About Me

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My wife Toni and I live in the beautiful Catskill mountains, where we love to spend time with family & friends. I enjoy working in the gardens,reading, hanging out at the lake and enjoying the bounty of our lives. In 2007 I started my own business and named it after our dog Spencer. "Life's been good to me so far"

Friday, October 15, 2010

Woodstock Museum

A couple of weekends ago,we finally made a trip to the Bethel Woods Museum. We went with our friends Jackie & Lew Marchant.The museum contains some great historical memorabilia from the 1969 concert and the 1960's. It brought back so many  great memories.



Toni & Jackie
 



Toni and the Hippie Bus. Inside they run  a movie about the concert
  

We ran into our friends Marlene & Bambi along with Marion Caine who I haven't seen in over 30 years. Marion was married to our great friend Mike Caine


Toni, Jackie & Lew







They have this cool thing at the museum. The museum is doing an oral history of the original 1969 concert You go into a booth whereyou can record your verbal memories. I made a one minute recording and then they take your picture. If you go to the museum you can enter my name on their database and you'll hear my story. Next time we go I want to listen to other people's recordings.
I listened to my Woodstock "date" Cathy Longo's recollections. This is the picture of Cathy in their database..


This photo is from the exhibit and that's how I really remember it. Someday I hope to find a photo of Cathy & me at the concert. I keep looking but so far, no luck.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Me & Cousin Brucie

So I was pretty excited last week. There were signs all over Wurtsboro about a rock & roll party with Cousin Brucie at a campground near Wurtsboro on Saturday night. The sign said the party was a fund raiser with prizes and free food.
 Not to brag, but Cousin Brucie and I go way back. In 1964 I  listened to him  on WABC AM radio, on a red Channel Masters transistor radio, the kind with the one ear plug. When the Beatles burst on the scene they changed the name of the radio station to WABeatleC. In 1965 I waited in line for two hours at Schlesinger's Dept. Store, with my best friend Jacob Reicen, to see Cousin Brucie. He gave us both   genuine Beatle Belts, just like the ones the Beatles actually wore.

So I wanted to reminisce with Brucie about our last meeting, and to tell him that my friend Gloria Taylor used to trick or treat at his house, my wife Toni used to cut cold cuts for his wife and mother-in-law and that my friend Ray used to be his mail carrier! We had a lot to talk about. I brought along my camera so I could get some pictures of Brucie & me.We talked our good friend Mary into coming with us to meet Brucie. Mary got dressed up and Toni  even shaved her legs!

It took a while to find the right place. We drove for miles on a very dark, deserted road. Just when we thought we'd have to give up, we saw this car parked along the road. We knew this was it!

The sign outside the party room


We walked into the party room and we saw some people, but we only knew one elderly couple. There was  a lot of  "interesting" food on a table and I could see some of the of the people were wondering who we were. Well, I can tell you people who we are, we are Cousin Brucie fans! People were bringing in pots of food and Hispanic kids were running around wild. There were prizes on a table. Brucie hadn't arrived yet and the room seemed kind of small. I wondered where Brucie would set up his DJ equipment.


The place was a little shabby and the only bathroom was outside. I hoped Brucie didn't have to go.


Mary got so excited she had to use the gross port a potty


Finally the big moment arrived. The owner of the park,which I later discovered was really a trailer park, thanked everyone for coming.  The proceeds from the raffle would partly go to Brucie's charity and the rest of the money would go to feed the wild cats who lived in the park all winter. Huh, shouldn't they be trapped and fixed instead of fed?, No matter.

He then made the announcement it was Cousin Brucie time. I got my camera ready and the emcee went to the corner of the room  and TURNED ON THE RADIO. No Brucie just his Sirius radio show. Oops!

Mary & Toni didn't believe me when I told them Brucie wasn't coming. Brucie wasn't coming to this god forsaken place and he never would. The party was the trailer park's fund raiser to feed the mangy, feral cats and the entertainment was Brucie's radio show.The people at the party all lived in the trailer park, they had cooked their own food for a pot luck dinner and we were in their camp's rec. room.
We made a hasty exit  before someone asked who we were and what were we doing there eating their food.

Let's get out of here!
We drove to to the Quickway diner in Bloomingburg, where Mary & Toni told everyone what an idiot I was. Someone said since Brucie wasn't there I should have had my picture taken with my arm around the radio.
Now I see people snickering in town as I walk by. I guess the story is making the rounds of town.There's a moral/lesson here and as soon as I figure it out I will let you know. But I'm not giving up, one day Cousin Brucie and I will get some quality time together and we will  talk about my ABeatleC belt. ( Which I lost ) and we will remember the good times.