Vegas 75

January 26, 2025 / Sue and Frank D'Elia / 2 Comments

We’ve just come back from a fabulous week in Las Vegas and I have my wonderful wife, and 3 of our kids to thank for the trip. Way back in August, I was informed by Susie, our daughter Krissi, her twin brother Kenny, and Krissi’s husband Mike, that in honor of my upcoming 75th birthday, they were going to take me to Las Vegas to celebrate! After discussing dates and everybody’s life schedule, it was decided that we’d arrive on the 12th, as that was 10 days after my actual 75th birthday, and the kids would take the red-eye home on Wednesday the 15th, with Susie and I staying till that Friday. We had months to go and plan, but before we knew it Summer was over, Thanksgiving and Christmas came and went, my birthday was here on January 2nd, and the trip was just 10 days away. Now it was real and we went into travel mode, re-checking reservations, grabbing our suitcases at the storage place, and deciding what to take. At the last minute, Mike’s boss decided that they needed to have a meeting in Vegas, so he flew out a couple of days early. On the morning of January 12th, the four of us (Krissi and Kenny in New York and Susie and I in Ocean City) got up way too early and prepared to head to Las Vegas! Here are some highlights of the trip, because if I detailed everything we did, you’d still be reading this on my 76th birthday!

SUNDAY

We were fortunate to be able to use miles we had to reserve round trip First Class seats to Vegas on American Airlines. Although we’d driven to Philly every time we’d flown since moving to OC, this time we were trying something different. We were booked directly from Atlantic City International Airport to Las Vegas…..but how you ask? American Airlines had begun bus service from various regional airports to Philly. The trip was booked like a connecting flight, but leg one was in a luxury bus with the American logo on the side. The only wrinkle was that we got to Atlantic City’s Airport a little after 4 AM, but the American folks didn’t show till 5 AM! Oh well, there was nothing we could do about it at this point, so we waited till he got there, checked our bags in to Las Vegas, went through our TSA Screening, and waited for the bus at the assigned gate. The ride to the Philly airport was fast and trouble free (it was still dark on a Sunday morning) and we arrived in plenty of time to make our “connecting flight”. Having gone through TSA Screening in AC, we had no need to do it again. The bus actually drives on the field, dodging planes that are parked and taxiing, and drops you off right next to the shuttle to other terminals. From one bus to another and quickly from Terminal F to Terminal A and our flight to Las Vegas! This was so super easy, and it is something we’d definitely take advantage of if we fly again. The flight was great, with an excellent Mexican Egg Enchilada breakfast and several Cranberry and Vodkas, and before we knew it, we were starting our decent into Las Vegas’ McCarran International Airport.

Kenny and Krissi’s flight from JFK had gotten in about a half hour before us, and we met them in the baggage claim area. They parked the old folks in a couple of seats, and proceeded to collect our two suitcases, and then the 4 of us headed out of the terminal and boarded the Rental Car Shuttle Bus. We picked up our BMW SUV, and in no time we were driving down the Strip on our way to our hotel, Paris. We’d chosen Paris because of it’s mid-strip location, and the fact that all of us could get rooms for just the cost of the Resort Fee and Taxes (just out $50). During the check-in process, the young lady wondered if we’d like to upgrade to a suite. “How much?” we asked. When she replied $285 we said, “No Thanks!” When she said $85, we said yes. We had a lovely one bedroom suite with a living room, two bathrooms, and a view of the Eiffel Tower and the fountains of the Bellagio across Las Ve

After we were all checked in and settled in our rooms, we met in the casino and had our first drinks in Las Vegas at Le Central Bar.

After drinks, and a visit to a few slot machines, we were hungry, so we visited Bobby Flay’s Burger Bar for a bite to eat. Later that evening, a long time friend of Kenny’s, and a Vegas resident, Megan, along with her husband Daniel paid us a visit. We ended up in Vanderpump à Paris, which according to the kids, is a bar/restaurant owned by some reality TV star. All we knew was that it had a nice atmosphere and would be good for conversation. The kids were additionally excited that our waiter was somebody’s son, and had also been featured on this reality show. Don’t ask us…..

