Sunday, March 15, 2015

Things You Make Inside A New York City Apartment

"Bob, clean the table off, we're gonna eat in five minutes."

It's 1939 inside 2S at 1582 York Avenue, Bob (Dad), 10, took his art stuff to the front room facing the avenue inside the railroad apartment. On the linoleum floor he laid out his paper, crayons, pencils and the metal sharpener his Uncle Joe gave him. Uncle Joe worked in the newspaper business and sometimes brought home supplies for the kid. Bob sat cross legged and restarted his sketch of a tree while ignoring his mother's order to, "Get in here and eat!" He had to draw those leaves just right.

I miss my father's curiosity and his ability to make something out of nothing. Wherever he was he find a tiny space for his studio.

In 1957 in our small place at 517 East 83rd Street, he took over one corner near the window in our so-called living room immediately starting a new war with my neat freak mother. Things he made there continue to fascinate, inspire and please me. "There is always something to do, something to make," my favorite lesson from Dad; a Yorkville man to the day he died.

If you enjoy my work, check out my memoir, "I Hate the Dallas Cowboys - tales of a scrappy New York boyhood," it's available at Logos Bookstore, 1575 York Avenue, or buy it online at Amazon, Barnes and Noble or other booksellers. If you do read it, please leave a few honest words about the book on Amazon and B&N. Thank you.


Pictured above is a 1939 grammar school Honor Roll from the Yorkville Advance newspaper; and below are pieces of art Dad made in our 83rd Street apartment (the dollhouse was finished in our Sunnyside home) and Dad and me on the Drive in 1956 inside Carl Schurz Park. 





No comments: