not nearly so little anymore although I didn't realize it). The shopkeeper got annoyed at my "penny sales" and I eventually went home.... age 14..... It was also a strangely quiet depressed period due to the JFK assassination. LBJ wasn't really considered a president yet, I remember my mother in December saying that she felt like she really didnt have a president as she wasnt used to LBJ yet...age 14...... The Beatles came out about then. I never really listened to Rock And Roll 'music'. Whenever I heard of anything it was way after everybody else. Fri 7-16-99 1253pm...... Checked NY Times Issues: Jan 5, 1964 Goldwater announces candidacy, Pope in Holyland,,,, Jan 6 Pope and Patriarch meet, Chargers (Keith Lincoln, John Hadl) 51,Patriots (Kyle Rote) 10 for AFL TITLE, Packers (Starr) 40, Browns (Jimmy Brown) 23 for division, Big US STEEL AD showing Unisphre "Largest stainless steel structure in world", Jan 8 Koufax player of year, MOVIES: "To Catch a Thief", "Love With the Proper Stranger", "The Victors", "Cleopatra", "Mad Mad Mad Mad World", "The Cardinal", (A place called the "Rat Fink" room is mentioned. That was a common term then). BROOKLYN MESEROLE,GREENPOINT: to Catch a Thief (Cary Grant, Grace Kelly) & A New Kind of Love,,,, GREENPOINT THEATRE, Manhattan/Greenpoint Ave, "Women of the World" (adults), LOEWS TRIBORO (Steinway St) "The Running Man" Lawrence Harvey, Lee Remick,,,, ASTORIA THEATRE (Steinway St) "Move Over Darling",,, Thursday Jan 9 LBJ State of the Union Address, "War on Poverty",,,, Friday Jan 10 PANAMA SUSPENDS RELATIONS, RIOT IN CANAL ZONE, One inch of snow hits NYC,,,, TV SHOWS: 330pm ch7- Who Do You Trust? (Carson/McMahon), 11-Abbot and Costello, 4pm- 4-The Match Game, 11-Superman,, 430pm 2cbs-Love That bob, 4nbc-Make room For daddy, 5pm-2-Early Show movies, 4-Movie Four,movies, 7-The Big Show, movies, 9-Films, 11-Chuck McCann, 530 5-Sandys Hour (Where first heard of British Invasion music, Becker also had that 90 minute morning show), 555pm 11-ZACHERLE, 6pm 11-broken Arrow, 9-Maverick, 7pm 5-Gallant Men, 7-I'm Dickens, He's Fenster, 730 7abc- 77 Sunset Strip,,,, BIG HEADLINE, MAIN NEWS: Sat JAN 11,1964 PANAMA DEMANDS CANAL TREATY REVISION, US EMBASSY EVACUATES, 20 DIE IN RIOT, JOHNSON URGES CALM, OAS WILL MEDIATE,....... ..... age 14.... Now here might be what I'm looking for: TUESDAT JAN 14, 1964, HUGE HEADLINE, MAIN NEWS: WIND DRIVEN SNOW SNARLS TRAFFIC, 12 DEAD, SCHOOLS IN CITY WILL CLOSE TODAY, STORM EXTENDS SOUTH TO FLORIDA, Howling snowstorm, near-gale force winds,,, busy city under heavy blanket of snow yesterday, began shortly after 8pm Sunday, over 10-12" snow by early today, 11 o'clock pm- temp plummet to 11*, 19* most yesterday, Today: Winds 30-40 mphm snow flurries, WED JAN 15: schools reopen today.......So it was probably TUESDAY Jan 14, 1964 I recall walking through a dead Lower Manhattan. ...... I knew the 1963 style music but didn't go out of my way to hear it. I only heard music on my father's car radio when he turned it on. The only song I recall really wanting to hear was Telstar as it was Astronomy. At this time I also used to say that I only liked instrumentals if anything at all as I disliked human voices 'ruining' music. (I didnt much like people). I knew of the existence of the Four Seasons and Martha and the Vandellas (Heat Wave) but not the name of any other 1963 group. (But knew of Keyu Sakamoto and Sukiyaki). I'm ssure that all the NORMAL teenagers knew those things but I was the most abnormal in an abnormal 'special progress' class. But th egirls in my music class brought up the Beatles and all the boys knocked them. (Interestingly, these were all Honors Class girls who had never mentioned Rock 'music' before. I had heard the Beatles some time in January(?) but paid them no attention...... age 14...... At that time, early 1964, I had gotten into a new habit of coming home, putting on a pot of A&P "Eight O'Clock" coffee (Now available again at Weis Stores in York) and it was MUCH more work in those PERCOLATOR days before Mister Coffee-type drip pots, but the coffee was BETTER, too and frying up a HUGE hamburger on the stove (Knew nothing of grease and cancer back then)(I was still against CHEESE on burgers but I put on lots of salt and pepper.My mother said i didnt make burgers I made Hamburger STEAKS they were so big. My parents had JUST taught me how to make coffee and cook. (Jan 64? Late 63?). I'd then go into the next room to eat and watch the new ZACHERLE daytime show. he played a type of humorous Dracula and would interrupt old monster movies to make fun of them. He got in trouble once at this time for teaching kids how to make a monster and telling them to get gooey calves brains at the supermarket. I watched the whole procedure, day by day, including slopping those gross things into a dummy head he taught kids to make while talking about eating brains. parents didn't like that. I think he only lasted from late 1963 until the Summer of 1964, if that. The first Japanese cartoon, Astro Boy, would come on and I'd also watch that. I would often fall asleep on the couch watching Tv after eating all that meat and my parents return into the long hallway would wake me up. They were glad for the coffee although it wasn't perfectly fresh by then. They had me make it weak. (Now since that coffee has appeared at Weis since March 1999, all i need is a percolator pot but until then I've been using the regular one)..... Fri July 16, 1999 301pm..... (Mon. July 19, 1999 1251pm Gone to start new STREETS page)..... .... Wed 7-21-99 354pm::; I must have taken those horrible statewide REGENT'S EXAMS all Junior High kids had to take (When they stopped them the schools collapsed, no more standards). I recall sitting at the counter in the restaurant across from the Ditmar's A&P where my mother worked after being doen with them. It was cold and probably January. We got the afternoons off after them, just like in college, as they were so tough...... age 14....... Nixon then worked at Pepsi Cola along the East River in Long Island City and took cabs through south Astoria. He was at 21st St and Broadway at the boundary of Astoria when he heard about JFK being shot. (I lived 1/2 block from 21 ST and I used to walk or ride my bike to the Broadway Shopping Center, the only one in Astoria..... age 14... ..... I had built a model of the George Washington nuclear sub and a cigarette commerical came on TV showing the model, zeroing in on one room and saying it was the sub's filtering plant. But I knew it was just the Mess Hall. They lied....age 14...... It was an EXCITING time for me waiting for the World's Fair to open. As a big science fan I had waited for it since i was a tiny kid. Now my father was building parts of it and my mother's new company, Macy's, had it's own big Fair things going. My parents were making a LOT more money now, especially with all the overtime. Sometimes my father worked 24 straight hours to make sure it would be ready in time. I loved to see all the new Fair things, including huge models of it, at the two big department stores: Macy's and Gimbel's over on 34th ST. (I wonder when my mother went from the A&P to Macy's? Had to do with that Accounting course(s)? she took in Summer 1963). Once I fell asleep in the vibrating chair section of the company that made them that was in one of the two dept stores and was going to have them at the Fair. I was surprised that I, who mistrusted everyone, would fall asleep in public. And I was buying up lots of World's Fair envelopes to send for FIRST DAY COVERS when the Fair opened. (THURSDAY, APRIL 22, 1964, in the A.M.). I also sent out First Day Covers for them to mail back...age 14.... I got on the subway every Saturday and went to 34th ST (Macy's/Gimbel's) or Hoyt-Schermerhorn in Brooklyn. No kids to bother me. Just running around the department stores and when I did buy something it was a museum souvenir or a plastic airplane model kit (or of a nuclear submarine or an ocean liner). (I was just switching over from