"Those were the days, my friend, we thought they'd never end!"

.....It's time to continue with Robin's interviews with the family about their observations and remembrances about the olden days.  This one from Robin's step-granddad is about the Williamsburg Bridge in New York and how news got around about elections in those days before 1911--a 100 years ago.

.....1903 the Williamsburg Bridge was built...and they had a celebration on opening night.  And President Teddy Roosevelt was president then, and they shown pictures of him on the water; there's a reflection from these cameras, which was beautiful.  I haven't remembered seeing anything like it.  And that was a celebration of the Williamsburg Bridge.

.....They had a different way of reporting the election those days.  They didn't have any radio and they didn't have any television, so the only way they could bring back the results which took plenty o' time, they didn't have any of the methods to bring results like they do now, in wonderland, y'know, world o' wonders now with all the equipment .  And they'd have a big screen at a popular location in the city--several places.  And to celebrate the election, they would burn big bon-fires, and they'd put , anybody that had an old couch or an old chair, and they'd heap it high.  And you could see blazes all over the city.  And then when the election returns came in, if you was interested in a certain man that was running for mayor and all those offices, you found out what it was, see, and that's how they used to celebrate an election.

.....And even the transportation in those days was different; for 3 cents you could ride from one side of the East River to the other, by ferry--3 cents.  And the horses and wagons and trucks, y'know, sugar trucks, they had a section down by the river, refineries and all.  It was a busy, real busy thing.  And I can even hear the horses, when they docked, and the horses would, heavy horses, y'know, like the Anheuser Busch you'd see on television.  And they would go clok, clok, clok, clok and then when the cobblestones, there were cobblestones then, and they would make a different sound, it was really a sight t' see.  And something t' hear, those trucks coming off and all that.

.....Well, Baron hopes you have all learned a little history right from the horse's ...er...Mike Kallman's mouth.  It's a little weird knowing that he was there when Teddy Roosevelt was President, and I was there when Franklin Roosevelt was President.  Would they were here now--as a tandem.  And what would they both do about the Middle East, about the budget, about the recession, about Sarah Palin?  Gee, I hope she runs for president.  What fun!

Can't dunk, can't hit a homer, can't throw a touchdown pass, but I can coach, write, and perform.

.....Hi Viking stars: How about Samantha Nadel the brightest new star at NSHS!  She has her picture and a blurb in February SPORTS ILLUSTRATED.  She won the girls' mile at the Millrose Games in 4:50.58, the third best time in the meet's history.  Two weeks earlier she ran a 9:41.36 in the 3000 meters, the fastest time in the NATION.  In November she led the Vikings to the Class A cross-country title, the school's first state championship!  God! I wish she was around when I was coaching.  And she's only a junior; imagine what she will do in her senior year!  How do you account for a girl coming along with her talent for running--a once in a lifetime occurrence?  A girl who runs a race with the fastest time in America?  It's exciting and amazing.  I can't wait to hear what she does next year.  I trust that her coach will enter her in all the National high school events.  I'm not really jealous of his success with her; he's no doubt a fine coach.  But I've had my own success with a mile relay team who won the Nassau County championship and this also qualified them to run in the Millrose games.  Anyone interested, can watch the race on UTube.  My "four horsemen" were Bobby Marsden, Barry Meyer, Chuck Hendrickson, and Bill Sherwood.  We are still in touch with each other even though they are already approaching 60!

.....Speaking of North Shore H.S. students, I met Bob Fox for lunch today.  Bob was a kind of scrawny kid when I first met him; he played on the soccer team, and he played pretty well; he was not an academic star, but he is now.  He has had a great teaching career, and just recently retired.  He is here in Florida with his wife for a few weeks, and claims that retirement involves a lot of work.  How right he is.  We spent a couple of hours at the table--mostly talking about students that I knew from his graduating class. If he's retired you can assume that he is a "senior" now--but not the high school kind.  He indicated that he and his wife would like to come to the show that I will be in.  I'm no longer in one of the leading roles and do not wish to be.  I sing one tune, and that's it.

.....This blog keeps on growing and I don't know what to do about it.  I already have nine books of the blog published dating from August 2007.  I don't expect anyone to buy a single book--but for someone who hasn't read this blog, I truly believe that any one of the books would be very interesting reading--especially the comments that follow a posting, like dessert on a menu.  I might as well keep preserving this venture in published books.  It doesn't cost me a dime to have a book printed in either paperback or hard cover.  But why should anyone buy a book when they could go all the way back to 2007 and read the blog on the internet for nothing.  But they would have a helluva lot of catching up to do...more than 2000 pages.

"Don't grow old along with me--the worst is yet to be." (Apologies to Rabbi Ben Ezra and Browning)

.....Susan Jacoby's book "Never Say Die" is a call for boomers to look at what she (65) calls, "real old age, as opposed to fantasyland."  It's a kind of a balloon buster to the belief among the younger set that if you work out often enough, watch your weight, and stay stressless, you'll "practically live forever."  Scholar Jacoby writes, "...We need to face reality...that by the time men and women reach their eighties and nineties, not the best--but the worst years of their lives generally lie ahead."  It's like Burns writes in "To a Mouse,"  "....mousie, thou art blessed compared wi' me, the present only toucheth thee...but forward, tho' I canna' see, I guess and fear." Ms.Jacoby goes on to claim that anyone who lives beyond 85 has a 50-50 chance of winding up in a nursing home.  RH+ keeps telling me that when she's gone, I'll wind up in a nursing home.  NO WAY!  I refuse to be nursed.  And, by the way, the chances of her going before me are astronomical since I'm 14 years older than she is, and her car is 10 years younger  than mine.


.....But that's not the worst of it.  Jacoby goes on to say that the Beyond 85s Club, (of  which I am a member), has a 50% chance of developing dementia.  I'm not too happy about that idea--not so much that I might be demented, but that my blog will be very difficult for people to read.  They will have to figure out what I'm trying to say.  But I have no doubt that Phil, and Ruthie, and Bob Fox, JR, and any other Ph.Ds will have no difficulties in translating my dementianess into modern English if they work together as does our Congress. (Am I making sense here? Or are things getting out of control?)  Well, the truth is that I am approaching 87 at the end of this month.  I only wish that my mother had waited two more days so that I could have been born on Leap Year.  In that case, like Rafe Rackstraw (born on Leap Year) in "HMS Pinafore", inasmuch as I would have had only 21 birthdays since 1924, I would currently be only "a little boy of 21" who only has to look forward to getting laid.