-
11/02/1979 12:00
The Birth
You have to wonder how this made the list, for I seemingly had nothing to say about it. So we will have to take a closer look. My due date was the first week of February, but I just didn’t want to come out and face the world. I was born 5 weeks late. I challenged my Mom about this once and she held her ground with certainty. One study shows this to be 2.5 standard deviations away from normal. I don’t claim this to be a record, but it is arguably a truly extraordinary accomplishment, especially given that it occurred in my youth. It certainly wasn’t average. Of more importance perhaps is the reason which compelled me to eventually come forward. I had an important mission to complete. It was certainly the correct day to be deployed as well as the correct time. I was born at exactly 8:35 am, right on time, not a minute too early or too late. This would play a significant role later in my life and I had to get started to prepare for it. 
-
11/02/1979 12:00
David, Jock, Me and Baseball
It’s been a long time since David, Jock and myself played catch with the baseball on the streets of Queens or in the large side yard property where Jock called home. 
David and I were first best friends. His family moved directly across the street from us in early 1954. Jock sometime afterward, just down the road. I reconnected with David and Jock through emails in 2008. David shared with me a small draft of a segment of a book he was writing. If he ever puts this to print, he would win a Pulitzer Prize. Around the age of nine or so, Dickie and I formed a bicycle club. We were joined by a group of other kids from around the neighborhood. Our territory was an approximately six block area of our neighborhood. We were young. Our bicycles were not large. We had no agenda. But we had fun. One of the members of the club was named Petey. Petey had a great little loft over his parent's garage. A few weeks after we started the club, we established the loft as our club house. We developed plans to have meetings and make rules and come up with a purpose for the group. The idea of the club house lasted one day, at least with me. During our first meeting Petey's mother called him into the house. When he came out it was easy to see he was very upset and doing everything he could to control his emotions. After climbing the ladder to the loft he came over to me. He was fighting back tears. I could see that his eyes were red.
"You cannot be in the club", he said.
"Why? I started the club!" was all I could muster.
"You are different. Momma says you are different".
I looked down from the loft at my bicycle. It stood on its kickstand. It looked very much like all of the bikes. I looked at my clothes. They were the same kind of clothes as the other guys. I didn't understand."You have to go now."
All of the guys silently stood around looking at the ground, no one wanted to look at me. I didn't know how to respond. I wanted to fight, but I didn't know who to fight. It wasn't Petey's fault and I couldn't fight his momma. I tried to act like I didn't care as I went down the ladder. I swung my leg over the seat and mounted my bike while wiping away the tears that I didn't want anyone to see. I was confused. I was mad. It was then that I realized that Dickie was my best friend. Through the tears that had welled up in my eyes, I didn't see him following me down from the loft. He was already on his bike before I saw him. He said:
"Come on. Let's get out of here".
He couldn't figure out why I was different either. This was all a big mystery to the two of us as we rode home in silence....Dave
David and I gave new meaning to the word entrepreneur. In fact, we had developed a snow removal business which cornered the market in the small stretch of sidewalks as far as we could see. We charged 10 cents to shovel the walkways of a house. Our low low price and high high quality was a model to be copied by more famous companies years later.
Jock had become a famous lawyer. He reminded me in an email that I wouldn’t let him touch my prized 1956 Ted Williams baseball card. This from a guy who had amassed a world class collection of baseball memorabilia that is now housed in a famous hotel in Las Vegas. He was also the author of a book which details lessons learned from his father, a prominent civil rights lawyer in the 1950’s. One of these lessons involved me and the story is detailed in the book. Jock wrote:And I remember a Saturday when I got into a scuffle with one of my best buddies in the neighborhood, a white kid named Dickie, and when he whacked me in the head with a good right I took off running for the house. “Jock!”
