Facial Comparison

It is to Laugh!
This comment at the last Throwback Thursday posed the following question:

(sorry about the small text, it's a screen grab, after all.)

Summer of 2014.  With friends Sasha and Jeffrey.

Summer in 1970s. With friend Ted.

I don't know that it's changed much over the years. It has stayed with me to some degree all these years.  I still open my trap too wide when I laugh.  I guess I just have to let it out before I burst. But hey, it is what it is.

So, Mr. or Ms. Anonymous, thanks for asking.

Yep!  I'm still amazed, too.
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Throwback Thursday:Any Weekend 1970s

Old Friends:
For a small corps of us weekend meant busting out and heading for a museum, the Cloisters, Central Park concerts, or just roaming the Village hunting out new eating spots, or getting some sun. Pretty much the only time we wanted to leave the Village - because of tourists.

My oldest and dearest friend, Ted. Met in 1964 at the World's Fair became roommates in college, enjoyed each other's company.  Made each other laugh and knew more about one another than we ever cared to admit. Ultimately worked with Pan Am Airlines until they fell apart.  This caused an emotional meltdown from which he never recovered. He died in a group home in 1990.

Friends Sandy (slightly out of frame) and Bob taking a walk and getting some Spring sun on the Morton Street Pier following a Sunday Brunch at the Ramrod on West Street. The place where I had my first Rum Bloody - Bloody Mary made with dark rum instead of tasteless, cheap vodka. Great food, great friends with bikes, skates, and pretty people on the pier. Both are gone. Deaths are too gruesome to relate here.

These guys and those fun times are sorely missed, but remembered with great fondness.

An so it goes.
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Throwback Thursday: Rehoboth Beach

Rehoboth Beach Boardwalk, Spring/Summer of 1992. The year the first townhome was purchased as a summer rental and 3-season get-a-way.

Rehoboth: North Shores - Whiskey Beach, 1992. Mostly gay folks with and without kids. No tourists. Not crowded and before the era of cell phones - quiet. No snack bar so you brought your own and carried your refuse out of the park with you.

More later.
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Throwback Thursday

Weekend at Bear Mountain State Park, New York - 1976. 

Weekend on Bear Mountain in the Fall. Beautiful place. All other pics were of my Ex and have been thrown away. There is only this one of me.

And so it goes.

Throwback Thursday: NYC

Westside Highway El and Hudson River - 1979-80 (Click any image to embiggen.)

This decorative art deco designed wall was actually the right side of an entrance ramp from West Street up to the elevated section of the old West Side Highway, just south of the  Village. These were narrow roadways. Vehicles entered from the left in the photo and were northbound as they entered the highway above. This is where my Raleigh and I would usually enter the otherwise closed roadway, ride north and get off at 57th Street. Or, ride back if I was only out for an afternoon ride.

The remains of the Christopher Street Pier. A great place for villagers to get some sun, cruise, and have lunch by the river. One may have been asked to share a sandwich with someone already there. No strings. The Hudson didn’t stink so much anymore in those days. Thanks to Pete Seeger and his Clearwater Project. The pier was torn down a short time later. Note: This seemed the perfect shot with that beautiful schooner heading up river just about dead center amidst destruction.

Don’t remember the name of this pier, but it mirrors the previous state of the Christopher St. Pier and most piers south of it.  It too, came tumbling down within a few months. As did all the others in the years that followed.

And yes, another picture on the EL with the grand view of the Hudson and the New Jersey docks.  Behind me, on my right, those green buildings were (if memory serves) the docks for the Hoboken Ferries that ran from Manhattan to Hoboken. They were run by the Port of Authority or PATH. I don’t think they were in operation at the time.

I loved my life back then, village life, great friends, good job - and tending bar part-time at a village bar - enjoying everything Gotham had to offer. I lived there at just the right time (for me) to take it all in. 

And so it goes.

