Category: Uncategorized

I’m not even going to share my own recollections of the day four years ago – maybe next year, on the fifth anniversary. Today, I’m just going to share tales of a couple friends of mine:

An Albany friend of mine took a train to NYC that morning. She had an appointment in one of the outer boroughs. But when she heard about the attacks, she didn’t even bother to try to call the client; she probably wouldn’t have gotten through, in any case. Instead, she took the very next train back to Albany at 9:30, just before the authorities decided to stop rail transportation out of the city. That proved to be a very sage decision, since it was likely the LAST train to leave the city for several days.
***
Subject: Where is your office?
Are you OK?
ROG

Hi. It’s Thursday morning. I was about to board a Jet Blue plane at JFK when I called my friend. Her father had died Monday night after a long hospiitalization and while we were on the phone at 8:45 she saw the hit on tv and conveyed it to me. I informed the people around me what she was telling me. They had us board the plane and another person informed us of the 2nd hit as we were boarding. After 5 minutes on the plane they cancelled our flight and asked us to disembark.

I got out of the airport as quickly as possible at about 9:30 expecting to stand in an impossibly long taxi line. I remarkably was only 5th in line and got a cab right away. We took choked local streets back to my house in Brooklyn, saw the horror of the towers in flames, watched the first one go down and heard on the radio that the Pentagon was also hit and that #2 WTC went down.

Once we entered my neighborhood at about 10:45AM, the once clear blue sky turned to a white and grey cloud of falling ash. It looked like a snowy winter day for a couple of hours as the debris descended and again later in the day when #7 WTC fell. The toxic acrid smell in the air is undescribable. I hesitate to think that the ash that fell from the sky could have been cremated human remains and the odor in the air like that of a crematorium.

My building is directly south of Governor’s Island, one block from Pier 7 and as the crow flies, probably a mile from what was the WTC. I used to be able to see the top of the WTC that had the tv antennas on it from my apartment windows. Needless to say I was relieved and grateful to be home and that I hadn’t been en route to my office in Manhattan when usually at 9:15-9:30AM, I would have been on a subway that goes underneath WTC. It was difficult getting out word of my safety to my family because of the choked phone lines.

The telephone repair guy was the second one. I was defiant. Nope, “Mine,” I pointed.

The third time, my attitude was pretty matter-of-fact, as I caught a supposedly tethered baby unleashed while we were sitting at a concert in Washington Park. The guy said, “Thanks, gramps.” He assumed, as the others did, that my child was my grandchild. It is, if I’m being rational about it, understandable. I was 51 when I had Lydia. My father was 52 when my sister Leslie had her daughter Becky.

1. Are your grandparents still on this plane of existence? If not, when did the last one pass away?

2. Who was/is your favorite, and why?

Another time I was walking along State Street near Washington Park. This man was walking to an address on State Street, but he was very confused because State Street seemed to end. “Go over to Western Avenue, go two blocks, turn right a block, and you’ll find State Street starts again.”

Wha?

Albany is an old city. Its roots run back to a voyage by Henry Hudson in 1609. It was incorporated in 1686. Thus, a lot of the streets are not exactly parallel.
For instance, start at the bottom of the hill at State Street and Broadway. Get to the top of the hill, pass to the right of the Capitol (where the traffic pattern suggests) and suddenly, you’re on Washington Avenue. Where did State Street go? To the left of the Capitol on a one-way street, going the way opposite the numbering.

OK. Get to Lark Street. The bulk of the traffic seems to be going at 1 o’clock, and that continues to be Route 5. But that’s not Washington Avenue, that’s Central Avenue. No, stay straight in one of the worst-designed intersections in any city. Go about three blocks to the firehouse. Go straight and you’re suddenly on Western Avenue. Where did Washington Avenue go? You should have veered right.

In the opposite direction, Western and Madison Avenue do a divergence, with Route 20 suddenly moving from the former to the latter. New Scotland Avenue is an interesting street that is perpendicular to Madison Avenue at one point, and parallel a few blocks later.

The situation is made worse by development over the years. The creation of the Empire State Plaza, Washington Park, Albany High School at its current location, and the UAlbany uptown campus mean that there are MANY streets that start and stop and start again. An example: Hudson Avenue. It starts at Broadway and ends with the Empire State Plaza, built in the 1960s. It starts again on the other side of the plaza and ends at the park. There’s another segment between the high school and Allen Street. Thee are lots of examples of that. One would think this must be a police/fire department nightmare.

Subsequently, I found that practically EVERYONE I read was doing the SAME THING. But I decided to post it anyway because NONE OF THEM GRADUATED IN 1971.

I decided to * the ones I like, # the ones I hate and italicize my favorite. Do nothing to the ones I don’t remember (or don’t care about). Just to be contrary, and because the page is bolded already.

Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep by Mac and Katie Kissoon? How DID I miss that song?