It was Daddy, who had happened to see the fight and was standing at the screen door. As I ran into the house, hauling my backside to safety, …I had completely forgotten about it but it all came back to me, and more, in the vivid crystal clear black print on the white page. Having a bit part in this book is a thrill for me for sure. You will have to buy the book to learn about the lesson Jock was taught by his Dad that day. Climbing Jacob’s Ladder is well worth reading. I learned much about friendship from both David and Jock, a significant lesson in my life. On a sad note, I found out that Jock had passed away a few years ago. -
11/02/1979 12:00
All Shook Up
It was springtime fifth grade and time for the school Talent Show. With guitar in hand, I entered the contest as a lip and hip synching Elvis impersonator using his recently released hit All Shook Up. I lay claim to be the youngest Elvis impersonator from that era to have entered a contest of several performances. 
The contest also featured a female student piano player who at the same time appeared on the Lawrence Welk Show. When I saw her on TV, I recognized how talented she was compared to me. Needless to say, Mr. Welk passed on me, although for sure I was the People’s Choice amongst the student body. This photo, from those days, thanks to David’s Mom. -
11/02/1979 12:00
I pass Sixth Grade
At the end of the 1957 baseball season the Giants left The Bronx, the Dodgers left Brooklyn and my parents moved out of Queens to Long Island. I don’t remember learning much of anything during my time in elementary school in Queens. I had reached sixth grade at Public School 15 and my sole achievement was the large collection of perfect attendance certificates that I had accumulated. I went into shock my first day of school at the Parkway Oaks elementary school when I discovered that the class was learning fractions. I was still very shaky on my times tables. It was a rude awakening for me.
My teacher, who will remain nameless, loved to teach geography. She drilled and drilled us on the continents with special attention to learning them in decreasing size order. They were never ever stated in other than decreasing size order. But I failed that unit test miserably, not even getting the main question to name the continents correctly. Mom had to go see the teacher. I told my Mom that I had noticed during the test that the question did not ask for the continents to be listed in any size order, so I purposely listed them as they came to my mind. I couldn’t understand why I was graded as incorrect on this question. I didn’t realize the significance of this at the time, but I came to believe at some point that it was a watershed moment in my life. I wasn’t the dummy I thought I was and in this case, I could reason better than the teacher.
I passed Sixth Grade, an amazing moment of its own. -
11/02/1979 12:00
All Star Player
There was a large number of kids who played baseball in the neighborhood. Mark O., Larry K., Woody, Alan B., Larry G., Steve S. and many others. The Parkway Oaks school had a great field where we could play ball. Springtime 1958 was approaching which meant that Little League was just around the corner. I was one of the two players chosen from each team to compete in the All Star game. 
-
11/02/1979 12:00
I can Subtract
It was 9th grade. I was taking algebra and Mr. O’Keefe was my teacher. I received a 71 for the first marking period, not very good at all. Just as importantly was the U for Unsatisfactory that I obtained for conduct. I was always well behaved so didn’t quite understand this red mark on my report card. But I sat near the back of the classroom with Peter on my right and his friend on my left. They fooled around a bit but I can’t remember a single instance of Mr. O’Keefe making an issue of it. I surmised that I was juxtaposed in the wrong place. But I did understand the low low grade. Math just didn’t make much sense to me.
Early in the second marking period Mr. O’Keefe explained subtraction in terms of the number line. He presented a rule based method for doing subtraction. All of a sudden, math finally made sense. It was the single most memorable moment of learning that I ever had in life. My math grade for the second marking period was a 98. From that point on, I loved math. -
11/02/1979 12:00
Paper Boy
I took over the paper boy route of a boy in the neighborhood while he went off to summer camp. I was a gung-ho paper boy who would deliver the newspapers as soon as I received them. The customers apparently were not use to this level of service and I was indeed rewarded significantly with a generous amount of tips. On return from camp, I told the regular paperboy how much I made from tips and he said that the customers must have been distributing last year’s end of year Christmas tips in August. Another example that hard work can achieve extraordinary results. 
