Busy & Well

As my old pal Amy wrote, spring has finally sprung in New York--even in Jersey City--and it has just been too damn nice to be inside blogging. That don't pay the bills either.

Life got good and busy, too. Or maybe just a little better than last week. The good, simple things were easy to take notice of and enjoy: Dinner with the sister and new brother-in-law looking happy and relaxed only after arriving back from their honeymoon. Breakfast at home with the folks down the Jersey Shore Saturday morning and the kitchen table busy with eggs, bagels, coffee, tea and a half dozen newspapers and a dozen opinions from three people. Discovering a cool little neighborhood bar in Downtown Jersey City Saturday night with fair drink prices, cool heads enjoying and theme party nights. Saturday's theme at The White Star was "Catholic School Girl" night. If the ladies wore the uniform, drinks were only a dollar each for them all night. It was some sight unknowingly walking into the jumping joint jammed with twenty-five gals in short plaid skirts and pigtails as the Clash blasted through the smoky air. First glance at the bar was almost as brilliant as the end of the night with four “school girls” and the owner, "Father Paul" in white collar, dancing on the bar to Barry White.

Then Sunday morning came too soon. But it was a beautiful, sunny day even though you could never again buy a New York City subway token. But coffee and the Daily News were enough on the D train as I made my way to a birthday party at the American Museum of Natural History. The smart and beautiful Alina, daughter of Eve and Brad, was celebrating her forth birthday in style, and with some very cool old bones that used to walk the earth. Wonderful, educational bash and the birthday girl truly enjoyed.

After a train downtown and a train under the Hudson, it was time to open the bar in Hoboken. I was lucky enough to be pulling the Sunday night shift at The Quiet Woman, covering for Big John. It was a pleasant, rather slow night with the front door open for spring air and the regulars were as brilliant as always. As were the new souls who discovered a new Sunday night hangout—like the tired, lost soul from St. Louis who is working on Spider-Man II in the city.

Then after two in the a.m., when the chairs were up and the money done, the phone call came. A fire was raging just a few blocks away and not everyone got out in time.

The smoke hit the back of the throat the moment I walked out of the bar. It wasn’t leaves or paper or tires burning. You could smell it was a home in flames.

The four blocks to the fire went quick, and the camera was ready half-way there. Thick smoke hung low to the ground three blocks away and there was an evil red glow in the middle of the 500 block of Madison Street. Around the fire trucks and over the charged hose lines I went to a front stoop dead opposite the burning building that you could see was destroyed already. The fire started in a faulty stove on the second floor and quickly spread though the old, short building. By five a.m. it would mostly be a shell of bricks, and the bodies of a 79-year-old mother and her 51-year-old son would have been removed from the charred third floor not long before.

I made my pictures before some rookie cops not used to power forced me from my spot. But there was enough in the camera and time to go home.

Monday morning was sunny again, and that almost seemed odd and I hadn’t enjoyed much sleep. But I was up and out by half nine and down to the lab. By eleven I had negatives that looked decent. I called the Times. They wanted to have a look.

The fire picture made page D7 of the Times’ Metro section Tuesday. My first domestic picture in the Times ever. Felt brilliant rifling through the paper first thing in the morning to see how I did. Not too bad at all.

That was Tuesday morning on Madison Ave and by Tuesday evening I was watching a pink and orange sunset over the Barnegat Bay as a full moon was rising over the Atlantic. The salty air of the Jersey Shore on a warm spring evening was only refreshing, putting a true smile on the face. Summer, and more good things, felt near.