Where Do I Begin?

Where do I begin? To tell the story of how great.... Oops... this is a blog, not a song fest! Still, the question remains, where do I begin this blog? How about a little bit about me?


I grew up the youngest in the family. Not too hard to do when you only have one sibling, an elder brother. My brother's name is Joe and he is about 12 years my senior. I guess you could say I was a "whoops".


My hometown is Baltimore, Maryland. Yep... I'm a misplaced Baltimorean. I grew up listening to Chuck Thompson call the Orioles' games ("Go to war, Miss Agnes!") and the records spun by the DJ, Johnny Dark, on "radio six-oh, WCAO". It's nice to know that Johnny Dark is still transmitting songs. Now, however, as of last year, he was on "The Hop" on WorldSpace Satellite Radio. He was way cool in the 60's.


Summer nights were spent hanging out at the park with friends and a transistor radio, listening to music, looking for shooting stars, chatting, and just being with people we liked. The days were long & lazy and we spent them fishing & crabbing. Sometimes, we cook our catch right there on the shore of the creek.


There were no malls and we shopped "downtown" at Hutzlers, Hoschild Kohns, Stewarts and Hechts. Hoschilds had a tea room on an upper floor (perhaps the 7th or 11th) where the ladies were expected to wear hats & gloves. They had linen tablecloths & napkins, crystal stemware, and silverware that was silver. This kid from the wrong side of the tracks felt like she was really "uptown" when mom & I would go there for lunch. Other downtown stores were Stewarts, Hutzlers and Hecht Co. Stewarts had lovely, animated displays in the windows for Christmas.


Anyway, hon... I'm Baltimorean through & through, regardless of living where I do. In Baltimore, every kitchen has a can of Old Bay and so does mine here in New Mexico. More later...