tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57113078446695664.post439858371733192892..comments2024-03-22T20:34:13.792-05:00Comments on Indomitable | The online home of Chauncey DeVega: Fond Memories of Growing Up as a Ghetto Nerd: The New York Times Discovers the World of Bowling for "Action"Lady Zora, Chauncey DeVega, and Gordon Gartrellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09138154899923808806noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57113078446695664.post-31172148947794912852012-10-02T04:55:56.172-05:002012-10-02T04:55:56.172-05:00I did like museums. Early on I liked the Museum o...I did like museums. Early on I liked the Museum of Natural History (this is all in NYC). We went with school, the Cub Scouts, my dad took me, and from age nine or so gangs of us would go on a Saturday sometimes, after our bowling league! Our parents weren't afraid to let us wander around back then. <br /><br />My dad took me and a couple of friends to the Metropolitan Museum of Art when I was eleven or twelve, and I was kind of hooked immediately. He was careful to steer us to the arms and armor, stuff we might appreciate, the Egyptian tombs and statuary. <br /><br />Later on I really was an aficionado. I had a membership to the Museum of Modern Art for a long time, mostly for the movies (free with admission; admission free for members; membership $12.50 for a year; two great movies everyday). I always loved the Met (they have on view 21 Rembrandts every day). New York is a great museum town. <br /><br />All mixed in with the comix, Sci Fi, Rock n' Roll records (hooked at age eight), adventure books, and models. <br /><br />I'll bet that Nomad's models were better than mine though. I was "process oriented," I mostly liked building them. Nomad, I'll be you were more detail oriented, I'll bet yours were beautifully built and nicely painted. Just a hunch. I was always in a hurry, myself. fred chttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10812811681270634366noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57113078446695664.post-22860134003596297172012-10-02T01:06:37.117-05:002012-10-02T01:06:37.117-05:00Going bowling with my Dad and sister on Wednesday ...Going bowling with my Dad and sister on Wednesday nights was the most important thing that happened in any week from the age of maybe 4 till 7 when a step mother put a stop to all that fun. <br />He bowled and drank beer and he gave us a little money and we ran wild with all the other kids. It was the best fun ever and I still love sound of the pins but I was never a bowler.<br />The bowling alley was downtown, in a 3 story building with the rear windows looking out over the river. I remember the windows being open sometimes and we would get cans and things out of the trash to throw in the river. It was also across the street from the South Shore Train Station, where we were forbidden to go, but trains came there all the way from Chicago, 90 miles.<br />Thank youAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57113078446695664.post-19141212860511080612012-10-01T06:04:58.955-05:002012-10-01T06:04:58.955-05:00Comic books. Model airplanes. I was the original g...Comic books. Model airplanes. I was the original ghetto nerd. nomadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16196543910280589478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57113078446695664.post-73407144905121008072012-09-30T14:27:36.619-05:002012-09-30T14:27:36.619-05:00@comrade. where are those spaces now? what is goin...@comrade. where are those spaces now? what is going on in the public sphere?<br /><br />with the rise of the internet and social media are young people actually meeting up in fixed places, across generational lines, with real folks anymore? <br /><br />there are malls and skate parks. but, part of the bs we are seeing with wilding and flash mobs is that lots of young people don't have welcoming spaces anymore. and perhaps it could be that they don't know how to behave too. so why welcome them?<br /><br />we had knuckleheads there late on friday or saturday, but the manager or lane maintenance engineer would come out with a baseball bat or two by four and shoo them away. and there were lots of off duty cops, vets, mafia types, old white ethnics, and black and latino working class toughs all in the same place. <br /><br />funny thing, there was rarely if ever a fight or any controversy...even when there was a lgbqt bowling league right next to the black motorcycle club. folks all just goofed on each other and had fun.chaunceydevegahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09652406326490873337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57113078446695664.post-2771513601835621922012-09-30T13:52:40.721-05:002012-09-30T13:52:40.721-05:00Great post, holmes! When I was a little kid growin...Great post, holmes! When I was a little kid growing up in the 70s, I would go with my grandfather to the lanes for his Friday night bowling league. He was a very charismatic individual, and always the center of attention. One of his many funny quirks was that he was a jew named Saul, but he had "Sal" embroidered on his bowling shirt and went by Sal among this crowd of Vitos, Vinnies, and Tonys.<br /><br />I really have no recollection whether he was any good at bowling.Comrade Physioprofhttp://freethoughtblogs.com/physioprofnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57113078446695664.post-3097979519396516122012-09-30T12:53:32.651-05:002012-09-30T12:53:32.651-05:00@Fred. Nice to hear from you. The joys of the libr...@Fred. Nice to hear from you. The joys of the library. Stories, fun, national geographic magazines, and if you are lucky some early girly mags that slipped by the censors. I had lots of fun in the public library as you can imagine. <br /><br /><br />What about museums? Never could get into them, but I had many friends who loved to have adventures there too.chaunceydevegahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09652406326490873337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57113078446695664.post-5095253715638411142012-09-30T04:29:25.400-05:002012-09-30T04:29:25.400-05:00I had no particular success at games. I did bowl,...I had no particular success at games. I did bowl, golf, and play baseball (in its thousand urban forms), but no success because, to paraphrase Casey Stengel, skill is involved. Board games a little better, but still no glory. <br /><br />I was a good little reader though. I loved libraries, and I read huge numbers of magazines and paperbacks. I was a good customer at the library, no shenanigans, but the mag's and paperbacks were mostly lifted. If I had a skill in my youth, that was it, the lifting part. I could get over on any of them, the shops, even if they were staring at me. I always got out with what I wanted. (Plus a newspaper or something that I paid for, I read lots of those too.) <br /><br />I gave it up upon turning seventeen or eighteen, and I never got ambitious, like some of my friends did. Some guys were famous for getting out of amazing places with huge things, they were mostly showing off. I just wanted to read the stuff. <br /><br />fred chttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10812811681270634366noreply@blogger.com