When I was living in Manhattan it was rare to get a really good snowfall, one that could shut down the side streets. One such occasion was in early 1969, as you see here: I'm standing in the middle of W. 113th St., between Amsterdam and Broadway, outside the apartment building where I was now living. Here's another view, this one from my window:
(Note the awning across the street. Later that year a fine and, for us students, affordable Greek restaurant, The Symposium, opened there. We had many a delicious meal there, and remarkably it's still in operation!) The same day I took these pictures I walked down to Riverside Park to check out the scene. It must have been either a weekend or a snow day for the kids, since they were already taking great advantage of the slopes for sliding.
The following is my favorite shot of the bunch:
I was sharing the 113th St. apartment with another graduate student, Foster Hirsch, whose name will be familiar to folks in film studies and theatre. Here he is with Toby, Mike Bavar's Rhodesian ridgeback, near the end of the semester. They're at Foster's study table which doubled as the kitchen table, a support post serving as an inelegant divider from the living room. In the second photo Toby poses on her own.
That winter Mike formed the American Berlioz Society, dedicated to honoring and promoting the works of the composer Hector Berlioz. I was the president of the Society--the "dummy" president, while Mike was the brains behind the organization, because I was still enrolled as a Columbia student and he wasn't--meaning I could reserve the Graduate Student Tea Lounge for free for an evening, to host ABS events. Here are some photos I took at the first ABS gathering, where the guest of honor was Colin Davis (not yet Sir Colin), a major champion of Berlioz' music. In the first shots Davis is being interviewed by the moderator of the event; in the second he's with Francis Robinson, the assistant manager of the Metropolitan Opera, where Davis was currently conducting. In the other shots you see the moderator and the two singers Mike had engaged to sing Berlioz songs as part of the evening's entertainment. (Mike really planned well!)
The only other pictures I took during that semester form a miscellaneous grouping: two shots of the Picasso sculpture near Bleeker Street; one looking back down the ramp of the Williamsburg Bridge, part of a walk on the Lower East Side; and (just to use up the film in the roll, I think) one taken on the Columbia campus of two graduate-student friends whose names I no longer remember except that the guy on the right was another Joe.
In early summer I was back in PA for the marriage of my cousin Jo Marie, Aunt Frances' oldest daughter. Here are some pictures I took at the wedding, held in the town of Kittanning along the Allegheny River. First, my father standing next to my Uncle Tony:
Then, also along the river outside the church, Uncle Tony's daughter Connie and her husband Ralph, and my sister Ellen between two other cousins, Michele and Anita. Quite the hairdos!
Outside the church are, in the first shot, my Aunt Cil on the left and Aunt Rose on the right in blue. Then a bunch of aunts and a few cousins lined up (ask me if you'd like me to ID all the people), and an unposed shot--no doubt the bride and groom coming out of the church--with my mom waving on the left and my dad checking out his camera in the middle.
Next is the wedding car, with the bride, Jo Marie, in the back seat and her sister Betty Rose in the front:
And here, my brother is driving me up to the farm on the hill (shown in an earlier BOX) for the reception:
Finally, the wedding party: Jo Marie and her husband, Charlie, with Betty Rose to the right, their brother, Billy, at left, and cousin Beattie second from left:
Marginally printworthy is one shot of the reception inside, with my Uncle Angie in the middle.
Back in Ohio my sister and brother are holding cats instead of the usual Donya:
During that same visit to Ohio I made an out-of-state excursion in the opposite direction, with Jim Hicks joining me: to Franklin College, in the Indiana town of the same name, where Gary and Mary Gordon (see earlier BOXES) had taken teaching jobs. By this time they had a daughter, Sara. During our visit we all took a drive down to the Ohio River:
On the way back to Cleveland Jim and I stopped at Bowling Green State University, to see an I.M. Pei building on campus:
And of course, one couldn't let a Cleveland visit go by without at least a couple of goofy Donya pictures:
This has been a more people- (and animal-) centered posting than most of the previous BOXES, and probably the the most "typical-family=snapshots" posting. The next ones will be more strictly "scenic" (within the capacities of my little Instamatic), since they will show my first trip to Europe.
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