• Broadway in the rain New York City
    Stories

    Old 59

    The garage is deathly quiet late this Saturday in July, a stifling summer New York night, smokey and sultry.  No mechanics, no drivers.  One tow boy on duty.  He’d spend the night hauling in busted-up cabs chained to the bumper…

  • Wildfire
    Stories

    Fire Talk to Me

    Luke woke at dawn to Marie’s sweet face. “Coffee’s ready,” she said, and she kissed him on the head. She didn’t have to breathe deeply to get the stink of stale alcohol coming off him. They had a fight about…

  • Firefighters at night
    Stories

    Tree Pose

    I was entirely unequipped to be a firefighter, and not particularly rugged. I was a city kid who knew bupkus about the forest. There were trees in Brooklyn, I suppose, but I didn’t pay attention to them. I took firefighting…

  • Grateful Dead 1970
    Stories

    Raising the Dead in Brooklyn

    November 11, 1970, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. I just turned 18, free and alive, pursuing any adventure that came my way, when I heard about the Grateful Dead playing in the adjoining neighborhood of Borough Park. It was Alison Steele, The…