After a couple of more drinks, the older folks were tired and headed to bed, leaving the night to the young!

MONDAY

Monday in Vegas was a special day among special days! 20 years ago, on the occasion of our 25th Wedding Anniversary, Susie and I, along with our great friends Pat and Steve Grosskopf, flew to Las Vegas, and at the Chapel of the Bells Wedding Chapel (the place where Clark and Ellen Griswold renewed their vow in Vegas Vacation), we renewed our vows. Susie got the bright idea that since we’d just celebrated our 45 Wedding Anniversary back on September 29th, and with 3 of our kids in attendance, we should once again renew our vows. With Krissi as the Matron of Honor and Kenny as the Best Man, and Mike as our witness, for the second time at the Chapel of the Bells, we renewed our Wedding Vows.

It was a lovely service, and afterwards we adjourned to our suite at the hotel for a sparking wine toast! Later that night, we Uberred to Lawry’s Prime Rib for some martinis and a wonderful dinner. Susie and I have been there, as had Kenny, but Krissi and Mike were Lawry’s virgins. We had a couple of great martinis in their beautiful bar, and an excellent dinner with wonderful food and a great waiter. We’d been singing this place’s praises to Krissi and Mike for weeks, and after dinner, when I asked Mike if I’d oversold Lawry’s, he said that on the contrary, I’d undersold it! It was a great night with Kenny taking care of transportation and drinks, and Krissi and Mike picking up the dinner bill! Krissi and Mike told us that they tried to get our oldest Billy to join us as a surprise, but with his family and work situation, it was impossible.

TUESDAY

Tuesday was reserved for downtown/Fremont Street. We tried to get a cab for all 5 of us, but the doorman said there were no large cabs in the line, and two cabs would be about $56. For $60 we took a party van, (Krissi’s a good negotiator) and a good time was had by all! We toured various casinos, won and lost some money, had some drinks, and ended the adventure with a couple of cheeseburgers each from White Castle! What a great day!

We had the party van drop us off at the Horseshoe casino next door to Paris, and after some gambling (and winning – “put a dollar in, win a car”), we adjourned to Guy Fieri’s Flavortown Sports Kitchen.

Everybody enjoyed their meal, and once again it was time for Mom and Dad to call it a night, and leave the fun to our three younger partners.

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday was a sad day because it was the kids last day in Vegas, but we still had some fun! Back in 2003, Susie and I got the idea that someday we might want to retire to Las Vegas. With this in mind, with the help of our friend Sharon, we bought a house in Vegas. We picked out the model, the lot it was to be built on, and all the finishes and appliances. 3 months later, the build on 10423 Gwynns Falls St. was completed, and although the plans were to rent it out, we decided that we were going to be the first people to sleep in the house. We shipped a king sized aerobed to Sharon, and spent 3 nights living there before we rented it out. We timed it right, and land values in Vegas skyrocketed. We rented the house out for the entire time we owned it (paying our costs) and sold the house 22 months later for a profit of about $135,000. That profit became the downpayment on our Ocean City house, so this Vegas house in a very real way led to us purchasing our now forever home! I’ve told you that story so I could tell you that we started Wednesday by getting the car from the Valet at Paris, and we drove out to visit our house.

The area had grown greatly in the past 22 years, but we were able to find the house. We drove the neighborhood, took some pictures and then headed off to our second stop of the day, an early lunch at In-N-Out Burger.

In-N-Out Burger is a West Coast only chain that we’ve known about for the last 20+ years. During that time, anytime we’ve made a trip to California or Nevada, the trip has included at least one stop at an In-N-Out. In 2016, when we drove across the country after I retired, we even found one in Idaho! The last time we’d eaten here was about 7 years ago, so a stop was a necessity, and we chose one near the Vegas house on Eastern Avenue. Susie and I ordered Double Doubles Animal Style and Animal Style Fries well done and a couple of drinks. I’m sad to say that we were not (nor were the kids) blown away by the food. Perhaps the hype over the past 7 years has been too much, or the quality has changed, or our taste has changed, but Susie said she’d rather have had a Big Mac and frankly the fries stunk! To be brutally honest, I enjoyed the White Castle cheese burgers the night before on Fremont Street better!