He went on to say that my hairline was receding and that I would go bald early in life. He put the curse on me, notwithstanding that baldness ran in the family on my mom’s side. -
11/02/1979 12:00
Ready, Set, Go #1
I never been lucky with the girls. My pickup line of “Who is your favorite chemist?” just wasn’t working well. In order to impress the girls I memorized the number e to 25 decimal places. The girls in college said ho hum to this irrational demonstration of mental prowess. But I didn’t give up. I practiced and practiced some more until I was able to rattle off the value of e to this level of specificity in under two seconds. Now the girls were engaged as they would use their watch to verify the time period. When I delivered on my claim, they were truly impressed. Many commented that I had a talented mouth. I never had a lonely Saturday night for the rest of my college years. 
-
11/02/1979 12:00
Ready, Set, Go #2
From a stopped position at the toll both at exit 13 of the New Jersey Turnpike to a stopped position at my parent’s house in the middle of the dead end part of Violet Street in Massapequa Park in just less than 60 minutes by car is a record I have owned since the Sixties. That would be over 50 years at this point. I do believe that this record could be broken, but strongly suggest that you do not attempt it. 
Practice when I was young contributed to my success at this record. -
11/02/1979 12:00
My First Book
A great opportunity came my way during my junior year at Drexel, in the Spring Term of 1968. I was given the chance to teach the one hour, once a week class given to freshman taking general chemistry. This was normally handled by the regular chemistry professors and a handful of chemistry majors in their senior year. I also taught a total of four of these classes during the three terms of my senior year. These classes concentrated on solving the usual chemistry problems assigned in general chemistry.
I understood what ailed students when they tried to solve a chemistry problem. I had a better way. Too often the students just plugged numbers into a chemical equation, not understanding the chemistry behind the problem. The slightest twist to a problem and they would go into meltdown, faster than an ice cube on a warm summer day. I started to write my first book. The focus of this book was to solve the problem by applying the chemical principle behind it. No formula memorization required.
Following the death of my Dad in November of 1981, I decided to dust off my chemistry manuscript, dedicate it to him and have it published. -
11/02/1979 12:00
I win the Lotto
On December 1, 1969, the Selective Service held the first lottery draft for the Vietnam War. It was likely the most listened to radio program at that time and perhaps ever by the male demographic group who would turn age 20 through 26 in 1970. I was in that demographic group. It would determine who was drafted during the calendar year of 1970. I won big time, and my low number predicted a May 1970 draft date. 
-
11/02/1979 12:00
My Dangerous Mission
My claim to fame in Boot Camp was how I handled the grenade, with due credit given to David, Jock and the gang of kids from Long Island who played baseball with me during my youth. The skill set required to throw a baseball or grenade do not differ much. 
The drill sergeants couldn’t believe it when I lobbed a grenade right down the barrel of a rocket launcher. 
The Army took note of this, as I was chosen along with a guy named Alabama to go on a two person most Dangerous Mission behind enemy lines during the height of the Cold War. Alabama was the driver and was able to lose our tail once our position was compromised. We came up upon the target group and with pinpoint accuracy three projectiles took them out before they knew what happened. Unfortunately, an old lady happened upon the scene just as it unfolded. Collateral damage they call it. 
Feel safe? -
11/02/1979 12:00
My Signature Hat
It was all about hair from the late Sixties through most of the Seventies, powered by the popular broadway play of the same name. And thanks to the curse put on me by the neighborhood boy, I didn’t have much after my return to civilian life. It was a crisis for me for sure and at a young age. I decided to try a hat to cure my baldness. Now hats were not uncommon in the early Seventies, but I choose to go with my green Army cap. It was quite the look being dressed in a business suit and Army hat as I made it to work and back each day. Soon I was wearing the hat whenever I would go outside. One time, decades later, I rushed out of the house without it to quickly pick up something at a local store. While in the store a complete stranger asked me where my hat was.