planes to some ships. I was getting too old to play with model planes and ships made good decorations). Monogram, Revell, Aurora). Or a Monster Model. (I was more into those in 1963) or a wargame (They were then very rare. I got the Stalingrad game in Summer 1963. I might have gotten Battle of the Bulge in 1964). I was always getting mailings from Avalon Hill, usually the only mail I got.... age 14.....I think that it was Macy's that had an entire counter devoted to Chemistry Sets next to the escalator and I could buy a larger than average bottle of a different chemical every now and then. It was right along the side of the escalator so anyone walking around from one to the next would walk the length of it. .... age 14... .. On SUNDAYS I would dress up and walk by myself to MOUNT CARMEL Catholic Church by going through Astoria Square. I'd always go to the little downstairs DARK church through the side entrance rather than the huge one upstairs and pray alone during Mass. Noone knew me at that church so I didn't have to deal with other humans. The other Catholics were probably as decent as I was but, like my mother, they would have brought constant pressure upon me. everything seemed so polarized. Either total degenerates trying to corrupt me or religious extremism where one couldnt slip a bit. But I always felt good down there and very clean and decent when I came out. Especially if I took Communion. It was a center for morality and decency and justice unlike any other place. (Catholicism is almost all "Morality" and little Supernaturalism. That's why the Holy Rollers hated us. With them it's all Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. We were into the LOGIC of decency and morality. They were into SUPERNATURALISM and living in 30 A.D. Palestine. We knew the whole Christ story but didn't harp on it constantly. Once you know it, you know it.). I would often go along at the tail end of the Catholic crowd leaving church to the bakery with tables on the other side of the Astoria Square. But I never once spoke with anyone...Wed 7-21-99.... In the afternoons on Sundays I would always go to the museums, usually the American Museum/Haydn Planetarium. . I never missed a Planetarium show. They had a new one once a month (or was it twice) which was about right as the 50c fee was expensive to me (Hershey bars were 5c). The planetarium had the huge black-light paintings of planets long before black-lights went public. I'd get on the train at the Triboro Bridge stop (The platform was right over Grand Central Parkway as it went onto the bridge) "Hoyt Avenue" stop, one mile from home and one stop from the last, Ditmars, stop. I'd go over to mid-Manhattan and trasfer to the train north going on the west side of Central park. Then I'd go into the huge underground entrance hall to the museum which was free back then. (What a shock when i returned in 1973 and it was $3). Sometimes I'd bring my little reel tape recorder to tape the show. Might have one of those tapes still around!. Same tape recorder I mentioned previously. ...age 14... .............. After school in Jan-June 1964 I mostly stayed alone. But I had been going out a little more since Early Summer 1963. Still I could NOT handle the obnoxiousness, dishonesty, corruption, and stupidity of other kids. So during weekdays I usually just stayed in the house. I had finally learned to ride a bike a year or two (I forget) before so I would often wait until night and then go for a ride around Astoria. 1963-1964 was my Astoria Square, Queens/ Hoyt-Schermerhorn, Brooklyn period when i had shifted from Ditmars Blvd/ 31st St, Queens and 34th St, Manhattan (Macy's Gimbel's - except for the FAIR stuff)....age 14... That was also about the time I had discovered the main street of Jamaica, Queens which ran along under the elevated train. Tough to get there from Astoria. Think I went to Queens Plaza ("Qveens Plaza", they had), then switched to Flushing train to Roosevelt Ave/ Jackson Heights, then walked down the long flight of stairs, then train to underground QueensBOROUGH Plaza (or was the BOROUGH one above?). Then north to Jamaica in a train that then became an EL. Much FOREIGN toy company stuff. Bought a golden Queen Elizabeth coronation coach....age 14.... Recall mother taking me to Flushing Queens but that started in Summer 1963, I believe. (62?)...... I still lived in a world of comic books like most introverted nerds (although the school bullying went way down as I got so huge). Marvel was just coming up. Had been getting them since 1962.. I once overheard the adults at the candy store on the corner saying I was too old for them as i was now so big. But my mind had been brutalized way backwards. Age 13/14 was then too old to read comics, now many 50+ year olds subscribe. I really, really knew my Superman. Loved the new METAL MEN and MAGNUS, ROBOT FIGHTER. ....age 14..... I spent Jan, feb, March still going to JHS 141 Steinway Junior High. Either took the bus or walked alone. Mostly took bus. No longer first on now that Mater Christie open. I used to wait right under the HUGE Triboro Bridge by the little concrete park in the cold. Boy, did it ever seem cold that winter. I got on the Triboro Bus Line (Sometimes Steinway Line buses would come by and fool me). Next stop would be where most people waited- in front of the Riccardo's fancy restaurant. We'd go the two? miles north along 31st ST (really a wide avenue) to the Ditmars Blvd intersection where PS122 was, turn right, and go 3?more? miles to the JHS 141 stop, passing thru Ditmars/31st St shopping area of stores. At this time I never got off with the others. I'd stay on the next few stops up to the Steinway Street stop (all upper middle class houses there, not stores, with garages underneath and the door and porch way up the stairs. I have the memory burned in of my walking alone up that LONG block on either side (But the closer to the end of the school year in June the more I walked on the East side)The street was comprised of the last blocks of Steinway Street and still a WIDE street three blocks long. But with all houses on either side (except for the tiny candy store near Ditmars) it was a dead quiet street. I really recall walking all along it, it was about three blocks long, when it was snowing lightly and my steps were the first ones in the snow and thinking of how the five year nightmare was coming to an end in a few months and I could then get my pre-1959 mind back.( I took it for granted from what all the ADULTS had been telling me for years that I HAD to work up to my 'Great Potential', no matter what obstacles others or expenses threw in my way.)(What a bunch of evil CRAP to lay on little kids and to keep on them as they get bigger!!!) There was also a tiny little candy store on the left side just off Ditmars. But in early 1964 I had been walking on the right side of the street. In Fall 63 I had walked down it with Dale a few times. After walking all the way down Steinway I'd turn left one block to the school one block away. When I did go with Dale in earlier times we'd always wait in rainy or cold weather in the huge lobby of a big apt house across the street from the side of the school, JHS 141. In 64 Dale got nastier friends and they would hang with him in a big candy store/soda fountain where I turned left to the school. He, like I, had to avoid most kids. But, as he got older, he started slowly picking up the tough guy habits of his former oppressors and slowly became less innocent. 7-22 thurs 406pm .................... .................. ................. ................... ....................... ........................ ...................... ..................... ....................... ......................... SKIPPED A BUNCH, BACK TO DO IT LATER ....................... ................... ................... ..................... ................... ................. ..................... ................. .................. .................... ...................... ...................

