Yesterday afternoon I was itemizing all my bills for a finance seminar later in the evening. I chose to do it outside in the sun to offset the bleak picture in front of me. :) So, Im sitting at one of those built-in chessboard table combos outside of Athens Park here in Astoria, hunched over my calculator/phone with pen and paper, scribbling, sweating, and this older gent wheels his little cart and sits down along a park bench a few feet away. After a moment he starts singing Every time it rains, it rains pennies from heaven... I looked up and said if only. He seemed startled, and then excitedly asked you know that song?! I sang back to him the next few lines, and this started one of the most interesting and lovely conversations Ive had in quite a while. Frank, 85, born in Malta, still married to the best girl he ever knew, from Liverpool. Her family knew Ringos parents. The first movie he ever saw was Ben Hur, the silent version. He had a printing shop a few blocks away on 21st for years, was a doorman, lived all over the place, had been in 2 movies, one of them directed by Cassavettes, shot right on Ditmars, also a tv show and a commercial, danced with 3 starlets at the Roseland Ballroom, one being Charo when she was married to Xavier Cougat, who was very jealous but okd it for one dance. He is currently reading a bio on Marilyn Monroe, and informed me of some of Tony Curtis anecdotes about time on set of Some Like It Hot. I told him it was one of my favorite movies. He hoped he wasnt intruding on me, and I said, Frank I could sit here and talk to you all afternoon, but unfortunately I have to go talk about money. He whistled thru his one tooth that money never bothered me much. I never really had any, but I didnt think about it. I think the best lesson I got yesterday is that it pays to get outside of yourself. Now if only my landlord took Franks...
Posted on: Fri, 25 Jul 2014 18:22:33 +0000
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