"Flying Shoes" ( LaSalle Academy, 1968)

Brother James Gully, Homeroom/English teacher 1968/69

In September 1968, during my first week as a freshman at LaSalle Academy in the East Village, Brother James Gully was teaching us English in Room 406 at 44 East 2nd Street. We were reading “A Tale of Two Cities” and it was hot. I was sweating at my desk in the window row, which looked out onto the New York City Marble Cemetery, when something started stinking awful. I looked down and there was a pair of gigantic loafers that belonged to the kid sitting in front of me. I didn’t know his name yet, but he was a tall black kid with a serious face who was telling everybody who would listen that he was good at basketball. I thought he had a real puss on, plus his feet smelled horrible. I leaned forward and whispered loudly, "Put your shoes back on."

He shrugged and ignored me.

"Put ‘em on!"

Trying not to get Brother James’s attention, I whacked him in the shoulder. Dismissing my suggestion, he turned around and told me to go do something to myself I wasn't capable of doing."OK, that’s fine," I said, and reached down and flung both shoes into the cemetery.

Day after Jets Super Bowl. I'm now sitting against blackboard. 

That's the day Robert Gumbs and I were formally introduced. We both got punished and he stared at me during detention like a bull studying the matador before his rush. Starting the next day, he chased me between classes for two weeks. I was very fast. After school he'd wait for me on one side of the building and I'd go into a classroom and look out the window and see him and run out the other side. By the time he caught me, I had exhausted him. I don't think I was in that headlock for more than five minutes.

All photos here are courtesy of Patrick Cullinan

If you enjoy my stories please  check out my memoir, "I Hate the Dallas Cowboys - tales of a scrappy New York boyhood." Available at Logos Book Store or online at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

The book has 108 Amazon five star reviews out of 108 total reviews posted. We're pitching a perfect game. My old world echoes TV's "The Wonder Years" ~ just add taverns, subways and Checker cabs. You can also purchase my photography portfolio, "River to River - New York Scenes From a Bicycle" on Amazon.

Br. James

Br. James pointing at Gumbs.  Sandella looks on with his mouth open.

Robert Gumbs

LaSalle Rally

The man

He was a great teacher

Nuts, lovable & capable of swift violence when you played the idiot too long

The Yorkville Stable Ghost on 76th Street

On 76th Street between York & First Avenue, there's a reminder that 100 years ago, four legged animals ruled the roadways. Maybe most were horses, donkeys and mules, but that doesn't stop the Impala there now from jumping over the clouds.

Here are a few pictures of the Impala on 76th Street along with Carl Schurz Park photos and a cool car on Broome Street and Dummies on Bleecker Street.

It's June in New York, you will see it all, if you look.

I entered this photograph of the fountain in front of the Plaza Hotel in a contest at a site call Trazzler. If you like the photo could you please vote "like" for it at the link below and leave a comment.

thank you, Tommy

"Crossing Fifth Avenue, I saw the classic statue in the fountain in front of The Plaza Hotel next to Central Park. The air was still wet from the rain that had stopped a moment before. I couldn't get the Moody Blues lyric "giving freely, and completely, to my lady" out of my head as I watched the statue make a soft bow to the old hotel."

http://www.trazzler.com/trips/plaza-hotel-in-new-york-ny-1

Twilight on Orchard Street

Walked down Orchard Street last night on my way to Broome Street for a reading. Lazy holiday light hung over the Lower Eastside at 7:45pm.

LaSalle Forever

LaSalle Academy, the Christian Brothers led boy's high school has been on East 2nd Street since 1856. This month LaSalle closed it's doors.
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Due to fiscal realities, LaSalle, an East Village historical custodian, long termed leased their 44 East 2nd Street building to another educational organization and will move it's school operations to space in St. George Ukrainian Catholic School on Sixth Street. A sad day for teachers, students, alumni teachers and students, and friends of the school. Things change, but fortunately there are intuitive generous people who salvage and preserve for the good of everyone.
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Patrick Cullinan, former LaSalle teacher, made a record, and what a record it is. Between 1968 and 1973, Pat took thousands of photographs of school life on the premises and around the East Village that is the equal of any such work about the Lower East Side & a New York City neighborhood during this rich, complex time in our country's history.
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All these photos are yours to view at Pat's link below. In addition, Pat visited the school yesterday for one last time, and took over 700 pictures inside and outside the school. One last walk along the halls, one last kick at the locker imagining it was the head of that pain in the ass kid in Geometry.
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Here are links to Pat's LaSalle photos. Thank you, Pat.
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LaSalle 1968 ~ 1973
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http://pcullinan.smugmug.com/
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LaSalle ~ final day before turnover ~ June 23, 2010
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http://pcullinan.smugmug.com/gallery/12677537_L8x3F#911921986_utWpk
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Pat Cullinan's 1968-1973 Photos & The Babe in Right Field in 1928

Patrick Cullinan, my LaSalle Academy Geometry teacher,created an amazing catalogue of photographs that captured LaSalle life between 1968 and 1973.
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In addition to the LaSalle photos, Pat took tons of pictures of the Lower East Side and other New York City neighborhoods. You can see all the photos at the link below including recent shots of Papaya King on 86th Street taken this past month. I owe Pat, much ~ he is one of the most interesting, knowledgeable and funny mentors I've had in my life and a stupendous photographer (Click on photos to open).
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If you ever stepped into a Catholic classroom, or wondered what else was going in the East Village in the late 60s besides sex, drugs and rock & roll take a look at Pat's photos.

http://pcullinan.smugmug.com/

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It drives me nuts that hardly anybody had to sense to film Yankee baseball in the 1920s at Yankee Stadium. The Stadium I knew and loved, until the renovation at the end of the 1973 season, was radically different from the original 1923 structure. Dead center was 490 feet, a flag pole was in the middle of the deep outfield, there was no left or right field upper deck, the Yankee dugout was on the third base side, and on and on.
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Yesterday, the New York Times published a story and a link to a one minute long film of Babe Ruth playing right field in 1928, and striking out with Lou Gehrig on deck. This is the first film to surface showing Ruth playing the outfield, and you also see quick shots of the Grand Concourse with a few familiar buildings missing. Check out the film and the Times article at the link below.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/09/sports/baseball/09video.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=babe%20ruth&st=cse
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