"On Three, Make a Stupid Face" ~ Freedomland 1962

“OK, go stand against the wall.” Dad said.

“Oh God, another friggin picture.” Mom mumbled down towards the top of Rory and my head.

We just stepped off the Lexington Avenue local at the end of the line: the Pelham Bay Park El subway stop. With his Yashica 44 camera hanging from his neck, Dad was gathering us for our first group shot before the train we got off, pulled out. On our way to Freedomland, the terrific new amusement park in the north Bronx, Dad thought he'd capture every step of the way. Every step. The three of us took a vote and Dad won “biggest pain in the ass of all time,” and we didn’t even get to the ticket booth yet.

“No, no, Tommy on the left, Patty, you in the middle, Rory on the right.” Dad said.

“I want to be in the middle!”

“Rory, be quiet.”

After the three of us were placed in dog show positions, Dad said, “Hold still, and smile when I count to three.”

Mom said through her tight lips,”On three, make a stupid face.”

“One, two… three!”

And here it is. The most revealing photo in my family history. Mom and I in cahoots make stupid faces, Rory is still pissed off at Dad for not letting him stand in the middle.

Because we ruined Dad’s photo, he walked ahead of us and didn’t talk to us for an hour. Which was just fine with Rory, since he was always mad at Dad, and vice versa. Mom was thrilled she pushed Dad’s button. My stomach hurt from being caught in the middle.

************************************

Two events coming up: I'm reading at "Mr. Beller's Neighborhood Reading Series" on Friday, May 27th @ 8pm @ Happy Ending Lounge on Broome Street **** our next "City Stories: Stoops to Nuts Storytelling show" @ Cornelia Street Cafe @ Tuesday, June 14th @ 6pm. Details to follow on both events.

Beck's Bolero

Middle of 1969, my freshman year of high school at LaSalle Academy on the Lower East Side, I heard Beck's Bolero for the first time and lost it, literally lost it. When this song came on a radio, I'd stop whatever I was doing and move to the speaker source like a wayward space craft being magnetically pulled into the mother ship.

This instrumental tune off Jeff Beck's album, Truth shook my core. It featured Beck, Jimmy Page, Nicky Hopkins, John Paul Jones, and Keith Moon on drums. Moon snuck into the recording studio to avoid pissing off Pete Townshend. This Lp album, including my favorite versions of Shape of Things and Morning Dew, triggered the most stringent money saving effort in my life. I needed to hear this music the way it needed to be heard. Loud and clear. Working 30 hour weeks after school and Saturdays for three months, I earned $350 delivering groceries at Daitch Shopwell, allowing me to buy a high end Lafayette stereo receiver and a pair of Criterion 100s, Lafayette's best speakers. I bought the gear at the Lafayette store on 87th Street & Lexington Avenue. I usually got thrown out of the store for not buying nothing, so it was odd to be there with lots of money, ready to spend, and the staff was ignoring my friend, Ekis and me. To attract attention we began to play Saluggi with a portable record player. This immediately brought the sales help we sought.

I timed my purchase to coincide with an evening I'd have our family apartment to myself until 11pm. I got in the house at 7pm. I wired the speakers to the receiver and the receiver to my low end Garrard turntable. I laid the speakers on the floor facing each other two feet apart, I lowered the needle onto Beck's Bolero, I turn the volume knob up three quarters, I laid on the floor with my head in between both speakers pointed towards my ears. When the song started I had two thoughts: this was bliss & a firm belief that my decision to keep the volume at 75 percent was a prudent choice preventing me from blowing the speakers out on their first use. The deep bass vibrations rattled the bedroom window panes like a train hurtling along an imaginary El outside.

.

Beck's Bolero:

.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmO0OZC6Ifk

.

.