I joined my first after school thing in 1963-1964; a ceramics club. Once a week we'd go to the basement to the same room where I was when JFK was shot and make plaster things. Mixed and poured into red rubber molds. I recall a bird one most as it was my first and the toughest to do as the beak was hard to fill. Once I made over 20 in one night. I forget how long it met but it was always dark when I got out. Noone ever picked on me there. Not even in Sept 63. I think it was 10c a meeting and 25c for three. I would then wait for the bus on Ditmars all alone. Once I found a 1964 Archie comic about hotrods on the way up the LONG block just before reaching Ditmars. I have strong memories of sitting in the back of the bus alone looking out at night at all the Xmas 1963 decorations that were strung over the street on Ditmars. I watched the bus go under them front and back. (Buses had rear windows then). So that had to be December 1963. I never talked to the drivers. Too shy. ............... What I mostly recall of this period was going to wait for the bus alone. Riding alone. Walking the long walk alone. trying to avoid everyone in my classes. Sneaking out of school at lunch either with Dale or alone. going home alone. Sitting alone in my house waiting for my parents. Sitting in my room alone after they returned. Riding my bike alone. Weekends I also stayed alone and found things to do alone. People were just too rude, evil, bullying, dishonest, stupid, dangerous, unfeeling, reptilian. ..... ...... Two beliefs i took as absolute FACT totally dominated my mind at this age. (as they had doen for as long as i could remember):: 1) I WAS going to be a Space Scientist (Astronomer, Astrophysicist, Rocket Scientist, whatever the latest fad term was/is). Even though I had not yet learned one thing about it from any of my teachers in all those years in school. I just KNEW I was going to be one come hell or high water and then everything would be okay in the end. I'd live at my home and be at the Observatory and tell all of mankind other than those in my profession to go to Hell. Every other thing would just fall into placeonce i made it. I took at as FACT..How the Hell a poor kid like me was ever going to pay for collge never seemed to cross my mind or that of any of the other adults for some reason. It also never seemed to cross the minds of all those grown-ups who EXPECTED me to go to college over all those years. I, the little kid, I guess was expected to 'somehow' magically LIVE UP TO everyone else's expectations. No heavier burden than a 'great potential'. And at that age i thought it would only take four years of college in NYC which was already a vast span of time to someone that young. No one told me that even RICH kids took ten/fifteen years in college while not having to work! In 1963 i thought of 1970 as "The Far Future" (I recall standing at the bottom of the cellar stairs thinking that). I also never knew or cared about how much an Astronomer/Astrophysicist made as a salary. To me LIFE was trying to improve myself to BE something, not trying to OWN something. One PAID for the PRIVILEGE of learning to be a Space Scientist, it wasn't for them to pay you. I NEVER thought of income until my three cousins came from Penna in 1964 and brought the subject up... ...... 2) The second major thing in my life was the Holy Roman Catholic Church. It was the center of all my moral beliefs. It was ABOVE all the stupid, immoral adults I had to deal with. I absolutely 'KNEW' there was a God and all would be just and good in the end. Time would see to it that good triumphed over evil in the end. And evil would pay for its crimes. I had to remain perfectly decent. And Confession would see to that. I would meet the one woman for the one man and get married eventually and stay married.................. Sometime in the Early part of 1964 (Winter/Spring) I scored in the Top One Percent on some other IQ test and Ivy League Columbia wanted me and two of the bullies from my Honors Group of all the kids in my school to go there for a guided tour to talk us into going there in the future. Heck, we hadn't even graduated from Junior High yet! We were Fourteen years old. Mon 7-16-99 152pm. I was on the elevated train platform with the two of them but they ignored me. I had been noticing how I wasn't being tortured anymore but couldnt figure out why so I was still constantly worried and apprehensive. Still very wary and 'uptight' as they would say a few years later. I was getting BUG and didnt notice it or what cowards bullies were. So we went there but they had no Astro program, only Math degrees. I did not want to have to wait ANOTHER four years until my first Astro Class!! I wanted to get away from EVIL N.Y.C. people anyway. But I was surprised that Columbia had its own radio station. THAT I rememeber looking in. Amazing how compact everything on that campus was as it was in the middle of Manhattan....... Had my cocker spaniel, Major, then (1959-1970). First thing I did when I came home at 330pm was let him out in the yard. Must have had a strong bladder. Rarely made a mistake. But never punished for it as we knew he was home alone. Unless when i was home sick which was a lot. Incredibly intelligent dog. Knew the name of dozens of dogtoys by heart. Plus other things.. ....... For years i had the habit of having tea and toast in bed at night while reading comic books until I fell asleep............. During my huge growth spurt from the smallest kid to the tallest I got pennicillin poisoning somehow. And I recall that the doctor gave me the shot after whatever it was I had was almost gone anyhow. I had always been taking lots of pennicillin as I was always sick. Perhaps the huge amounts plus my puberty suddenly caused the new allergy. But my father took me to a different physician Gertie (Dale's mother) or Howie (his father) mentioned. His name was actually 'Bizarro' as in the Superman comics I read constantly. He was down in Long Island City. I sat on a table in the back room with my shirt off listening to him yell at my father for my skinniness. Dr. Bizarro had a purple Concentration Camp number on his arm and said to my father (I recall the exact words) "He looks like a kid from a Concentration Camp" and my father replying, "He eats! He eats as much as he wants!". And the doctor telling him I had to eat MORE than I wanted. He prescribed Malted Milks every day. They werent into weight training in those days.. ........ The subways had posters for "Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" all over the place. First "collages" I ever noticed. I wanted to see it as it had Sid Caesar whom I hadnt seen since I sat on my father's knee to watch him in the early 50s. ... ....... "The Carpetbaggers" was the risque movie then talked about and Jimmy was the only one old enough to see it. He mentioned it to me across 21st ST almost under the Triboro Bridge at N.Hoyt Ave and 21st within a few yards of where my bike ran into the tree a couple years before (which seemed ancient then). He must have been at least 16 when I was 14........ MY home room teacher who was also my Earth Sciences teacher gave me a ticket to go to NYU at night in perhaps early March and see a lecture entitled "THE ORIGIN OF SPIRAL ARMS" ... I didnt even know they were referring to galactic arms! My parents kept trying to talk me out of it as it would be really dark when I left and it was a dangerous area. It would also be freezing cold that night. It was a tough place to get to and from from where we were in Astoria. In the end my father outmanuevered me. He came up with some kind of expensive coupon book he was invited to pick up if and only if he went to an auto place and let them try to talk him into buying something. So we went there instead. In the middle of nowhere in Queens where I had never been before. I still remember being in there with the glass walls all around in the dark. Just happened to have to be on the same day as the lecture. I dont even recall what i got out of those coupons....... I had a comic book entitled 'The Fall of the Roman Empire". Interestingly, the movie would bomb so badly it ended the Roman Empire fad going on since at least Ben Hur in the 50s...... It was to be an anniversary year for WWI (1914/1918-1964/1968), the war of 1812 (1812-1814 to 1962-1964), and WWII (20 years since D-Day) but the Kennedy assassination toned things down and Vietnam would soon quash them.. ......... I went with my mother to see the German training ship Gorch Foch and got a ribbon..... ....... Coins still had silver. I forget when the JFK half-dollar came out or the JFK stamp. But I got both. I recall being in the post office a couple blocks south of Astoria Square and asking for some and the guy giving me some loose ones and the other guy yelling at him, "Hr doesnt want those. He wants the block" Well, it was true as i was a collector but when they started arguing about it I just ran out. I didnt like confrontations in my shyer days......... I used my telescope to draw the nightly positions of Jupiters moons because I read of Galileo once doing it... .....I also stopped playing in the cellar then. Either too old or into other things. I think I still shovelled coal, though.... Mon 7-26-99 440pm....... In preparation for the Worlds Fair a number of strange ships came by under the Triboro Bridge. There was that Viking ship that was shown later in the new ERIK cigar commercials ("Erik is here"). They filmed it passing under the Triboro Bridge and showed it nationally on TV for a couple of years. And I was in the park alone one day and saw a surfaced sub go under that bridge and all the men were on deck at attention saluting. (Later on, during the Fair, a dirigible often flew overhead between the Fair and Manhattan. Once it dipped so low it almost hit the top of my house and I could actually see their faces and the shadow on the ground. I also read the NY Daily News article about flying in it.. ..... ........ Sandy Becker, a TV guy who had a 90 minute show in the moring for kids and another one in the afternoon, got into the habit in his afternoon show of wearing goofy clothes, eyeglasses with eyes on the end of Slinkies, and jumping around to a crazy song he made fun of to open each show. The song, which I had not heard anywhere else then as it was gotten from England was "Glad All Over", the first 'British Invasion' song I ever heard and which I thought was unbelievably bad... .......... They had the 1964 Olympic Trials at the Astoria Park Pool which was some sort of 'Biggest type of pool in the World'. But I dont recall if it was that Spring or when. 7-26 451pm, Tues 7-27-99 1253pm: But Don Schollader came to Astoria and won. He then went on to win five gold medals at the 1964 Olympics but he got accepted to that team just a couple of blocks from my home. At that time they also had a JUNIOR Olympics run by the city of New York for NYC kids, mostly from my neighborhood from the same pool complex. The kids on my block kept showing off their mini-medals they kept winning for running events. I was then, for that period, the fastest kid on the bloc (Mainly due to my sudden growth of longgger legs than anyone else and years of Fear and running from predators) but I was MUCH too shy to go and perform in front of others... ........ I had NO teenage fashion consciousness. Photos show that I looked like I was still wearing kids playclothes that I should have stopped wearing a couple of years before and which no longer fit me as well. But I had not yet reached mental adolescence. I now realize that I was a 14 year old with the mind of an 11 year old, the body of an 18 year old and the book knowledge of a studious 35 year old. .... .... Seniors took a Spring trip to Bear Mountain north of NYC. I tried to climb like many of the others to the top of the mountain and I made it 95% of the way, which was just more than many others. I could have made it even though it got steeper as one got higher but it was the height that frightened me as I went. Still, I was surprised that I had even gotten that far as i had always been the weakest of ALL the kids all my life before this. Now I beat many of them including the former bullies. Later, when we had to have our first cookout with adults I stupidly opened up a warm can of soda and some splattered onto the hotdogs the supreme bully was cooking. "You'll eat all those soda soaked hotdogs", he yelled and i instantly stood up to him without even thinking and he did nothing. (And this was the one time I really was in the wrong which shows how there's no justice in the world, only power).. ...... Model Motoring was starting to get big but al I had was a set a couple of years old in which all the tracks had to be wired together and not just click together. I recall how long it took my father who then played with them more than I did. (Was that Xmas 62?) They were one of the original sets before they got popular and easier.. ......... My knowledge of sports at that time was much lower than most kids even though my father was an usher who took me to everything. I had ZERO interest until he started taking me. Only then did I really learn the names of all the Mets and yankee players and their positions. Before that I just picked up bits and pieces of knowledge from other kids. But in Early 1964 I still did not have any more interest than in wanting 'our' team to win. I did notice the few stats on the scorecards but really wasn't into them. I recall walking through Astoria Park one afternoon (The same curved concrete path beween the Pool and the Triboro Bridge I got pneumonia on), finding the baseball card for some Yankee player and being surprised how low the numbers were. For some reason I always thought that ALL Yankee players had otherworldly stats and were all superstars.... ....... I kept waiting for the Fair, collecting anything with a Unisphere on it and keeping all the Sunday Supplements and Magazines. When it DID finally open I carried it all with me on opening day in a folder. No plastic bags with handles in those days.. 7-27 117pm...... ......... ................... ................... .................. ...................... ........................... .......................... ......................... ............................. ........................ ........................... ........... ............ ........... ............ . ........... ............ ............ ........... SKIPPED A BUNCH, BE BACK TO DO IT LATER .................. ........................ ...................... ..................... ........................... .......................... ......................... ........................ ..................... ....................... ........................ ......................... SKIPPED A BUNCH, BE BACK TO DO IT LATER ........................ ................... ................. ...................... ................. .................. ................... ..................... ....................... .........................

---------------- Although I was really just into Astronomy and Catholicism at this time the following things did catch my attention : (I had to look up most of the dates): 1-15-64; Willie mays gets $105,000 to pass Mantle as highest paid player. 1/29 Innsbruck, Austria Olympic Games begin,,, 2/25 Clay beats Liston,I recall after school standing with the number one bully and a guy who is now the Metro Editor of the NY Post and how the bullying switched from against me to against him and the fight was being discussed as just happening that afternoon. It was a few blocks west of the school and near Louis' home. Nice bright day. Lou lived in a housing complex just off Ditmars. Weird design. Very high. Small tunnel entrance. Go through tunnel and there was a little courtyard with entrances around for different bldgs. His was to the front left. Nice Bright day for February. ,,, 3/5 Taylor-Fisher divorced (Cleopatra) Even kids heard about this scandal. Cleopatra had a HUGE billboard on Times Square I'd see every Saturday, 3/5 Taylor-Burton marry,,, 3/23 Peter Lorre dies. (Picked a good time as the Monster Model craze made him famous again. Jimmy bought the first one in 63 and showed us all). I think the Boston Strangler was running around at this time,,,, 3/28 Alaska earthquake (I recall my father donating money at the Fair later),,, 4/17 Colts pitcher Ken Johnson throws a no-hitter (Big deal for Mets fans as we were also an expansion team),,, 4/25 Toronto wins Stanley cup (Didnt care about watching but knew of it),,, 5/2 Northern Dancer wins Kentucky Derby. (I dont recall why but this was the only horse I ever cared about winning. Something to do with Astronomy),,,, 4/26 Celtics win NBA,,,, 5/16 Northern Dancer wins Preakness (But later lost Triple Crown)(Hey, I had a horserace game in the 50s I forgot to mention),,,, 5/27 Nehru Died (We had to read a lot about him),,,, 5/30 AJ Foyt wins Indy 500,,,, 6/4 Koufax no-hitter,,,, 6/21 BUNNING PERFECT GAME!!! My father was there. it was Father's day. I was on my bike a few blocks NORTH of PS 122 riding along the northernmost big avenue in Queens. Water after that. I was in the street in front of the supermarket near the 21st ST intersection with the large street (Check streets). That Jan-June period we had been shopping at that supermarket for a change. Also at the A&P just southwest of Astoria Square. Guess my mother got tired of always shopping in the one where she worked. Or did she quit then? I had a pocket radio dangling on my handlebar. 7/7/64 Last minute homer by Johnny Callison won All Star game for NL. Callison was expected to be the new all around superstar that year.He choked in the end. I was in front of Jimmy's window and he stuck his head out the window to tell me all about it. I didnt watch it. My baseball interest was just live in the stadium. 7/10 Tony Lema wins British Open (I think he died in a plane crash when I lived at Richards in 66-67),,,, 7/17 New land speed record by Don Campbell (My mother's birthday, born 1927, also the day I would leave for York),,,, Bobby Nichols wins PGA (I didnt care about all this sports stuff but I sure heard about it enough),,,, 7/31 Counry singer Jim Reeves dies in a plane crash (I noticed when those other 3 went down too although I had no interest in their music),,, 8/1 Don Schollander makes new swimming record..