Over time, the traditional hat industry took a nose dive as baseball like caps became a wardrobe necessity for both the New York cool and hair challenged ordinary people. Through the years I saw many people going through the hair loss crisis as they aged, including one of the higher level executives where I worked. It had ceased to be a big deal to me a long time ago. Whenever a joke about being bald was told, I would scream out “No hair jokes allowed” multiple times, but with an alternating pause of emphasis placed so that the statement would have dual meaning.
Without a doubt, I was the pioneer who started this fashionable look of cap and suit.
-
11/02/1979 12:00
Champion Backgammon Player
I won the first invitation only Manufacturers Hanover Stock Transfer backgammon tournament. I learned chess sometime after my move to Long Island and got caught up in the Bobby Fischer chess craze days. I couldn’t improve my abilities much even though I spent considerable time in the summer after the tenth grade studying some books on strategy and techniques. I was never going to achieve any meaningful high chess rating. I was limited by my ability to visual the chess board several moves in advance. I did much better in the backgammon craze that swept the world in the Seventies. 
-
11/02/1979 12:00
The NYU Years
In May 1975 I made a pitch to the Dean to fix a course in the systems programming certificate program that was having considerable difficulties and started teaching a refocused course on learning mainframe operating system internals and how one could use that knowledge to solve some of the most difficult to resolve software bugs in programs that interfered with a smooth running Data Center. Courses in the certificate program in the School of Continuing Education were taught in the evening to data processing professionals by people in the field with daytime jobs. It was no different with me.
I taught this two semester course over a period of nine years to nearly 500 students.
-
11/02/1979 12:00
Finally
This is the moment
I've waited for
I can hear my heart singing
Soon bells will be ringing -
11/02/1979 12:00
The Birth
I have never smoked a cigarette. I have never done recreational drugs. I never drank alcohol. Heck I never had a cup of coffee. But I did have one child, so I am not perfect. But being involved in the production and upbringing of my daughter is truly a great moment of my life. In fact it is the greatest. 
You The Best! -
11/02/1979 12:00
My game with Max Dlugy
I took up chess again in the 90’s. A group of chess hustlers would set up tables at Liberty Plaza, diagonally juxstapositioned south east of the World Trade Center area. I was a putz and a favorite to these hustlers. One of the players was able to arrange for me to play Grandmaster Max Dlugy, who worked in the area at Bankers Trust. Very few people can say that they played a grandmaster. I was so nervous I quickly dropped the first two games. But when Game 3 started, I regained my composure.
I played a well known opening gambit which could end quickly in a draw, Rather than draw by the threefold repetition draw rule in chess, Max decided to sacrifice his Queen to me, having such a low regard for my ability. But it was downhill for Max after that as he loss more material and his position worsened, I had the opportunity to trade my rook for his knight, leaving him with practically no remaining pieces but choose instead to try to mate him, even though I could not see a clear mate. By this time, all of the hustlers left their games and were huddled around Max and me, wondering how a putz like me could be beating him so badly. I couldn’t find the mate, I goofed and Max turned the tables on me. I lost, but it was a moral victory for me, I have always felt.
-
11/02/1979 12:00
Ready, Set, Go #3
From the southern most point on the western most area on the 9th floor at 101 Barclay Street, down the elevator, through the doors and onto a train on track 19 at Penn Station via the IRT train, entrance at Chambers Street, in 16 or fewer minutes. Unlikely to ever be broken. 
-
11/02/1979 12:00
The Casino System
During the mid 90’s I took up gambling at the casinos. The one and only game I liked was the one with the ball going around and around until it comes to a rest on a unique color and number. 
I developed a sure win system with this game, despite the fact that people say it can’t be done. On the basis of probability I would have to agree. However, I discovered a weakness of sorts that can be exploited to give the player an advantage, however slight. I won every time. I do have to say that I had one close call. I bought $100 worth of chips and lost all but a few. In fact I had too little to meet the minimum required by the table for another game, but the casino employee let me play anyway. I hit. And then I hit again and again and again. I hit so often that they had to start paying me with chips that had a money value on it rather than the ordinary color chips. I turned that one close call into my biggest win ever. I can truly say I never lost with this system.
