~~Brooklyn New York East 3 St #3~~
Staying focused on one idea has become one of my goals as of late, this focus will allow me to complete this project so I may be able to move on to the many others I have planned.
Having works that are unfinished are more distracting to me then finding ideas .
This day I went with my film crew to my childhood neighborhood in Brooklyn New York. The line between the past and the present is very defined ,and I am reminded of my youth by just a glance down the side walk of my block on East 3rd St .
It has been there and will be there just as I was once there moved on from there and return now to reflect on what once was my past.
If one had told me that an entire era would have passed through my life during my lifetime I would have no doubt thought it unlikely.
However the days have arrived where I find myself looking for souls on a street that once was filled with life on a street in Brooklyn that was a complete universe of cultures, with a city named New York . These souls were many and each had there own distinct personality , each a real individual .
I stand with my memories which are very acute , this being both a blessing and a curse. It carries with it the longing for those whom I once shared a light .
The light was new, all we had yet at the time it was all we needed.
The never ending cycle that is ours is fleeting,it life on its own terms not the terms we choose.
With the very breath that is mine at this moment let me give homage to those who have led me to understand these lessons.
~~Prospect~~
Jerry,
I know what you mean about projects. I love to paint and have been wanting to start my new project along with other hobbies I have wanting to do. I really want to get back to Province Town MA. Where I lived for 3 years in 1970. One of many places we lived in my childhood. Pilgrims tower was a play ground for me and would have my lunch while sitting on pilgrim’s rock. At that time they did not have it under glass, due to people chipping it away for souvenirs. This was one place where I have so many good memories, and one day will go back. You also gave me a great idea for my husband. He lived in Brooklyn, but later was placed in an Orphanage (Little Flower) he has been working very hard on dealing with his past, and I think going back may be a good thing for him, maybe give him ideas to find his siblings. Its so wonderful how one life can change so many others in the world. I really feel that others will learn so much from you. You have brought so much light into your life, and isn’t it wonderful when your life starts to become peaceful, and all this time we hold the key for that. We are finding this out ourselves (my husband and I). I love the calm in my life, although there are those days when I feel like Chicken Little, and feel the sky is falling, I am always reminded that I am very lucky in life and that I have been able to over come a lot of obsticals.
Love and Light
Donna
You know what is horrible Jerry, is to return to a world that simply no longer exists! I remember several years ago, while in Chicago on my travels, I decided to stop by two of the neighbourhoods I lived in as a very young child. First stop was the Michigan Avenue area. To say I was shocked and stunned is to completely miss describing my feelings. What had once been a wonderful lively bustling neighbourhood had become a dismal gang infested burnt out and abandoned stretch of Chicago!
I walked past shops that in my childhood had been so wonderful, restaraunts where we had often dined, the theatre where I had seen so many Walt Disney films like Pinochio and Twenty Thousand Leagues under the sea, ALL OF IT ABANDONED boarded up. Burnt out! I looked in the huge plate glass windows of one building that had been a soda shop and gasped as I saw the counter and the stools still there but the ROOF collapsed IN ON THEM!
I then cut across town to another location Park Ridge area where my family had pretty much ceased to exist as my parets incessant screaming cursing and what have you escalated to the unbearable.
Just to drive BY the house filled me with such a deep sorrow, sense of loss, scenes of so much hatred and turmoil passed before my eyes. I shuddered “Why did I even come BACK here?”
But you know Jer, I think that is one thing that draws me to your memoirs. You have, as I have managed to take all of the negativity into account, get past the sufferring and depth of sorrow it caused, and then BUILT OUR OWN LIVES lives that ARE happy, self satisfying and purposeful!
I keep thinking of an old song “In the Neighbourhood” one line says “And all those friends we used to know. All those friends we used to know, Where did they go? In the Neighbourhood.”
I wonder that all the time. Whatever happened to Joey Curran? Whatever happened to Joanne Puchinski? David Whiting? Frank Swanberg? Gone gone all gone. But their memory lingers.