October Snow & The 59th Street Bridge

On this last day of the month, I thank everyone who has been reading my stuff and looking at my pictures for the past three years. I began my blog,“Yorkville: Stoops to Nuts,” in the Beach Haven Library on Long Beach Island in October 2008. The librarian kept kicking me off the computer every half hour, and I had to put my name on a list again to use the computer for another half hour even though there were three computers and no one but me was using any of them. I love librarians but not nearly as much as I love nuns.

To acknowledge the pleasure I get from writing about the city I love and in particular the Yorkville neighborhood, I’m putting October snow storm pix up along with pictures of my favorite bridge on earth, a hearty tea drinker, a Halloween shot and a shot of the Beach Haven Library to offset the wintry weather.

Thank you, for telling me you enjoy my work.  My job as a kid was to make my mother laugh.  She’s gone now, so all of you are my present targets.  It’s my job. I love it.

Sister Beatrice ~ Let's Go Fly A Kite!

"Thomas, you have a big voice, you need a place for it," Sister Beatrice said as she separated me from a headlock with Kevin Murphy.

"Huh?"

"I think you should join the choir, they need you."

Based on Dad's position on things and the other boys, I thought the choir was for sissies, but if Sister Beatrice said it was OK, then it was all right by me. Fall 1961, in second grade, I joined a band of pretty pussycats and two other boys in the choir.

Yesterday, I learned Sister Beatrice Kerezsi, my first grade teacher at St. Stephen's on 82nd Street, passed away last month at St. Leos' Convent in Elmwood Park, N.J. I was shocked to learn she 82, it was the first time I saw her last name. How could she be 26 years older than me?

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She played punch ball with us, running from chalk base to chalk base in the street holding her thick black skirt up revealing big clunky black shoes perfect for kicking field goals. I figured she was two years older then my babysitter, tops! She could belt a tune better than the Singing Nun, she was prettier than Ingrid Bergman in The Bells of Saint Mary, and she was smarter than any Mother Superior. I still want to make her proud of me. She knew she was doing this to you, it was her talent. And she smelled great! Everybody wanted to please Sister Beatrice. She did not take cell phone calls when she was talking to you, and she didn't check her Blackberry during class.

Sister Beatrice was smart, tough, right there, always in your face. I knew she was glad to see me. She was my friend and I loved her. First grade was 50 years ago, she's still on mind every day. Sister Beatrice was Mary Poppins.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g89NxTTycxc

photo above, 1961, courtesy of Stephanie Varga Grove, my classmate. Sister Beatrice is the first nun on the left.

a link to my story about Sister Beatrice, "Developing A Habit," is on the upper left side of this page