Post Office Philosopher

Recently two of my out-of-town friends had birthdays and as both are serious readers I thought they’d enjoy a good book I had just read. So I bought two more copies,  wrapped each for mailing,  and headed for the post office where I found John my favorite postal guy behind the counter. “I’ll send them book rate.”  he said putting the first one on the scale.  “It’ll be $4.95.”  And so I took out a $10 bill to cover the anticipated postage for two. Then John put the second book...

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Educator of the Year – Remembering Milton

I wasn’t on the faculty at Jane Addams High School for long when I realized there was something special about Milton. Milt’s job description was Stockman and his office was in the school’s basement and was lined with shelves holding reams of paper,   school stationery,   notebooks,  folders,  boxes of pencils and pens,  printed forms,  and a myriad of other school supplies.   And standing along one wall were two large,  heavy-duty photocopy...

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A Glass Menagerie from the Five and Dime

When I was a kid there were two stores in our Bronx neighborhood we called the “five-and-dimes”.   One was Woolworth which of course is a national chain,  and the other was Fishers which I think was just a local store.  Yet to my child’s sensibility they were both grand emporiums selling priceless treasures,  and I remember shopping there with my grandmother. She and my grandfather lived about an hour away by car in Far Rockaway and of course we’d often visit back and forth.  But...

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Skate Key

Home from school,  a hurried snack,  bread with both sides buttered,  chocolate milk,  an apple offered but rudely refused.  (“Don’t be fresh,  young lady.”) Skates strapped over shoes,  no purse,  no house key,  no hanky,  just a skate key on a ribbon around her neck,  then out the door.  (”Be careful.”) Down the block,  wind in her hair to Susy’s house,  a snack offered,  now politely refused,  and out again.  (“Be careful girls!”) Now two wild skaters with...

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Rye Playland

Growing up in the Bronx our nearest amusement park was Rye Playland,  located on Long Island Sound north of the city in Westchester County. As a kid I was often taken there by my parents,  but my memories of those childhood trips are vague.  As a teenager however,  I remember Rye as a favorite summer destination. On balmy nights the guys in our crowd who’d recently gotten their licenses and had been entrusted with the keys to the family car,  would drive us up there – usually with...

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