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Throwback Thursday: Pacific Coast

It was the 1970s. Don't remember which trip or where I was. Just know it was one of the many scenic overlook stops on the coastal highway.

I think these were shot the same day at two different spots off the highway.

Not sure if we're still in California or Oregon at this point. No matter. I was made to pose for this one.  I hate posing. I do remember that weather was picture perfect for the entire trip. Spent most time outdoors, even meals at restaurants with outdoor seating.  It was a charmed holiday.

And so it goes.
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And so it goes.
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Throwback Thursday: Pennsylvania

Washington's Crossing on the Delaware River and New Hope and the historic Delaware Canal.  With friends, Autumn 1977

Delaware River near Washington's Crossing. 

Delaware River Looking to Lambertville, NJ

With longtime friend, Ted.

Historic Delaware Canal Barge Tours

With friends, Harry & Ted on Lambertville-New Hope Bridge across the Delaware River.

Downstream look at the Historic Delaware Canal.

(Click here for more recent info on the historic canal.)

Harry and Ted were off work and it promised to be a glorious Autumn weekend. Harry, from Australia, had never seen much outside of NYC. We settled on this little outing and said, "Hello, Avis?" Car rentals were the quickest, easiest and least expensive transportation out of Gotham back then. We did it often.

We had breakfast at a cafe in New Hope then absorbing all the historic information we could, made a picnic in the woods near Washington's Crossing.

And so it goes.
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Throwback Thursday: 300D

1979 - Decorated for Easter. 

One of the two favoritest, and bestest automobiles I ever owned. This one was a dream car. A Creamy 300D. Change the oil regularly and the things will run forever.  Hated selling it, but made sure it went to a good home. Probably still running today.

More later.
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Throw Back Thursday: Mystic

Mystic Seaport, Connecticut

Circa 1985

I had that monstrous camera bag and that shirt until a few years ago.  Hated the bag, loved the shirt.

And so it goes.

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Throwback Thursday: London

Being cheeky!

Throwback Thursday: West Side Highway

Cycling - 1976  Westside Highway closed from the Battery to 57th Street.   Biking paradise. Weather permitting, I rode my bike to work from the village to the upper west side. Usually made it in less than 10 minutes, and no taxis to dodge - or curse.

Looking south to the Battery and the New World Trade Center Towers. It had opened a few years before. The old wharfs seen at right are gone now. It's all flat roadway, a promenade, and the Hudson River.

And so it goes.

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Throwback Thursday - Fort Pike

Fort Pike, LA.  19th Century protection for the port of New Orleans. These were taken in 1979 before the restoration process began. (Click to embiggen)

Pike’s Peak in the Rockies is named for the same General Zebulon Montgomery Pike (1779-1813)

And so it goes.

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Throwback Thursday: California

Overlooking the city of San Francisco, 1980.

Historic Image: Eastern Airlines flight from San Francisco to JFK New York. Eastern would go belly-up shortly thereafter. Yes, free booze, free food, and even a complimentary deck of cards.

AS I remember, we were delayed for a day, grounded because Mount St. Helens was erupting during this period and ash was everywhere.  

And so it goes.

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Throwback Thursday: F2AS

This camera was developed for the space program and NASA officially OK'd the commercial version.  When I had stock-piled enough money I finaly snagged one.  Complete with 10-battery motor-drive (already attached) and other add-on goodies.  Making the thing a hernia-heavy Mutha to tote around...But, it was MINE!  And it was a workhorse. Of course, I've kept the old Nikon F, which still treats me well whenever I have occasion to need it.

I sold the F2AS for about what I paid for it about 8 years ago, when I went to digital.

This was taken with a friend's Polaroid SX-70 in 1975, I believe.

More later.
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Throwback Thursday

This is a first for me. There are so few pictures of myself it's almost embarrassing to post this.

Christopher Street Pier,  New York City, 1974.  Age 27.

And so it goes.
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