Posted on 08/04/2024 5:05:09 AM PDT by MtnClimber
This is a true story.
It was reduced in length to a “thumbnail size” some time ago as an exercise in brevity.
Such extreme reduction of a story without blurring its essential character was, I think, good practice in limiting my usual writing to indispensable details, words and phrases. I chose this story, first for its first-hand look at what was open to one living in New York City before 1960, and second for its portrayal of an American who survived most of the 20th century and continues to write about it.
==========
A boy from Brooklyn, born when Frankenstein and Dracula made their screen debuts, was named after an uncle in Sicily that he never saw and would never meet. Anthony lived in a tenement flat during the Great Depression with two older brothers, mama and papa. Anthony was six before he saw his first Christmas tree. His first Christmas present was a toy Tommy gun that rat-a-tat-tatted and shot sparks.
A player piano in the parlor, from better times, drew out Anthony’s talent for music. An opera coach taught him to play, awarding him a medal of achievement at a student piano recital. Anthony also learned to play the pipe organ in his high school auditorium. The music teacher needed a double bass player for the orchestra and Anthony took lessons from bassists in Radio City Music Hall and the NBC Symphony.
His oldest brother was highly literate and articulate, and his father spouted reams of Italian poetry from memory. The serious young musician of the family had a way with words and pictures on paper. Anthony wrote mysterious little stories that reminded an English teacher of Edgar Allan Poe.
The budding author loved to grow things. He developed a green thumb watching and helping his father
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
You will have to read until the end to understand.
We are Freeper. That is not the way of our people. So instead I will post this picture of an alien.
Also, I feel the same way as does the author. Not to be a spoiler, but Reagan said something similar about the democrat party.
LOL!
LOL!
later
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.