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... I never saw any contradiction between my Catholic religious beliefs and my love of Science. I always figured that the creator was the supreme scientist and deliberately made the Universe perfectly logical and very interested and wanted us to learn as much as we could. And morality always seemed obviously logical to me. Even Emmanuel Kant's "Categorical Imperative" states that Moral Law was ultimately enacted by reason and demands obedience for more respect for reason. (Catholic Encyclopedia)..... ..... .....Tuesday, 7/27/99 1:46pm ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... FINALLY!!!!, THE WORLD'S FAIR OPENED in Flushing, right after SHEA STADIUM across the street. :::: THE NEW YORK TIMES, Wednesday, April 22, 1964, Ten Cents, Late City edition: rain, then chance of showers today and tonight, clearing late tomorrow, Temp range: 50-40, yesterday 44-35, TODAY'S TIMES: A Six Page Preview of the 1964-65 World's Fair... PRESIDENT WILL OPEN FAIR TODAY; STALL-IN LIKELY TO JAM TRAFFIC; FIRE IN SHUTTLE TIES UP MIDTOWN... Marvel in the Meadows (photo), Drivers Take Up Positions To Block Roads at 7am, 350,000 expected,, High Security Force to Guard Johnson- Parade is Planned... 2 Trains Destroyed in Grand Central Blaze- 42nd St BUCKLES.... S.Viet force suffer worst toll of war... Britain exchanges spies with Soviets at Berlin Border... Rightests in Laos spurn West bid to end rebellion... Alaska coastline shifted by (last months) quake... Violinist wins prize- loses a Guarnerius, 18 year old Itzhak Perlman had been lent violin by Juilliard School of Music. Isaac Stern spoke for judges.. Indira Gandhi at Fair............... My father drove me all the way down from 21-11 24th Road on opening day to the area where he worked south of the Queensborough Bridge. It was POURING RAIN that day. He let me off at a stop at which I had never been BUT which had the Flushing line right upstairs to go to the Fair. It was one of the two weird elevated stops right after the train came out of the tunnel from Manhattan just before it reached Queens Plaza. That saved me from walking the mile or more in the pouring rain to the Hoyt Ave station and then having to transfer at Queeens Plaza. So I got to the World's Fair at last after waiting forever as a little kid science lover. We stood in that rain waiting for it to open. We were on a wide concrete ramp leading from under the elevated train station towards the entrance. But the turnstiles themselves were still WAY off in the distance down a wide sidewalk. They kept us WAY back from those gates, It MIGHT have opened at 10am but I forget. However it sure seemed like we were there for a long time in the rain. Due to the rain there were still only a couple hundred of us. They had expected it to be a human flood but the terrible weather ended that. I stood on the right facing the front by myself along the sloped rail. Finally, they let us go. And I raced to the gates so that I could say I was one of the very first ones inside. I think it cost 50c for minors. I went straight for all the science stuff. I couldn't have cared less about the 'fun' stuff. I wanted to be on the top of the sign-in for the Westinghouse Time Capsule and the other books they were keeping such as the one at the Metropolitan Life Demograph. At GE I was one of the very first there and saw the first show. They had to tune down the atomic explosion after some people got sick. A line of adults on both sides welcomed me to the GM pavilion. Wed. 7-28-99...... I just looked it up. $2 adults, $1 for 12 and under. I guess I paid $2.... The Mets played the Cubs on opening day at 2pm.... Black civil rights marchers blocked the Ford pavilion. I signed up for a record from Traveler's Insurance. They had the dark room with the large displays that lit up of world history starting with the first city of Ur (which I hadnt heard of before) and Ancient Rome. (The Roman scene was straight out of Spartacus of soldiers marching in the distance but I didnt know that then) I 'stood' on the moon in a well done rendition at some state pavilion. I had my little box camera and took photos in black and white. (In the 80s they were putting out a book on that Fair and they asked for such photos but I lost the negatives and didnt want to risk losing them) I did get a man to take my photo but I dont know where it is. They were all dark due to the rain. LBJ came to the Singer Bowl but it was almost empty except for reporters. ('Funny' how Singer collapsed when all those foreign clothes came in). There was a bank with closed ciruit TV and I was using it to talk to the lady teller from the outside. I went the entire day without eating and spent NO monmey until the end when I decided to get a bunch of United Nations flags in a small cardboard box to play with my army men. (Shows how childish I still was for my age)................ .................... .................... ................. ...................... ................. .Stick more Fair stuff in here later............... .................. .................. .............. ................ ............ I waited and waited at night for some bigshot to show up to turn on the Reddy Killowatt "Tower of Light" beam. "Brightest light on Earth". I had no idea what those suburban light companies were. I had only heard of Con Edison in NYC. ("Wor-king, and Plan-ning, To-day and To-morrow. Con Ed-i-son. (note,note,note,note)" The Small World and Belgian Pavilions werent open yet. They wouldnt be until late 1965. I remember when it was time to leave how I really believed that I would in the future divide my life by that Fair Day. I was a few months off. But it did cause what Did divide my life. I stopped, took one last look, which I still remember vividly, and then left. I took the subway home at night. Then I lay in bed in that front room eating a cherry pie slice and drinking hot tea. I scribbled on the plate for some reason just to mark the day. That plate is still next to my bed. That night on TV (11pm news?) they interviewed a couple who went to something like 11 pavilions and they said, "Wow! Thats a lot!". Well, I went to 27 pavilions and could have hit a lot more if not for that Tower of Light wait!!! But of course I was alone and didnt eat and ran from place to place. I was allowed to take another day off from school to rest. My parents were gone all that weekend and I didnt bother to eat for four days except for that cherry slice. Just didnt feel like it. They went to Pennsylvania looking for a house. My father still claims they never left me and Major alone but I think they did for that weekend when i wanted to go to the fair and they were in the era of househunting for a place close to NYC. For years after that they told me how the original plan was to move to a place called Kunkletown (KUNKLETOWN!!) in Pa. and I know that I had NEVER been there with them. It may have been that weekend or another than that but they went. I may have gone to school on Friday or not until Monday and I was honest with my teacher about why I took off and he didnt like it. I didnt care. Honesty always came first to me and my Catholic religion no matter what the teacher punishments were. In my mind, they were all going to Hell and I wasn't.....--------- ________________ ____________________ ____________________ ___________________ _______________ ________________ ________________ __________________ ________________ _________________ _________________ ___________________ _______________________ _____________________ ____________________ _______________ Wed 7-28-99 235pm ________ Thurs 7-29-99 143pm, Just went back to add things to a3addenda (astoria, last page)____ ___________ AFTER OPENING DAY AT THE FAIR: (Late April 64- July 64):: After opening day weekend I dont recall much for a whil. I think I was getting my new mandatory Malted Milks at the Towne square Shoppe that opened a couple years earlier on Astoria Square. It had a nice big soda fountain in the back. Wonderful Halloween decoations each year. I dont recall going to the nearer candy stores for my malteds. At school we just mostly kept rehearsing in the small L-shaped schoolyard for JHS graduation. I recall actually playing some handball with other kids that Spring and thinking how weird it was. I was slowly becoming less the ultimate nerd that everyone picked on all those years. The gmae was called King, Queen, Jack,,, Clay/Liston 2/25, Worlds Fair 4/22, Bunnings Perfect Game 6/21 Fathers day,, Graduation Day- whenever that was. The day after Independence Day. The All-Star Game 7/7. are the days I STILL remember CLEARLY. I went back to the Fair numerous times. I do recall going with a slightly younger kid one time from around the corner and he got in trouble for coming home late. (He later went to