After a disappointing lunch, we headed to another one of our favorites, Green Valley Ranch for some more gambling! We marveled how the area around the casino has grown since we first came here 20+ years ago, and gambled for an hour of so alongside and apart from the kids. Having had enough of our adventure for the day, we loaded into the car, and drove back to Paris.

Wednesday’s evening meal would be our last with the kids, and we decided to go back to Vanderpump’s. We were shown to a great private table in the back of the restaurant, ordered some drinks and an assortments of some wonderful finger foods, and thoroughly enjoyed our last meal together!

With still some time to kill before the kids had to head off to the airport, we returned to our room, and had a rousing game of Texas Hold-em with Mike serving as the dealer and using another deck of cards as chips. We had some drinks, enjoyed the cards, and our time together till we said our goodbyes, and Krissi, Mike, and Kenny headed off to the airport.

THURSDAY

Now with just the two of us, Susie and I had plans to visit one of our favorite places in Las Vegas, Red Rock Canyon. 25 years ago, on our first trip to Vegas, we’d explored the canyon, and it was a place that we have visited virtually every time we’ve been to Vegas! It frankly was the place we fell in love with in the Las Vegas desert and probably the inspiration for even thinking we might enjoy retirement there. Luckily for us, our friend Eileen was in Vegas the week before us, and through her Facebook posts discovered that you now needed a reservation to tour the canyon, so I went on line and secured one for 1 PM on Thursday afternoon.

Thursday morning we got the car and headed around the 215 Beltway to one of our favorite Hotel/Casinos, located just down the road from Red Rock. Red Rock Resort and Casino is about as far away from the Las Vegas Strip as you can get and still be in Vegas and we love it. The first time we went to Red Rock Canyon the hotel wasn’t even there yet, but it’s now one of our favorite destinations. We started with an early lunch in the Coffee Shop, and then killed some time gambling before we headed off to the canyon for our 1 o’clock reservation. As I said, we’ve visited the canyon many times, and have even brought friends there over the years. The main thing we are interested in is the 13 mile scenic loop, and within no time, off we went.

After taking a little more than an hour on the loop, we headed back to Red Rock Resort to play a few more games of chance, we returned to Paris to think about packing our suitcase and to have dinner at the Cafe Americano.

FRIDAY

Friday was our last day, as we were scheduled to take the red-eye back to first Philadelphia and then on to Atlantic City and home. We checked out and left the hotel about 10 AM, and decided to have breakfast at a Nevada place we’d first been to in Reno, Peg’s Glorious Ham and Eggs. We decided to take advantage of their menu and take a brief trip back to Hawaii and both enjoyed Loco Moco, a dish we’d first had at Oahu’s Rainbow Cafe. We enjoyed it a lot!

Then, after filling the rental car with gas, we returned to Red Rock Resort, where we’d decided to spend the rest of the day. Now this resort in addition to a hotel and casino, and a bunch of restaurants also has a bowling alley and a 12 screen movie theater. No, we didn’t go bowling, but after gambling and having some luck for a couple of hours, we bought tickets and throughly enjoyed the movie Wicked!

It was a great last day, but it was time to head home, so after the movie we grabbed a bite at the resort’s food court (Orange Chicken and Fried Rice at Panda Express), hit the bathrooms, and headed back to the Vegas Car Rental Center, and the shuttle bus back to Terminal 1.

The flight to Philly, the transfer between terminals, and the bus back to Atlantic City worked perfectly, and early on Saturday morning we were reunited with our brand new Honda CRV, in the parking garage at the AC airport, and were on our way home!

