“Movie Star, Pervert or Bernie Buttons”? 😎
Early June day…must enjoy the perfect day…Dee-Dee, I say to myself. 🌞🌞🌞
Myself & I agree…so a quick coffee, bagel and I’m off…
Down by the East River Walkway to Carl Schultz Park I stroll…my daughter Michele jogs mile ahead of me.
I see the East River is strangely bottle-green today, it reminds me of the color of the grass this city dweller misses.
As I get to main center section of the park, I wave to the ancient music man who plays his recorded tapes loudly. All seem to like his selections and he is a harmless local character who adds joy. 🎵🎵🎵🕶🕶📀📀📀
I pass a guy on a bench basking in the sun…he is wearing a straw fedora hat and huge dark glasses. 😎
He looks like a celebrity incognito; I think absentmindedly, as I continue on my happy walk.
Then suddenly he grabs my arm…I’m startled…shook up.
(There is no shortage of perverts in New York City …these days) …just read the newspapers.
The man lifts his glasses up & I instantly recognize “the celebrity/pervert” who pulled me. Why its only Bernie an old friend of my late husband’s. 😀
I haven’t seen him in ages.
I shout, “Hey there Bernie, I thought you were a movie star in that hat, and glasses”!
We both laughed and hugged “Hello how the heck are you and family”?
“Oh, we’re Ok…& how are you & your girls”?
“Fine, thank you”, I answer smiling.
We start chatting away on our mutual friends & business acquaintances.
This fellow Bernie was in the button business before he retired. His company sold to our family’s clothing business, & most manufactures of the day, (when the garment center) was an important business in The Big Apple. It is no longer in existence thanks to “global trade”. The clothing business along with most of American manufacturing, shipped out of America.
The few people we knew from the old days… are either in Florida, (if they’re lucky), or as I roll my eyes upward…
Bernie nods in sad acknowledgement.
That history covered; we get to what else… back to Brooklyn stories of mid-century… as media refers to the era.
The dear old mother’s breast of Brooklyn that nourished & formed us. 😁🧡
(Unassuming, homey, funny, welcoming, safe, artsy-farty, rock ’rolling magical borough of yesteryear…)
Do others lament/mourn the neighborhoods of their youth, like us old-time Brooklynites? I wonder…🤔
It is so easy to brush away the uneasiness of today’s world, and dip back into the idyllic simpler days when we were young. (We are in our 80’s now).
Bernie’s sons now run his diminished button business.
A relic of the past.