camp and came back flamingly gay). That was probably June more likely than May 60/40. Other than that I always went by myself as other kids were so STUPID and obnoxious. I didnt bother with the 'Entertainment' Area that other kids liked except i did get some cards for doing magic tricks there. I recall the moment I bought them. I was younger in some ways and older in others...... ...... At the Fair I would vote each time that the St Louis Cardinals would win the pennant. I was absolutely CERTAIN!! The only time in my life I ever had that feeling. Yet I knew FAR less about baseball than I would later when I became a hell of an expert. I just somehow knew it just by watching them at the Polo Grounds against the Mets the year before and now in new Shea Stadium. That was the year of the PHILLY FLOP and the CARDINAL MIRACLE. I was one of the very few who chose them. (In 1989 USA TODAY FINALLY came out with an article about all the overachievers on that team and how they were still very important sports figures who rose up)...... The IBM Pavilion had a really long winding line where people would hand in their birthdays and the huge computer would tell them the NY TIMES headline on that date. Ludicrously simple now. They also had one for the likes and dislikes compared to others in ones own age group. I was completely the OPPOSITE of almost everyone my age and very proud of it...... I just came across two cards from the IBM pavilion at the Fair. One is dated THURSDAY MAY 7, 1964 and the other SATURDAY MAY 9, 1964. Unless the computer cards made a mistake it means I was there twice in three days, and once on a THURSDAY. Perhaps I went with the class that day. I do believe my class went once. The cards were for finding the NY Times headline for that day. ............ .............. .......... The chief bully who had led the charge to make my life hell for five years wrote the following in my yearbook: "To Walt, whose hair was always in his eyes. Best of luck at Philadelphia Tech" (Showing that I had long hair years before it became chic and that we had already planned to move SOMEWHERE in Penna. 8-25-99 insert........ Finally, it was GRADUATION DAY at the big theatre on Steinway Street (We had two a block apart. Check movie listings for era). My grades really rebounded from Sept 63 to June 64 as the less and less I had to fear being attacked at any time the more I could concentrate on learning and the hugher my grades rebounded... We sang some hokey song about the Earth and its children being free and replaced 'Sword of Light' with 'Tower of Light' as in the Reddy Killowatt pavilion. Outside across the street along the same side of the street from the theatre my parents stood an talked a few minutes with the head bullies parents while he and I stood there. He was the Worst Bully that ruined my life from Feb 1959 when that insane teacher taught him to do it until it wound down in 63/64 and now he had been acting civilized as i grew up so fast. My parents told his parents how smart I was as if he wasn't. I waited for them to correct them but he remained silent. God! Was I glad THAT eternal nightmare was over.!!! Now everybody would go to different high schools. No more "Everybody against little sickly Walt" every day of every school year. JHS GRADUATION in NYC was MUCH more important than HS graduation nostalgia-wise as the same kids are usually together from Kindergarten through 9th grade. Then they get split up. One other thing I recall happened sometime that Spring/Summer was a bunch of girls at a pajama party phoning me!! and inviting me over. Me! The picked-on nerd that everyone was now changing his/her mind about because of my huge physical changes. My mother grabbed the phone and said, "You leave my son alone"..... ..... ..... ...... The Summer of 1964 was FINALLY here!!!!! THE FIRST SUMMER IN QUEENS IN ALL THOSE YEARS WHERE I DIDN'T HAVE TO FEAR ITS ENDING AND MY RETURN TO THE CLUTCHES OF THE MONSTERS IN SEPTEMBER!!!! I forget if Bunning's Perfect Game June 21, 1964 was before or after graduation but school started later in September in NYC and ended later in June than most places. We, I guess, didn't have the 'school kids needed to do farming' heritage, I guess. BUT FROM LATE JUNE 1964 UNTIL MID-JULY 1964 I HAD THE MOST STRESS-FREE PERIOD OF MY LIFE. "Normal" kids have their whole childhood that way. My childhood was a nightmare. I was only lucky for a few weeks!! Actually, the only ones between January 1959 and NOW!, forty years later. During those THREE WEEKS I lay on my bed reading Superman comics by myself in the empty house (I wonder what was the last one I ever bought? as it would end so abruptly? A book came out of all the Superman covers and I MIGHT have discovered it). I went on the subways alone to the places mentioned. I might have played stickball but I dont think I had started that year if at all, Went to the Fair, Went to Mets and Yankees games (Stengel and Mantle eras), whatever.... What was REALLY amazing was that the YEARS of daily physical, emotional abuse had no lating effect!! The period from February 1959 to June 1964 was hellish but as it slowed down sometime in late 1963 as I got bigger my mind slowly healed. No permanent effects from so much abuse might have had something to do with my new puberty making me into a new person and washing away the one that had the horrific childhood. When it wound down my worries wound down. When we all graduated and they were gone forever my mind cleared. It didnt dwell on it. However, it DID cause me to dislike human touch and not trust anyone but my own relatives but that was just something I took as fact and didnt dwell on. I wasnt even embittered at them for ruining my childhood and getting away with it. All that mattered was that they were gone and I had no interest in recalling those years, no more than dwelling on the times I was sick. I was about to start all over again with a clean slate and just write off my childhood as unfortunately lost.. Thurs 7-29-99 228pm

------- ...... I recall that on that morning of SUNDAY JULY 5, 1964 I was along the East River in Astoria Park and I picked up a firecracker that hadn't gone off the night before and tried to light it but it went out. Noone was around. the park was deserted. So I stamped on it again and again and waited. Then I picked it up and started walking up the steep grassy slope frpm the street along the river towards home. Suddenly, I heard an EXPLOSION and couldnt figure out where it came from. Then I looked at my hand. The little firecracker was gone. OOPS!, I thought, "This is gonna hurt!" First time that had ever happened- I was always the shy, scared, overly safe one. Then the pain came as the nerves woke up and just kept increasing like someone was holding a bunch of redhot needles to my fingers and wouldnt remove them. I sure recall that!! No permanent damage, though. I'm using those fingers to type this. Two finger typing..... ..... .... My next memory is Jimmy hanging out of his window on Tuesday July 7, 1964 telling me how a three run homer by the National League won the All Star game in the bottom of the 9th inning..... .... Even as a kid I worried about the military draft that was then mandatory for every male when i was growing up. I was unsocial, weak, sickly, shy, uncoordinated, and always had made a fool of myself at the gym which I hated most of all. I could not imagine myself in bootcamp. Especially with the complete loss of privacy. I'd get eaten alive by the much healthier stronger males. Of course, at that age, I didnt realize I was catching up and would eventually surpass many others. But I was thing ahead from JHS graduation to HS graduation when the draft board would be waiting. ........... I went to Mt Carmel Catholic Church on Sunday, July 12, 1964 as I always did, As Catholic, moral, and decent as ever. I had NO idea that that would be the last time I ever went to church...... ..... THE NEXT DAY ON MONDAY JULY 13, 1964 (13!) I WAS LYING ON MY BED as the Republican National Convention was starting up on TV. My room was in the front of the house. To get into our apartment one had to go through two doors up front with the two mailboxes in between. Then down along the hall where there were stairs to the right going up to Mary's apartment on the second floor and a hallway bending around to the left back to my 'front' (entrance) door. To the right of that door was the cellar door. Interestingly, there was a door from my room to the hall just past the second door and my parents had opened it just a few weeks? before. It had always been locked behind furniture. Now that I write this I wonder if it was because they were expecting visitors. Anyway, I'm lying there watching the show going on. All Republican speeches and I was interested in politics unlike most 14 year old. The TV was across my small front room from the foot of my bed. To my right was a big wooden toybox. I think it may be in the basement here now. To my front right was my little metal desk and some other stuff. Yo the front left may have been my chest of