It was a great trip, a wonderful way to celebrate the 75th anniversary of my birth, and just so special to renew our vows with Kenny, Krissi and Mike in attendance. Thanks to our great kids and my wonderful wife for coming up with the idea, and then being part of this adventure!

The Adventure Continues……

This is Happening Way Too Often Lately

November 14, 2024 / Sue and Frank D'Elia / 1 Comment

Mike McKay was a DJ that I worked with at WABC. Mike started in 1979 after Harry Harrison, Chuck Leonard and George Michael were let goThanksgiving weekend, in what’s become known as the Thanksgiving Massacre at WABC. We started as co-workers and quickly became friends. I have fond memories of sitting on the board in 8A with him as we did Yankee games, including the night we decided to have a real baseball game experience and sent Angel Bourdon to the Joy Deli for beer and popcorn! Mike would come in, do the log as we engineered the game, and then after the game was over, he’d do a music show. Then there was the time that Mike, Sue Lee, and I traveled in a limo to do an interview with Kenny Rogers at the Meadowlands. I know we had a great time doing it, but for some reason, it never got on the air??

As I said, we quickly became friends, and Susie and I were guests at Mike and Nancy’s house in Malvern, Long Island, and they were guests in ours. That was where we discovered that Mike McKay was just his professional name. His real name was Jay Heavey.

In 1982, WABC Musicradio 77 became Talkradio 77, and Mike stayed on, working as a staff announcer alongside Johnny Donovan, but he was young and really wanted to be a DJ. In 1984 he left WABC and began his DJ trek around the country, with stops in Salt Lake City, Indianapolis and Detroit. Eventually he found a home in the Southwest and in 1997, he, Nancy, and their daughter Erin moved to El Paso, Texas, where he did voice over work, and became part owner of a station and their morning man.

In 2016 after both Susie and I were retired, we embarked on what we called our “Bucket List” trip, It turned out to be a 9 week trip across the United States, driving just under 10,000 miles. I’d posted a couple of stories about the trip, and Mike got in touch and wanted to know if we were going to be getting down their way. I told him we were, and that we already had hotel reservations, but he would hear nothing of it. He insisted that we stay with him and Nancy and be their guests. Susie and I spent several days in El Paso with Mike and Nancy, and it was like no time had passed. I will treasure the memories of that time with our friends that we first met a long time ago.

As I said in this blog in September of 2016, “We rang the doorbell and Nancy and Mike came and greeted us. Handshakes and hugs were exchanged (Mike and I hugged, while Nancy and Susie shook hands), and they invited us inside. The first thing that happened was we got a tour of their lovely house, found out that they were giving us their bedroom for the two nights, and then Mike started the blender and whipped up frozen margaritas. This relationship showed great promise. Drinks in hand, we adjourned to their lovely backyard, which has a pool and ultimate privacy. In minutes, it was like the last 30+ plus years had not happened, and we were all much younger, having fun in their old house in Malvern, Long Island! At one point, Nancy and Mike went in separate directions to make dinner preparations, and Susie looked at me and said, “this is good…very good,” and it was.

We had our first home-cooked meal in close to 5 weeks (Filet Mignon, Twice Baked Potatoes, Broccoli, and Bernaise sauce for the steaks), and it was a wonderful night of food, conversation, and great friendship (and semi-frozen Margaritas). We sat around the dining room table talking till almost midnight, when the 4 of us realized we’d better get to bed.” We later found out that Mike and Nancy also wondered if the relationship we had 30+ years earlier would still be there. The 4 of us were thrilled to learn it was!

As the title says, this is happening way too often as of late. Wednesday morning, I got a call from Mike’s wife Nancy who told me he went peacefully in his sleep, something she said he always wanted. He was a great radio guy, husband, father, and friend, and I will miss our interactions. As I said, it’s happening too often!

Nancy said she hopes to have a memorial in New York in the future.

