Category: family history

The Truth About Harold

“When I was growing up, the only photo of my Uncle Harold that I ever saw showed a handsome man in a tuxedo.” A graphic novella about family secrets…

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Over & Back

When the City of New York and the union representing workers on the Staten Island Ferry finally reached a long-term labor agreement in September, I felt intensely – even unreasonably – proud. The pact provided about 150 crew members with their first wage hikes in thirteen years, an astounding period for any workforce to keep…… Continue reading Over & Back

Shot List

When you live in the old house on Staten Island that has been in your family for seventy-five years, you inevitably inherit some ghosts. Sometimes they’re shadows, sometimes sounds. And sometimes they turn up in the form of brittle Super 8 celluloid. When the pandemic hit and I, like most people, had time on my…… Continue reading Shot List

Family Stuff

One night in the kitchen too stubborn for a walker mom hit the linoleum hard. Femur smashed but flush with adrenaline piss & vinegar she went under the knife and jesus christ survived. Dying to get back home she died instead in bed at the post-op rehab place. Sad but not so bad if you…… Continue reading Family Stuff

The House on the Hill

The house is a talisman – all of it – built circa 1915 in the Rosebank section of Staten Island, bought by my parents in 1948 for ten grand (a stretch for them, then), wood-framed and cedar-shingled (shingled, that is, until they cocooned it in tawny aluminum circa 1970). The two-floor, three-and-a-half bedroom, one-bathroom house…… Continue reading The House on the Hill