Monday, June 1, 2009

Scenes from Blowfish's Youth!


















14 comments:

Buzz Kill said...

I was on the Staten Island Ferry once when I was a child. I was with my uncle and we went to the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building. That was a lot of walking that day.

Happy MMM!

fishy said...

Hey Buzz,
The Staten Island ferry was part of Blowfish's life, At 12 he was up early in the mornings to park the cars for the folks commuting on the ferry. Got that job early in life cause his granddad had just about the only car dealership on the island and he had learned how to "car jockey" down at the dealership. Then when he got his first job in Manhatten, he would still be the car jockey til the Ferry left. On the way from island to island he would put on a tie and suit coat work all day, take the ferry home and car jockey some more.

h said...

These were incredible pics. Really liked this one. Does Blowfish call Manhattan "the city"?
Liked the story for Buzz's comment too.

Aunty Belle said...

OH!!! thIS IS REALLY WAY KOOL fISHY...i KNOW bLOWFISH WAS CHARMED YA CHOSE THIS--WONDERUL!!

sO NEAT.

HAPPY MM!

Bear said...

This is excellent... I like the connection to Blowfish's life.

Happy MM.

Nan-Nan said...

That's some good nostalgia Fishy. Happy MM.

fishy said...

Troll,
Yes he does! No matter where he is he always refers to NYNY either as " the city" or "Manhatten". It actually always surprises him the number of people who do not know Staten Island is one of the five borroughs that makes up
"the city"

Aunty Belle,
Well he might like it or he might skin me! But he was a lifguard on those beaches....pictures of him in those all in one wool lifeguard bathing suits is a riot. His Staten Island Academy graduating class was a whopping 13 kids! He played soccer professionally for a year after high school, was seeded #3 in NY tennis "before tennis players made money", detailed new cars for the grand dad and went to the dairy in the summers to deliver milk with his Uncle Frank. Great stories from that yankee man .

Hey Bear,
Thanks. This post made me think about all the early stories about Blowfish. His mama's scrapbooks of newspaper clippings of Blowfish's lifeguarding successes, soccer and tennis playing are still in a box in Blowfish's office. That box is quite the memory trip!

Kiki said...

Nice pics! I love looking at black and whites

Happy MM!

Jenny said...

is that your blowfish as a yout? What a great way to do your Mute.... I looked for family pictures of my Mother's farm in upstate New York, but couldn't find any. I love all of the pictures, but the beach shots are my favorite. Happy MM!

chickory said...

neato. is blowfish in any of these? happy MM

Vixen said...

SO SO cool! Loved looking through the pics! :)

happyMONDAY!

moi said...

How cool! These photos are fabulous. My father was born and raised in "the city" and he and his sisters have the greatest stories. I treasure the photos from their youth as well. Happy Mute Monday!

Kymical Reactions said...

this is the coolest and most original New York post I've seen. This made it personal. Great job Fishy!

fishy said...

Hey Ya'll,
Thanks for those nice comments. Thing is, I rarely think about New York without connecting it to Blowfish. In his youth, Staten Island was mostly farm lands. He has some good stories about all the fun of having the freedom to explore this Island before it became urbanized and, well dangerous.

He went to those schools and beaches, ice skated at that rink, traveled by ferry and so forth. The shipyard in the middle was very active during WWII and when our warships came in for repairs or went out to return to the efforts pretty much the entire island population would go down to the shipyard to cheer em in or out. His daddy was AirForce, not Navy but, he tells about feeling like he was
" helping his Dad win the war"
when he went down to the shipyard events.

While the men were off at war his paternal grandmother, his Dad's two sisters , he and his Mom and 2 boy cousins all lived in one of the houses in the posting. The women all had "war jobs" so those boys were looked after, or not, depending on what "mother" was home.