One question I’ll never know the answer to from 9/11

September 11, 2024 / Sue and Frank D'Elia / Leave a comment

The morning of September 11, 2001 was a sunny beautiful late summer morning on Long Island. The temperature was cool, the sky was blue, there were little or no clouds, and the humidity of summer was gone. It was one of those late summer days that hint to the wonderful days of the coming fall season. It was a totally normal day as I walked from the parking garage to my usual place on the Manhattan bound platform of the Mineola Long Island Rail Road platform, and waited for the 7:24 train to Penn Station.

All along the platform there were groups of LIRR regulars, who gathered at the proper location to board their desired car of the train. It might be a matter of knowing where that car would platform in Penn Station, or might be a gained knowledge of what cars on the train might be a little less crowded at that time of the morning. Being creatures of habit, you tended to see many of the same folks day after day waiting on the platform with you, on the train already when you got on, or getting on the train at the Merrilon Avenue and New Hyde Park stops. By in large you hadn’t talked to them and knew nothing about them beyond the fact that they took the 7:24 train to Penn and sat in the second car from the end of the train most days.

Of course, that normal feeling of the morning of September 11th ended when we watched the second plane hit the South Tower of the World Trade Center just after 9 AM! Most of us were then aware that we’d just entered a new world and life would never be the same. The horror of the day continued to unfold as we watched on live television the unfathomable happen with both towers of the World Trade Center collapsing. Rumors were everywhere, and working 17 Floors above Penn Station, and just two blocks from the now tallest building in NYC, the Empire State Building, nobody was sure if there were more attacks coming, and if so, where would they strike. When they finally opened Penn Station late that afternoon, the trip home was strange and very quiet, and when the train came out of the tunnel in Queens, I think most of us looked to the south where the twin towers of the WTC were that morning, but now there was just a pillar of smoke.

The days, weeks, and months following September 11th were very odd in the New York Metropolitan area. Living in Mineola on Long Island, depending on the weather patterns, we were under the landing pattern for either La Guardia, or JFK, and were very used to having a plane go over head every couple of minutes, but with air travel in the United States grounded in the days after 9/11, the skies were eerily quiet. Almost immediately, there were American flags everywhere. Continuing to travel into Manhattan daily on the Long Island Rail Road, the trains were very quiet, especially when we got to the point in Queens where we used to be able to see the towers and now just saw smoke. Penn Station was also very different than it had been before 9/11. There were armed soldiers everywhere and many more police than usual. As the days went on, people started placing pictures of loved ones on bulletin boards, around the station, asking people if anybody had seen them after the towers fell. Security in office buildings all over the city was increased, especially in ours at 2 Penn Place, being above Penn Station. At home, we were missing friends who were members of the NYPD, the NYFD, and even local volunteers, all who were involved in World Trade Center Search and Rescue, and then Recovery. It was a sad time for sure, but also a time that everyone felt we were united as one; there to support each other!

As I said in the beginning, those of us who were daily Long Island Rail Road riders into Manhattan were creatures of habit, traveling on the same train and sitting in the same car everyday. But there were people I’d seen for months, and many that I saw on the 7:24 to Penn Station on that fateful September morning that I never saw again. I always wondered, were these fellow LIRR travelers victims that died in the WTC, or people who were traumatized by the events of 9/11, and just didn’t have the ability to go to work in Manhattan anymore, or had something else change their commuting patterns? As I said, one question I’ll never know the answer to from 9/11.

Restaurant Memories

August 6, 2024 / Sue and Frank D'Elia / Leave a comment

We were on Long Island recently for the first time in months, for the Wake of a good friend, Jimmy McGuire. Driving around areas and through neighborhoods that were part of our lives for over 60 years brought back lots of thoughts and memories. As we were driving through Westbury, Susie said to me, “What was the name of that restaurant on Post Avenue that was across the street from the Westbury Train Station?” Well, we wracked our brains, and although we remembered the Wheatley Hills Tavern just up the street, we couldn’t for the life of us remember the name of the restaurant Susie had asked about. We continued to search our brains, and Susie did her letter association, which usually works for her, but nothing. It wasn’t till we were on the Garden State Parkway hours later that the name came to her…The Piping Rock Inn! Remembering that started us thinking about other restaurants that we’d enjoyed, but that are no longer in existence, and Susie said to me, “You should right a blog about them.” And so, here it is! The one thing all these restaurants have in common is that they are gone, and only live in our memories. Let’s start with the one that started this whole discussion…..