Top 100 Hits of 1971 / Top 100 Songs of 1971
1. Joy To The World, Three Dog Night (overplayed)
2*. Maggie May / (Find A) Reason To Believe, Rod Stewart
3*. It’s Too Late / I Feel The Earth Move, Carole King
4. One Bad Apple, Osmonds
5*. How Can You Mend A Broken Heart, Bee Gees
6. Indian Reservation, Raiders
7#. Go Away Little Girl, Donny Osmond
8. Take Me Home, Country Roads, John Denver
9*. Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me), Temptations
10. Knock Three Times, Dawn
11*. Me And Bobby McGee, Janis Joplin
12*. Tired Of Being Alone, Al Green
13*. Want Ads, Honey Cone
14*. Smiling Faces Sometimes, Undisputed Truth
15. Treat Her Like A Lady, Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose
16*. You’ve Got A Friend, James Taylor
17*. Mr. Big Stuff, Jean Knight
18*. Brown Sugar, Rolling Stones
19*. Do You Know What I Mean, Lee Michaels
20. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, Joan Baez
21*. What’s Going On, Marvin Gaye
22*. Uncle Albert-Admiral Halsey, Paul McCartney
23*. Ain’t No Sunshine, Bill Withers
24*. Signs, Five Man Electrical Band
25. She’s A Lady, Tom Jones
26*. Superstar, Murray Head and The Trinidad Singers
27. I Found Someone Of My Own, Free Movement
28. Amos Moses, Jerry Reed
29*. Temptation Eyes, The Grass Roots
30. Superstar, Carpenters
31*. My Sweet Lord / Isn’t It A Pity, George Harrison
32. Sweet And Innocent, Donny Osmond
33. Put Your Hand In The Hand, Ocean
34. Chick-a-boom, Daddy Dewdrop
35*. For All We Know, Carpenters
36. Help Me Make It Through The Night, Sammi Smith
37*. Rainy Days And Mondays, Carpenters
38*. If You Could Read My Mind, Gordon Lightfoot
39*. Gypsy, Tramps And Thieves, Cher
40*. Never Can Say Goodbye, Jackson 5
41. Rose Garden, Lynn Anderson
42. Don’t Pull Your Love, Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds
43*. It Don’t Come Easy, Ringo Starr
44. Mr. Bojangles, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
45. I Love You For All Seasons, Fuzz
46*. Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get, Dramatics
47*. That’s The Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be, Carly Simon
48*. If You Really Love Me, Stevie Wonder
49*. Spanish Harlem, Aretha Franklin
50. I Don’t Know How To Love Him, Helen Reddy
51. Yo-yo, Osmonds
52*. Bridge Over Troubled Water, Aretha Franklin
53. Doesn’t Somebody Want To Be Wanted, Partridge Family
54*. Draggin’ The Line, Tommy James
55*. Proud Mary, Ike and Tina Turner
56*. Beginnings / Colour My World, Chicago (more for Beginnings)
57. Stay Awhile, Bells
58*. Sweet City Woman, Stampeders
59. Me And You And A Dog Named Boo, Lobo
60. Another Day / Oh Woman, Oh Why, Paul McCartney
61. If, Bread
62*. Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology), Marvin Gaye
63*. One Toke Over The Line, Brewer and Shipley
64. She’s Not Just Another Woman, 8th Day
65. Bring The Boys Home, Freda Payne
66*. I Just Want To Celebrate, Rare Earth
67. Never Ending Song Of Love, Delaney and Bonnie and Friends
68. Easy Loving, Freddy Hart
69*. Liar, Three Dog Night
70. Stick-up, Honey Cone
71. Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep, Mac and Katie Kissoon
72. Love Story (Where Do I Begin), Andy Williams
73*. Wild World, Cat Stevens
74. When You’re Hot, You’re Hot, Jerry Reed
75*. Funky Nassau, Beginning Of The End
76. If Not For You, Olivia Newton-John
77*. Groove Me, King Floyd
78#. Watching Scotty Grow, Bobby Goldsboro
79*. Woodstock, Matthews’ Southern Comfort
80*. Amazing Grace, Judy Collins
81*. I Hear You Knocking, Dave Edmunds
82*. Lonely Days, Bee Gees
83*. Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again, Fortunes
84*. Won’t Get Fooled Again, Who
85. Trapped By A Thing Called Love, Denise Lasalle
86*. Mama’s Pearl, Jackson 5
87. Timothy, Buoys
88. I Woke Up In Love This Morning, Partridge Family
89*. Theme From “Shaft”, Isaac Hayes
90*. If I Were Your Woman, Gladys Knight and The Pips
91*. I Am…I Said, Neil Diamond
92*. Wedding Song (There Is Love), Paul Stookey
93. Don’t Knock My Love, Pt. 1, Wilson Pickett
94*. Love Her Madly, The Doors
95*. Here Comes The Sun, Richie Havens
96. Sweet Mary, Wadsworth Mansion
97. Right On The Tip Of My Tongue, Brenda and The Tabulations
98*. One Less Bell To Answer, Fifth Dimension
99*. Riders On The Storm, The Doors
100. It’s Impossible, Perry Como