Letters/EMail

hi rob,
yes, one wonders about folk music... bob dylan was great, joan baez, a great song, diamonds and rust... neil young... progressed to folk rock... morrison and the doors..... even the early stones... progression.. on pbs, you are right ... some of it is real corny........

education: no one, that i can recall, said anything about education.... you were on your own after the age of seventeen.... a bummer! i can guess at the frustration of many of the houses kids... i knew that i had to continue, but as a houses kid... on my own terms, or so i thought...

worked as a messenger for f a russo and mcnally photostat reproductions at 1230 6th ave. they were located in the sub basement of the rockefeller complex...there was a way to get through the complex, but only the maintenance guys knew it.. top secret.... only a dollar an hour..40 bucks a week.. took home 33. and a few cents...

lucky that i had mom to take me in... went to night schools, two at a time.... george washington in washington hts and samuel gompers in the bronx, alternated every other night. for two years, but no diploma.. one did not recognize the other.....

ran into freddie medina in gw.... he was in the artificial flower business.... went to his house, he was married and he knew where he was going... lucky guy... lost touch a year later...... i am sure he did well.... then ran into eddie agosto.... the red headed kid.... forget now how i met him.. a lot of names and places come back as one pounds the keys..... he lived off 137, or 138 st and broadway.... nice guy... he later joined the air force and served in spain in logistics.... met him years later, with james dunn and whitey hayward at the summit on lex ave. he was in ny and heading back to spain.. left the service......

calvin ziegler lived in the bronx, on neired ave.. his mom use to drop by to see him.... wanted to live alone.... it was a group home with tomatoes o brien, who only wanted to play baseball.... loved first base... always talking to coach about baseball up at the house..so it seems if one had no place to go they tried to shove you into a group home..

some went to pius the 12.. have no idea where that is... they finished there high school.. it looks like our group got shown the door.... any way, calvin was working as a electrician helper.. we took some classes together and then i believe he was headed to florida....

hung out with whitey and dean dunn on the east side around 86 st for awhile.... then i got a job with the auto club of new york... working days, and still in night school at the time.. that is when i ran into on west end ave off 84 st, i believe.... one of the bosses decided that i should go to ers, emergency road service at the penn hotel top the old penn station.... days then nights, end of school.... stayed there for about 4 to 5 years.. left got board.... sent an email and a few old timers still there, hard to believe....

then i tried for different jobs, ng, needed a hs diploma.... obtained a ged.... and got a job at western union, 21 years of tech work and a lot of laughs, a large group of characters..... a lot of ex armed forces... marines, air force, army, navy , and the coast guard... a lot of radio, morse code army and navy, radar, sac navigator, dew line, early warning, merchant marine, etc.... a lot of security clearance to work on autodin circuits, bomb alarms , and mode 4 and 5 for the services...

some had clearance to work on us embassy telecommunications..... so one can say that those extra years of night school were worth while... got me in the door.. basic electricity with a few tube circuits, after one was in basically teletype, fax, and carried systems... fax ok, teletype.. no!.. you had to be a car mechanic... enjoyed the carrier systems, voice , data, gvmt circuits, embassies, etc.... a lot of fun.... a lot was in crypto .. unable to monitor....... ok for voice and low speed data...

after the company went belly up , i decided to go to college.... did ok.... but my knee and shoulder acted up... health care to art... the prices went up.. the state was upset that i would not have my bs till i was in my late 50's decided that this is nonsense... learned a lot while i was there.... in my fifties could not be intimidated by the prof. we had a nice tug of war with some of them... they enjoyed that some one would challenge them...

the kids were immature by the houses standards... were never tested and to me were just hanging out so they didn't have to work.... took a home writing course... lone ridge writers group and picked up few more college credits in english lit..... always something to learn....

coach passed away in 1985 in pa. but i believe he had a brother.... when i worked for russo i ran into elpedio vasquez, he was working there as a messenger also.... amazing!

the houses kids are all over. when i worked for wu at 600 3 ave.. this telco tech came to check some circuits.. he looked familiar his walk, etc. then i heard his name dubon.... i asked him if he was a houses kid.. one could see his wheels turning... sure enough he was.... ferdinand dubon.... john mcllean use to enjoy kidding him.... counselor from iona college.. met him years later off east 95 st where my dad lived before he went back to ireland.....

we lifted a few together and reminisced about the house... sorry to say i called his house and he passed away a few years ago.. use to live in the bronx... he was a sgt in nam... came in one day with his jacket.... support the vets.... never saw coach after we all met him in 1975...
take care,
bernard
ps you can always send your story of the house, etc, to david feliciano and he will put it up on the web.... easy guy to contact via email.......