NEW YORK CITY (1)

+ As I said in my last post, New York City is a big part of my story ... even though I have never lived there. Since I will be going to NYC this weekend, I am going to write about my connection with the Big Apple.

It begins with my earliest memories of life in the early 1950s. When I was 2, we moved from Caldwell NJ to Denville NJ. We moved into a newly constructed home with a view from the picture window in the living room which included the tops of the Manhattan skyscrapers 30 miles away. The TV transmitting antennas were on top of the Empire State Building. I think they are there now once again after the World Trade Center towers were destroyed in the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001. TV signals travel by line of sight. So we had wonderful TV reception of the New York (and Newark) channels, WCBS, WNBT, WABD, WABC, WOR, WPIX and WATV. The Giants & Yankees shared WPIX. The Dodgers were on WOR. The Giants sponsors were Knickerbocker Beer and Chesterfiedl Cigarettes, The Yankees were sponsored by Ballantine Beer, Winston Cigarettes and White Owl Cigars. The Dodgers were sponsored by Schaeffer Beer and Lucky Strike Cigarettes. Only home games were broadcast on these channels until the mid-50s. How I loved to see games form the old Polo Grounds, the old Yankee Stadium -- I always cheered for the away team! -- and the old Ebbets Field -- I always cheered for the away team against the Dodgers, too! The Giants were definitely my favorite team. They had Willie Mays. They won the 1954 World Series but I was too young to appreciate it at the time. I got to see the famous basket catch of Mays and many other great plays in newsreels during rain delays in 1955, 1956 and 1957. Those were the last 3 years that the Giants and Dodgers were located in New York. The Yankees dominated Baseball during the 1950s but the Dodgers finally beat them in 1955. The Giants lost to the Yankees in 1951. They beat the Indians in 1954. The Yankees won in 1950,51,52,53,56 and 58. They were defeated by Hank Aaron and the Milwaukee Braves in 1957. Don Larsen pitched his famous perfect game against the Dodgers in 1956.

Many believe that Baseball was invented in New York City. Many believe that the first game which can be called Baseball was played by two NYC teams, the Nine and the Knickerbockers, in 1846 across the river in Hoboken at the Elysian Fields.

It's not only Baseball that connected me to New York City. My mom and dad were both born there. My mother, born in 1906, was raised by Norwegian-American parents in the Bronx. She went to NYC public schools including Morris High School which was later the school where Colin Powell went and then my brother-in-law. The Bronx neighborhood was multi-cultural and my mom got quite an education there.

I loved taking the train to New York City. We could go from Dover or Denville or Morris Plains on the Morris and Essex Division of the Lackawanna Railroad. An electric train left Dover at least every hour during the day. On many occasions, my mom would leave me at the Dover station while she did errands. I could also go to the top of the hill behind my house and see the trains go by at a distance. I was simply fascinated by them. The Morris and Essex ends up in Hoboken. Commuters would then go into Manhattan either by ferry or on the Hudson Tube (later called PATH for Port Authority Trans Hudson and now called something else I think). Today the Morris and Essex trains are operated by New Jersey Transit and they go right into Penn Station on what used to be the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks.

So, two of my geat loves, Baseball and Trains are connected closely to New York City.

A much greater love, my wife Mary, lived in Manhattan for 3 years, 1965-1968. During those years, I visited NYC frequently.

We were married in 1969. We made our first home in another great city, Boston.

Perhaps I will come back to this post and put in some links. Stay tuned!

TO BE CONTINUED