The Piping Rock Inn – It was located across from the train station on the corner of Westbury Avenue and Union Avenue. We started going there when we were dating and it was considered one of the more classy places I took Susie. It was an upscale establishment and dinner was at least $50, so that tells you how long ago it was! We’d be escorted to our table, elegantly seated, and order a bottle of Mateus Rose, or Lancers, or perhaps a Little Blue Nun, and pretend we were very elegant. We’d have a wonderful meal (no idea what the food was) along with elegant service. Who knew almost 50 years later that we can spend $50 going to McDonald’s with our 3 Grandkids! The restaurant was ravaged by a fire on July 5th, 1980, and never reopened, and the corner is now the home of a glass and steel multi-story condo building. Sad that it’s gone, but it will always live on in our memories!

Wheatley Hills Tavern – Located a couple of blocks further north on Post Avenue in Westbury, it was a favorite “after dinner” stop for us in our dating years. When you walked into the front door off of Post Avenue, you were confronted by a huge rectangular bar. Liquor bottles were displayed on glass shelves around the middle of the bar, and were softly lit by red light. It was a nice quiet place to sit and talk and have a drink. There were no boisterous groups at that hour, and we enjoyed it as a great venue to learn about each other. We’d both enjoy an Amaretto on the rocks and each others company. The restaurant was started in the 30s, and was there for many, many years. The building is still a restaurant, but no longer the Wheatley Hills Tavern.

Dynasty Restaurant – Located on Northern Blvd. in Roslyn, my association with this great Chinese Restaurant started when I was still going to C.W. Post College in nearby Brookville. It was an upscale, elegant Chinese Restaurant and my folks loved it too. It also plays a central part in Susie’s and my life, as it was the first place I took her for dinner shortly after we met. On that night, the “fortune” in my Fortune Cookie said, “You will marry your present lover and be happy!” Almost 45 years and 3 kids later, I think you could say that it was a very accurate forecast of my future. It was a family run restaurant, and you’d be greeted by “Mama” in the coat check room, and then by Sam, the oldest son and maitre d’. Sam would take and make our drink orders, and present you with a menu. The menu at Dynasty was not really a menu, but a folder that held many small menus. There was a menu for Beef and Pork, Seafoods, Appetizers and Soups, Cocktails and Wines, Poultry, Calorie Conscience, Vegetarian, and Noble Delicacies, Chop Suey, Egg Foo Young, Chow Mein, and Lomein, and Desserts. The food was incredible and there was a great staff of only gentlemen who elegantly served you. It was a very special place. Over the years we learned that Sam was an architect, but as the oldest son, when his father died, he had to leave his chosen profession, and run the family business. Shortly after Mama died, the restaurant closed and the space became an Italian restaurant. We miss the Dynasty, and will always remember the special place it had in our lives, and only hope that the closing meant that Sam got to live his chosen life!

Jericho Diner – Located on the corner of Jericho Turnpike and Roslyn Road, this was our local diner, and the place that all our kids ended up after any nighttime event. The pay phone outside the front door was also our only means of communications when we moved into our Mineola house in the middle of a strike at New York Telephone and couldn’t get our phone installed! Susie, by the way, was pregnant with Krissi and Kenny too! Unfortunately, a number of years ago it was replaced by a CVS Drug Store! As with all diners, the menu was huge, but Susie always claims they served the best cheeseburger she’d ever had…even though one day they served her a Cheeseburger Deluxe platter, piled high with fries and onion rings and a beautiful bun, but no burger! Everybody, including the waitress got a good laugh out of that!

