It’s a sad but poignant joke. Because of situations involving my family, I attended several different elementary and junior high schools between 1968 and 1981. I’ve half-snarkily called my educational experience “The Twelve,” in that from kindergarten in Slingerlands Elementary School to my senior year of high school with Street Academy, I was enrolled in…
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So whatever happened to the girl who drove the Fagbug?
You may or may not know the story of Erin Davies. Let me give you the Reader’s Digest update. In 2007, Erin Davies’ 2002 Volkswagen Beetle was vandalized. Some cretin spray-painted “FAG” and “U R GAY” on her vehicle, simply because the girl had the unmitigated gall to put a rainbow reflector on the rear…
Read MoreVacation Time in New England – 1970’s edition
Some of my favorite childhood moments involved spending summers in Boston with my grandmother. During those times, I could get away from issues involving my family, and I could spend some peaceful time with my Grandma Betty. She lived in a small blue cape-style house in West Roxbury, and if I behaved myself all week,…
Read MoreAn Albany Cookbook from the 1960’s
While clearing out some boxes of old junk, I came across this vintage cookbook. It may have been printed in the mid-1960’s or early 1970’s, and it was produced by an organization called the Albany County Home Bureau. Okay, this caught my attention. The spiral-bound cookbook featured dozens of recipes from Capital District homemakers and…
Read MoreForget Watson and Jeopardy – How about Thomas Edison and the Washington Avenue Armory?
First off, I congratulate the computer Watson for its successes on the show Jeopardy!. Watson seems to be holding Ken Jennings and the other guy who isn’t Ken Jennings at bay, just as Watson’s older brother Deep Blue took two wins against chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov in 1997. Truly, the era of technology has advanced…
Read MoreThe Mystery of the J.S. Flood Stained Glass Window
A few days ago, I displayed some photographs on this blog – photographs that were cross-processed by developing slide film as regular film. One of the pictures I posted to the blog was this photo of a stained glass window at the Palace Theater. I remembered the location as a barbershop; however, Carl Johnson (who…
Read MoreDid the Beatles appear in Albany movie theaters BEFORE “A Hard Day’s Night”? Yes they did…
Okay, let’s get something square right now. The Beatles made four theatrical motion pictures during their time together. There was A Hard Day’s Night, there was Help!, there was Yellow Submarine and there was Let It Be. They also made Magical Mystery Tour, but that was for British television. And as far as anyone’s concerned,…
Read MoreRest in peace, Jim Fisk…
So much of our childhood disappears over time. The friends we made in our young years have shaped our future… but those friendships have become bittersweet memories as time goes by. And today, we lost another one. Rest in peace, Jim Fisk. Fisk was the host of WRGB’s “Breadtime Stories,” a 15-minute children’s program that…
Read MoreMemories of L-Ken’s…
L-Ken’s has been shuttered for years. The serving area is strewn with graffiti tags; the parking lot is starting to buckle. But I wanted to capture the memories of the iconic neon sign that drew people into the family eatery. I wanted to recall the picnic tables that people sat at as they noshed on…
Read MoreWhen “A Christmas Story” First Played in Albany
The Times Union blogging meet-up tonight – a viewing of “A Christmas Story,” with a post-movie get-together across the street at the Albany Brown Derby – should be a lot of fun. I’ve seen the list of bloggers and readers who will attend the event, and I think it will be a great time. Now…
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Chuck The Writer 
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