A long term coworker of mine gave me $20 and told me to play my system with it. I returned on Monday and gave her back $80 to represent her winnings. I told my wheel chair bound Aunt Mary and her daughter Yvonne about the system and Aunt Mary won using it in Atlantic City. And I did tell one last person at work that I hardly knew, right before retirement. He came back to work and told me he won.
I lost interest in gambling. It was just a passing phase. There are better ways to make money. -
11/02/1979 12:00
Smokey Joe’s Cafe
My wife and myself took our daughter many times to see Broadway Shows. Her very first show was in early May 1996 just after she turned five years old. We had right in the middle front row seats. Smokey Joe fans will know what that means. We hung out at the stage door after the show and were very well known by the performers. 
We saw the play over thirty times and was there on the memorable closing show - the matinee on Sunday, January 16, 2000. The audience that day consisted of die hard Smokey Joe-azoids. There was so much electricity in the air at that performance it is surprising that a bolt of lightning didn’t strike the place. It was one of the great moments in Broadway history.
My wife and daughter struck up a conversation with the shimmy girl outside of the Virginia Theater while I was buying tickets for a future show. I claim to be one of the few theater goers, if not the only one, who received a kiss on the cheek from the shimmy girl when I returned from my purchase. I also claim to be the owner of the largest collection of loose feathers from the red boas used by Brenda Braxton’s when she performed Don Juan. Here are a few.
-
11/02/1979 12:00
Nine Eleven
It was a beautiful morning on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. The humidity of the summer was all but gone and one could sense that Fall had arrived. This was the favorite time of the year for me. I can remember being on the 34th Street Subway platform waiting for the express train to take me downtown for the 8 am morning conference call and thinking about the fact that it was my half birthday that day. I was 54 years old that year.
I was in my office on the 9th floor of 101 Barclay Street reading my email after the conclusion of the conference call. I worked for a Bank that was founded by Alexander Hamilton who of course is on the 10 dollar bill. He is buried in the cemetery adjacent to Trinity Church, and pretty much had a clear view of the events of the day from his grave. It was a day that would change our lives forever.
The Bank owned this building directly across from the north most part of the World Trade Center complex. Our operations center was located 0.194 miles from a central point within The World Trade Center plaza. The average height of the Twin Towers was 1365 feet. A force of explosive nature shook our building at exactly 8:46 am.
September 11 unfolded in my eyes as the events of the day brought The Bank to its knees. For sure, it took dedicated work from all employees to salvage the bleak situation, but arguably the group I managed was at the epicenter and made the key difference between success and failure. I came to believe that this was the reason for my existence.
A few years passed from this event when I learned that the student who sat to my right in algebra class died here on this day. He was Chief Peter Ganci, the highest ranking uniformed officer in the New York City Fire Department. My wife, too, lost one of her classmates from high school, Maria Laveglia. She was a close friend when they attended school and my wife was part of her bridal party when she married. Maria was very successful as a senior manager at her employer, Keefe Brunette & Woods. -
11/02/1979 12:00
An Inflection Point
After our recovery from the events of 9/11, I pretty much had accomplished all that I possible could in the Corporate World. It had become apparent to me that I was entering a period in my life whose highpoint each day would be the reading of emails. 
When I was told by The Chief Technology Officer that he was retiring, I thought perhaps I should move on also. But it was a good paycheck that allowed me to keep a roof over my head and have three square meals a day. I felt trapped in a box. 
-
11/02/1979 12:00
That’s Life
I thought they said it was a kick off meeting. 
That's life, that's what all the people say
You're ridin' high in April, shot down in May
But I know I'm gonna change that tune
When I'm back on top, back on top in June