Mini, or "Brief," Bio

I like the site, "Memories of College Point," and I just gave them a "mini" bio. For the benefit of all the College Pointers among my fans I'll include it here too. Remember, lawyers are people who can write fifty pages about something and call it a "brief."

I was born in August, 1948 and lived in Rosedale, just outside of JFK Airport, for a year. We moved to 119th street and 12th avenue in the summer of 1949. Pre-school I hung out either on 119th street or 118th street.

I went to Saint Fidelis, I was a winter start, after Christmas 1953 I think. I was younger than most of the other children. I went to the CYO summer school a couple of years, and spent a lot of time at the PS 27 “summer school” playing Knock-Hockey and stick and stoop ball, some softball. I took the bus rides to a couple of ball games with that summer school too. At one I’m pretty sure we saw Yogi Berra hit four homeruns in a game, we were in the bleachers. I graduated in June, 1961 and went to Holy Cross.

In the St. Fidelis years I got around CP quite a bit, we had bikes and were free to roam around. I visited my school friends all around town. I played Little League, first with the Savio team and then with the Ravens, Charlie Calmus was the catcher/captain. I lived near enough to Chisolm’s Park to be there almost all the time, year after year of pick-up baseball games and shenanigans. We all climbed trees a lot. Summers I remember hanging around in the bushes watching the teenagers drink beer at Ripley’s Beach. I fished at the park, caught a lot of eels, gave them to Doc Winkler, he liked to eat eel, he taught me to fish. I was in the St. Fidelis Majestic Knights marching band when I was in St. Solangia’s class. I bowled in the league at the College Lanes for a couple of years. I went to all those Kid’s Special Saturday morning movies at the College Theatre.

We had a lot of freedom then. I went after bowling with a lot of other eleven and twelve year olds to the Museum of Natural History, a couple of trips like that. We went down to Manhattan for the St. Patrick’s day parade and then ran around loose, amazed by Times Square, as high-schoolers we loved to eat at Tad’s Steak House, which was I think $1.59 for a steak dinner at the time. We knew where the Ferrari dealer was and went over to sit in the cars. I saw ball games at Ebbitt’s Field and the Polo Grounds, the Giants and the Mets up there.

I went to dances at St. Paul’s, PS 27 and St. Fidelis (Sodality Dances). I worked three summers at Belock Instrument during high school.

1963 to 65 I hung around mostly at 7th avenue and 124th street. Ronnie Barrett and Jimmy ? had cars early. Me and Barrett went to that neighborhood because Teddy Bullock told us there were lots of cute girls there, I ended up marrying one. Bob Kretschmann is the best friend that I’ve ever had. Steve Candelliri I met the first week he was in town, we always got along. During this time I risked my life on a regular basis driving around with Freddie Maul, who was always a blast to hang around with. I knew the guys in the Dominants, the Imperials, the Renaissance, and the Shifters (they never worked, Frankie Priore, Billy Booth, I forget who else).

After that I hung with band guys, the Others, Stuff, Backstreet Blues Band. I was in the Navy for a while, they gave me an early Honorable Discharge for having “no military bearing.” In 1969 I got married to Ann Suppe at St. Fidelis, with a reception at the VFW. We lived in Larry Kunst’s family’s place on 130th street and 20th avenue, then moved to Flushing, and in 1975 we went to Los Angeles. We’re still married, and we have a house there since 1978. Ann and I both eventually graduated from Queens College, she in 1974 and me in 1985.