I just returned from a visit to Rochester. The weather was summer perfect with constantly changing skies but mostly full of sunshine. I stayed at the new 384 East Ave Inn which had beautiful rooms, plentiful parking and great location. The Inn is still under development (because of which they are offering bargain rates) but from what we experienced it is going to be a super addition to a busy and beautiful part of town. From a personal perspective, the Inn is interesting because it is in the place of the old Treadway Inn. The Treadway had a nice (fancy to us) restaurant where we used to go after family First Communions. The new owners expect to have the new restaurant serving by next summer so we'll look forward to visiting again.
Walking around the East Avenue to Park Avenue area is a pleasure on a nice summer day. We had breakfast one day at the Frog Pond and lunch one day at the corner of Park and Oxford joining others who were eating at sidewalk tables. This was fun because I used to visit The Roosevelt apartment building on the opposite corner when I lived in Rochester. I was very surprised to see that the building at Oxford and East is no longer the home of the nuns who once hosted retreats there. But I did notice that the residence behind the old Cenacle building is still there - all covered in ivy like an out of place forest dwelling.
Of course we stopped at Abbott's to enjoy some frozen custard and took advantage of easy access to Wegmans (which we have to drive 15 miles to get to where I live nowadays). It was a short trip, mostly spent at a delightful family reunion which was held in Penfield. I always wish I had more time to roam around when I'm in Rochester...to see what has changed and also to see what has not.
All you folks who are living there now are lucky....especially during the beautiful summer days.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Don't Give Up On Me
I have been out of the blog for awhile but I intend to begin some new directions this summer.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Music
Up until 7th or 8th grade most of the music I was exposed to beyond nursery tunes and songs we learned in school, was the music of my parents' record albums. I hardly remember most of them but I do recall some favorites: The Guns of Navarone, The Sound Of Music, Oklahoma, The King and I. We knew the scores and/or the words by heart after hearing them played so many times.
My first experience of Pop Music was riding to Canandaigua Lake in a friend's family car. His older sister and her friends (teenagers to our preteen status) sang every song that came on the radio... songs of the "Johnny Angel", "It's My Party (and I'll cry if I want to)", "My Boyfriend's Back (and there's gonna be trouble"), etc. ilk. It revealed a new world to me. Soon, all that would change. Maybe just something girls get into before boys. Heck, we (boys) were just separating ourselves from incessant sports-related activities.....girls were just appearing around the corner of our lives. But like I said, all that would soon change.
When I was in the 8th grade, my high school sister asked me what album I would like for my birthday. She suggested one (Meet The Beatles) from a new group she had heard about but I chose Johnny Tillotson because I liked "Poetry in Motion" and at that point hadn't heard of The Beatles. It's funny to think how in one month the (musical) world changed. By the time my birthday came, the Beatles had become a global phenomena and it didn't take long before we were listening to 'Meet The Beatles' non-stop round-the clock on the family stereo (while getting parental warnings on how that music was going to "ruin the needle"). Soon the "British Invasion" hit in full force and we began to define ourselves by our favorite groups. Everyone loved The Beatles but The Rolling Stones fans fancied themselves a bit rougher around the edges, The Dave Clark 5'ers less so, etc.
It was a pretty innocent age of music - the British rock and soon after the Folk resurgence. Like those teenagers on that drive to Canandaigua, we soon knew every song on the radio.
My first experience of Pop Music was riding to Canandaigua Lake in a friend's family car. His older sister and her friends (teenagers to our preteen status) sang every song that came on the radio... songs of the "Johnny Angel", "It's My Party (and I'll cry if I want to)", "My Boyfriend's Back (and there's gonna be trouble"), etc. ilk. It revealed a new world to me. Soon, all that would change. Maybe just something girls get into before boys. Heck, we (boys) were just separating ourselves from incessant sports-related activities.....girls were just appearing around the corner of our lives. But like I said, all that would soon change.
When I was in the 8th grade, my high school sister asked me what album I would like for my birthday. She suggested one (Meet The Beatles) from a new group she had heard about but I chose Johnny Tillotson because I liked "Poetry in Motion" and at that point hadn't heard of The Beatles. It's funny to think how in one month the (musical) world changed. By the time my birthday came, the Beatles had become a global phenomena and it didn't take long before we were listening to 'Meet The Beatles' non-stop round-the clock on the family stereo (while getting parental warnings on how that music was going to "ruin the needle"). Soon the "British Invasion" hit in full force and we began to define ourselves by our favorite groups. Everyone loved The Beatles but The Rolling Stones fans fancied themselves a bit rougher around the edges, The Dave Clark 5'ers less so, etc.
It was a pretty innocent age of music - the British rock and soon after the Folk resurgence. Like those teenagers on that drive to Canandaigua, we soon knew every song on the radio.
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