drawers although it might have been by the toybox. Anyway, I'm lying there and I here some people come in the front door in the hall outside my room. A bunch of people?! I'm thinking, "Oh, great! I waited to watch this and NOW they come. I hope they go upstairs instead" A group of people on a weekday afternoon? That was weird! And my father was at work. And my mother was home. I dont know why she was home. Did she take off from work? Was she between her A&P job and her Macy's job? I'm not sure now whether she worked at Macy's yet or not. Anyway, all these people I hear coming in the front door. I wait for a while. Until a commercial?? Then my mother calls me to pick up a ham sandwich she made for me. (Had I asked for it?) I get up and go trough the two rooms before the kitchen. I go into the kitchen and see people I don't recognize. Some older lady, two boys, and a blonde girl staring at me. I walked right past them, did not recognize their existence, took the sandwich and went back to my room. First of all, I was an only-child and a natural loner. Secondly, I was very shy. Thirdly, I knew that all kids meant trouble as only I ever seemed to have any morality and concern for other people's feelings. (I was a lot older when I learned the word 'empathy' from Star Trek). At some point they entered my room and I could no longer watch the show. The older boy immediately sat on my untouched sandwich I had placed on the little radiator and my mother made me another. I now had the "responsibility" of watching out for them. As if I could ever control the wild antics of other kids.. 7-29-99 306pm.........I dont recall what the sequence was but I showed them around the neighborhood and through the huge Astoria park and introduced them to the kids (Unless they introduced themselves, I dont recall). My aunt took them and me to Manhattan where I went to the top of the Empire State Building for the first time and we went through Macy's and Gimbel's. They wanted to ride the escalators everywhere as their own town had only ONE! So it took forever in the dept stores and they only had a few days. It was funny to be in the regular stores I had always been to by myself all those years now with strangers showing them all "my" World's Fair exhibits. In either Macy's or Gimbel's they had a little snack bar off in the corner with the first microwave oven I had ever seen and we had something cooked in it. They also had big plastic mold machines in one put 50c (a lot of money then) and they would mold for you from scratch under a clear plastic dome either a JFK head or a green dinosaur. (Sinclair Oil Company). The aunt had a lot of money and those kids got way more than any kids I had ever known. We went through Times Square and the girl wanted a Beatles Album that just came out and the mother bought it for her right on that square where it was REALLY expensive! I can still remember snippets very brightly. Coming out of that snackbar. Going to the escalators. Getting off one escalator and passing by a counter on the way to a Fair exhibit. Making the molds. She coming out with that record album. She asking me if a certain hotel was where the Beatles stayed. (Should it be, "She asking me" or "Her asking me" or "Her asking of me"? The "Her" asking of me in this case would be a possessive of 'asking')........ My girl cousin took my cocker spaniel for a walk as she was also a dog lover. ... The kids were fascinated that we had three rock and roll stations in NYC as they said they only had one back home. (Considering that NYC had 8 million people and York had 50,000 people, we should have had sixteen). We had WMCA ("The Good Guys"), WINS,and WABC. And we also got WWRL from New Jersey right across the river. Murray the K styled himself the 5th Beatle and would be on the air with them. Cousin Brucie and mad Daddy were the other two big ones. But I did NOT know ANY of their names then. I had NO interest in teenage things. I never listened to the rock stations unless my father put them on while driving....... I know that once when we went to Lower manhattan (Was it on the same day as the Empire State Bldg trip?? (They were only there four days, actually 3 1/2). We were there with Jimmy and the Aunt told us that they were going to the American Museum/Haydn Planetarium! Here was my chance to shine! Those two places were my weekend hangouts, the center of my studious nerd world. But he and I waited in front of the Museum for over an HOUR and they never showed up!!! My aunt just left us hanging!! Just another person who left me hanging and didnt show up for appointments. WE finally gave up and went home. Naturally, they walked in five minutes later. They had gone to the zoo instead and just left us hanging. It is unbelievable how many people have not shown up when they said they would meet me somewhere. My father told her she shouldnt do that to me as i was the type of honest person who always waits where he says he will and will wait an hour or more. I would have been there for two hours if Jimmy wasn't with me. My father also told me to never wait for more than twenty minutes for anyone.............. The aunt took us all to the Fair. (If I had to guess I would say that they showed up on Monday July 13 at about 1pm and we might have gone to Lower Manhattan then. Then perhaps we went to the Fair on Tuesday July 14. Then perhaps we went to Manhattan again on Wednesday July 15. Then perhaps to the Fair again on Thursday July 16.). I recall eating at one of the white bubble top round snack bars on the left of the huge round pool with them and how I was surprised at the lack of people at the snackbar and in that area. Back left of the main reflecting pool. And later standing to the right side of that same pool when more people were there and the aunt telling us she was going to take a nap in the Sealy nap booth pavilion. The kids and I without the aunt were then on the Gas Company carousel going around and around slowly (It was a stand-up one for adults). and the slightly older girl working there giving us Heinz Pickle Pins when we got off. The girl went away and left her box of pins there so naturally the kids grabbed a bunch each. So I went along and took more as well. A venial sin, I knew. When alone I NEVER did things like that...... Later being in the GE theatre that turned like a carousel itself. The whole audience turned around the robot show of the past and present and future in terms of appliances. Then going up the bright blue escalator (That even impressed me as it was at least twice as long as any other escalator I had ever seen and glowed ice blue). Sitting in the ore car to go up and over the Fair. Being in the Coca Cola pavilion with them, a pavilion where it was a proud thing to see beautiful places around the world with Coke bottles lying about). We went to one place in the Transportation Area where all these seats with steering wheels were lined up and one had to watch a screen and drive. A whole row of adults. A wouldnt have competed if they were just other kids. My girl cousin, two years younger than I, sat right down and beat them all!!! Intimidated the hell out of me. I recall the instant one of the kids got a chocolate covered banana and when they went down on the sluice ride. I was simply too shy to try anything new. We also went to the cigar pavilion where a TV magician I had always watched was performing LIVE in a small room. I sat in the back when I had gone alone before. Now we sat in the front. When the magician called for a volunteer the younger of the two boy cousins jumped right up and became his assisstant! Outgoing relatives and I was just the opposite. We also waited a long time to see someone named 'Carol Channing' come out of a bldg that looked like Grumman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. So long that the scene burned on my mind. My aunt wanted to see her. ("Hello Dolly")(Now I love all those old musicals and Im not even Gay!)........ ........ Back in the neighborhood my girl cousin was causing a stir. All the guys my age were around but I didn't even notice until it was pointed out to me. I had girl cousins on my mother's side whom I barely noticed but I was used to girl cousins as being the closest thing I would ever have to sisters. I never even noticed an unrelated girl as I hadn't gone into mental puberty yet. The guys' problem was obvious: for some weird reason there were no girls on our block. Only a couple guys had sosters and they were either ten years older or ten years younger. There simply were no girls around either block who were our age. My friend Dale's father came in once and said, "If I were that age I'd be on that stag line, too." And that's when I first noticed what was going on. Unlike me, she was all-athletic, flipping around on the bar holding up the metal fence of my tiny front yard. Shows what a dweeb I was at 14 that a younger girl cousin was more macho than I was. During the week the guys asked her to rank them by their 'looks' which surprised the heck out of me as I never heard anyone but Jimmy have any interest in girls and he was older than the rest of us. They also had a shot-for-shot contest punching each others shoulders. I made a lame excuse to get out of that. I had no interest in showing off for a female relative and couldn't satnd that low-IQ macho crap in the first place. .... Once, I had to go to the grocery store and when I got there she and her brothers ran out from behind a car behind me. Following me secretly. I had no idea. It was a bit creepy that anyone could do that without my suspecting it. (Weirdly, in 1972 a college girl did many of the same things) Then making a big deal about our grocery having something called 'Slim Jims' which I had never noticed nor eaten. The visitors noticed my 'Spaldeens' and referred to them as Pennsy Pinkies (I later found out that PPs were much too soft for stickball). ... They loved the way they could dial for time or weather. We have a photo of my gc sitting on my parents bed holding the phone with either her brother or me squatting on the floor. (Probably he).... The younger of the two brothers hurt himself and was afraid of the Mercurochrome as he only knew of Iodine. They worked on him in the kitchen while I stood by. (7-30-99: I have been trying for two weeks to find Mercurochrome for my father. Has it been banned???). ... I was in my room and heard my girl cousin say to her mother it was a shame I let myself look like such a mess in my JHS graduation photo. I wasn't going to tell them I had been ganged up on and bullied and tormented every day for five years until it only recently stopped and that they had deliberately ganged up on me that day just to ruin my photo. It was always all of them versus me. And I didn't even see that attack coming. I should have realized that they would even mess up a class photo the adults wanted just to embarrass me but I had not thought that even they were capable of that. ..... They left a postcard on the same chest of drawers from an older brother who referred to "Uncle Walter's little house" and I was surprised as I never considered it 'little'. Of course, I was almost always in it alone and I was a kid..... We were all next door climbing on the garbage pit bldg. It was a small white cement bldg about six/seven feet high that contained the blocks garbage cans. We'd get up behind it via the fence. The other kids had ALWAYS done it. I just learned in 1963, the year before. So I'm up there with the gc looking up at me and she can't because she has "aquaphobia". I didn't correct her (acrophobia).....Fri 7-30-99 203pm....... Mon 8-2-99 1155am: SPENT TODAY ADDING MORE LINKS. Tripod won't take long codes of Yahoo! maps!!!.... 8-2-99 932pm: I recall lying back on my bed reading while my three cousins sat on the floor at the far end doing things..... Once the three of us were walking down the long wide concrete path that wrapped around the pool partway between it and the bridge and we went to the swing park which also had the money bars and the old bathroom bldg. All that stuff is probably gone now for safety reasons. That was the same one the area kids and I played balltag on.... I had a headache one night and was laying face down in the dark on my bed. Lor came running in to try to get me to come out with everyone else and was sitting on my back but I was too sick. I was always shocked by the forwardness of other kids. My father came in to see if I was alright. ...... I dont recall taking them to the candy store or buying any comics while they were there. ...... I never once went to the pool in my life even though we lived right near it. I couldnt swim and didn't like human company. Lor went to the pool with Jimmy and I walked by and saw them there together. ....... At the Fair the Monorail always had the front engineer's seat empty as it was automatic but I never dared sit in it. But the kids went right for it...... One night we were coming back on the Flushing train to Queens Plaza and I rushed them across to what I thought was the Astoria train but we had to get off immediately as it was the one to Manhattan, not home. My aunt pointed it out so we all went downstairs to the right one.... My aunt took a photo of Lor and me at the United States Pavilion and I looked like the Straw Man I was so skinny. They just recently tore down that pavilion to put the US Tennis Stadium in its place. ...... Then came the day of the big sudden decision that changed so much for my parents and me: I was out on the front steps talking with someone. Everyone else was inside. One of the kids came out. Billy? Steve? To tell me my mother wanted me. It was THURSDAY July 16, 1964. I went through the long hall and into the apartment and into the kitchen. My mother was sitting at the kitchen table with the others and she asks me if I would like to go back with the visitors. (I started wondering whose idea that was only in the 90s). Now I had always been too timid to stray too far from my house, much less go far away from the protection of my parents. Yet for some reason I said 'yes'. That one word vastly changed my life and that of my parents. 8-2-99............ Tuesday 8-3-99: I still can't figure out why I suddenly trusted anyone enough to go off with them like that after all those years of learning to distrust everybody. At this point I should state my mindset as it existed at that time. I had been very sickly all through my childhood. I missed more school than anyone else, by far, each year. I almost died a few times. My immune system was so weak i even got things twice one was only supposed to get once. I had been terrorized by an insane teacher from the moment I moved into a strange area and different school. She taught the other kids to turn my life into a daily fearsome hell every school day from Feb 1959 until mid-1963 when it slowly tapered off until Early 1964. My sicknesses also tapered off through early 1964. But I still worried constantly and kept my guard up about both the attackers and the illnesses as I figured it could all start again any time. I had no brothers or sisters. I had the only mother on the block who worked. I did not see my parents very often. I spent many weekdays in the house all day alone and sick with my cocker spaniel while playing gamnes alone. My mother had brought me up to be an extremely moral Roman Catholic who absolutely FEARED going to Hell or Purgatory for the slightest impure thought.I had never touched a girl and had no interest in doing so. I hid in my room from the other kids as they would all eventually do something hurtful to me. I was fair game for everyone as my parents were never there to protect me and had no siblings and was too small, weak, and sickly to protect myself. I snuck off quickly to the subways, rode them alone and walked throughout Manhattan alone. I had to constantly fend off what my mother called 'homos'. I had never been away from my parents home and thus away from their protection for more than a night when they'd fight and that was terrible enough. I fanatically wanted to be an Astronomer for as long as I could remember as it was AWAY from this awful planet of violent degenerates. I wanted to someday BE something. I never thought of someday OWNING something. I OWNED more than any other kid on the block already and I would have much rather have had a parent home and to not be picked on everywhere I went. I was a BIG fan of the TV show, "The Fugitive" because, for the first time the hero was someone like me: a decent man whom everyone was attacking and who had to run and hide all the time. I had NO loyalty for my reptile generation who attacked me. I never thought in terms of "NOW" as Now was so horrible. I always thought of just holding on until the FUTURE arrived and the people who made my life miserable were gone and I'd live FAR away from NYC. My mother never let me go to Summer Camp as she feared the 'homos' who started young boys sex lives in a perverted direction. Some kids in the area came back weird and they were the ones who didnt go with siblings watching after them. Kids with siblings were much safer. I had been the best of the best in the Brooklyn school but the terrorization knocked me out of #1 even though I was still in the HIGHEST HONORS classes. I was waiting for September to start as now, with the monsters gone, I could once again be NUMBER ONE! This was to be my first enjoyable Summer since 1958 and I was going to have good times at the Fair. I was very shy, very decent, very moral, very weak, very religious, very naive, very distrustful of relatives, very trustful of relatives, very ignorant of the differences between "Only children/latch key kids" and "Big family people". I had grown tremendously in the past months. But only in height. I had the knowledge of a studious 35 year old, the new height of a 21 year old and the mind of an 11 year old when it came to comic books or girls.. My mother actually trusted my aunt with her only child for the Summer when she would never have sent me off to camp with the sexual aggressors and other weirdoes..............

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