Thank You, New York Times - "Yorkville: Block by Block"

Yorkville is the focus of this video in The New York Times monthly series, “Block by Block.”

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 109 Amazon five star reviews out of 109 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.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Reprints My NY Times Yorkville Story

Tommy, Bob Pryor & Tom Murphy, front of Loftus Tavern, 1966.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reprinted my New York Times Yorkville Story, "One Foot Planted Firmly in the Nest." 

Thank you, Post-Gazette, and thank you, Frank Flaherty for your outstanding editing on this piece and your stellar editing on our book, "I Hate the Dallas Cowboys - tales of a scrappy New York boyhood." 

Bob Pryor & Tom Murphy, front of Loftus, 1962.

My memoir has 101 Amazon five star reviews out of 101 total reviews posted. 

We're pitching a perfect game.

My world echoes TV's "The Wonder Years" ~ just add taverns, subways and Checker cabs

Cooling Off in Bethesda Fountain

Tommy First Grade Beau Brummel

After an exhaustive scholastic year in First Grade at St. Stephen's of Hungary I needed a good swim in Central Park. Dad had his Yashica 44 camera with him and caught Rory and me doing our thing in Bethesda Fountain.

Yesterday, The New York Times published photos from that one hundred degree August day in 1961. Here is a link to story with photographs.

Yashica 44

Tommy Rory in Bethesda Fountain August 1961

Writing About My World

When I was a little boy my Ryan grandfather and I sat on his long York Avenue stoop and read The New York Daily News together. If he was feeling good, Pop would spring for a dime and I would run up to the newsstand on 86^th Street and buy two newspapers, one for each of us. I couldn’t fully read yet but to have my own paper and study the pictures, pick up some new words as Pop repeated them out loud and memorize the letters spelling them to myself; well, I was as happy as a kid could get. Read (kind of) football, baseball, hockey and basketball news, learning all the players, the teams standings, and sometimes seeing these great old photos in the center of the paper by a guy named Weegee, well these murder scenes, people making weird faces and car crashes were amazing stuff I’d never seen before.  I used to think; when I got older I wanted to write about my world, my neighborhood, Yorkville, my schools, P.S. 77 and St. Stephen of Hungary, my teams, especially the Giants and Yankees. 

At LaSalle Academy, I wasted a whole year in a class where I was supposed to learn touch typing on writing made up sports stories about my then crappy teams, stories about our teachers, my other classmates and the shitty jobs we had after school, the Lower East Side, and stories of wishful and bizarre neighborhood heroics. I wasn’t just goofing off, I was practicing.



Here's my story from yesterday's front page in The New York Times' Home Section.

I have a sturdy memory and all those classes I took on the 1616 York Avenue stoop and in the classroom at LaSalle’s annex next to 44 E. 2^nd Street right off Second Avenue are paying off.

The New York Times Publishes Two ~ Next Storytelling Show is Valentine's Day

 Hi Folks, today my Yorkville neighborhood story was published in The New York Times Home & Garden section on the front page.  

Here is a link to the story: "One Foot Planted Firmly in the Nest."  

Two weeks ago, The Times published my story about playing indoor tackle in York Hill Co-op and scamming New York Giants tickets at Loftus Tavern in the mid 1960s. 

Read here: "When the Fire Hydrant Was the End Zone."

Vinny loves Teddy

Our next City Stories: Stoops to Nuts storytelling show at Cornelia Street Café is Valentine’s Day, Tuesday, February 14^th @ 6 pm. 

I promise a great show with these artists: Steve Northeast, Jana Peri, Thomas Pryor, Daniela Schiller, Katherine Wessling & Nick Zaharakos.

Admission is $7 and that includes one free drink.

It’s Flatiron Time.

The New York Times Published My Indoor Tackle Story

The New York Times published my story "When The Fire Hydrant Was The End Zone."

In 1962, the New York football Giants played fourteen games each season. Seven games at home and seven games away.  Away games were televised.  Twenty one hours of heaven.  The League blacked out home games to discourage a drop in ticket sales.  “Huh?”

This remains the most diabolical punishment ever devised to torment me.  It still floors me knowing they went through with this plan after weighing its impact on me.

I saw the conference room full of cigar smoke and National Football League officials.  The lead official turned towards the league’s medical expert standing at the head of the board room.

The Lead Official said, “Doctor, we are considering blacking out NFL home games under our new TV contract.  How will this impact Tommy Pryor?”

The League’s Medical Expert aimed a pointer at a chart.  He said, “It is my expert   opinion that blacking out home games will stop young Tommy’s heart.  Despite his parents overwhelming grief, he will be gone.”

To offset my pain I played indoor tackle in people's living rooms. I targeted latch key kids whose parents both worked. This led to several adventures. Once the jig was up (we got caught) I played tackle football on the east side of York Avenue sidewalk in front of the York Hill Cooperative Apartments between 81st & 82nd Street.

"When The Fire Hydrant Was The End Zone."