Rutha’s Italian Restaurant – Located on Northern Blvd in the Auburndale section of Queens, this was a real old school Italian place. We learned about it the day we moved from Jackson Heights to Bayside in 1968 and the moving men told my Dad they’d stopped there for lunch and raved about it. Soon after we went for dinner and saw why they raved. The place was built in 3 storefronts, with one being the bar and the other two the actual restaurant. Your dinner came with a salad, complete with glass oil and red wine vinegar bottles on the table. Everything was great, from pizza to mussels, to full meals, but I loved the Veal Parmigiana that was prepared and served in a small metal casserole dish. It was big and oh so good, and every time I got it, it was cooked to perfection. Because it was also a bar, it was a great place to enjoy a pizza and a pitcher of beer. Sadly, after many years of enjoying meals there, one day it was suddenly gone.

Roslyn Cafe – Located on Roslyn Road, about halfway between Northern Blvd. and the Long Island Expressway, my love for this place dates way back to being a student at C.W. Post College and my time at WCWP, the college radio station. I think the first time I went to the Roslyn Cafe was with Bill Mozer, on one of his Friday nights off from ABC, and a group from the station. That was the first of many visits over the years with family and friends, and I remember loving the food and the kind of crazy atmosphere, as we loved sitting in the bar room. It was the food, and the people we were with, and the atmosphere that made it special in our eyes. Sadly, in the early 90s, it became an upscale restaurant with Valet Parking, and our beloved Roslyn Cafe was no more!

Manero’s Steak House – I don’t remember the first time I went to Manero’s, but I know it was a staple of our early married life when we lived in Port Washington. Located on Northern Blvd. and Middle Neck Road, this Manero’s was one of a couple of restaurants in a small local chain, and we just loved the place. It had a real old time steak house vibe, but unlike the current version of steak houses, you didn’t go broke paying the bill. Your meal came with a big salad in a wooden bowl, and I remember a real treat was to get their Oil and Vinegar dressing, and pay a bit more to add crumpled Gorgonzola cheese! We enjoyed many great steaks, along with their onion rings and garlic bread over the years, along with the typical grumpy waiters. Sadly, the entire chain went away and our location became a Bryant and Coopers, which Susie and I only went to once back in the day because the prices had more than doubled! We have, however, recently been there for our good friend Patrice’s Birthday Lunch, and it was very nice…but then we didn’t pay the bill!

TR’s in Williston Park – Located on Hillside Avenue, a block away from the East Williston Long Island Rail Road station in Williston Park, the TR in the name stood for Teddy Roosevelt, with a menu loaded with Teddy references, and a place we were regulars on many Fridays we didn’t travel to the Shore. This was a real neighborhood bar, where people stopped in on the way home from the train station for a drink or dinner, and where people like us came to enjoy a meal and the surroundings. We loved sitting at one of the high tops in the bar, having a couple of beers, playing Lotto Quick Hits, and running into neighborhood people we knew. We enjoyed their buffalo chicken wrap and their burgers were excellent and served on an English Muffin. Susie was partial to their sweet potato fries! Sadly, Patti the owner sold to some folks who decided (as often times happens) that they had a better idea, and changed the theme, the name, the concept and raised the prices and TRs was no more.

**An incredible bacon/cheese burger from TR’s**

These are just a few of the many restaurants that have come and gone, but that live on in our memories. Of course, there were others like Apple Annies on Westbury Avenue in Westbury, that was a big old rambling place that we went to on holidays like Mother’s Day. They had the best brunch! There was Jimmy’s Backyard along the water on Main Street in Port Washington that we went to for George and Pat Michael’s wedding reception. We thought it was a fabulous place, but it abruptly closed, and we never got to use the $100 gift certificate we had. The Candlewood Inn along College Point Blvd in Flushing, where they made incredible Spaghetti Carbonara right at your table. After going a couple of times, loving it, and bringing others with us, the next time we drove by it was a topless club! Then there was Danny’s Haven in Baldwin, near where Susie lived in. An old school pizza and beer place, it was knocked down, and replaced with a McDonalds! There was Amigos, a little hole in the wall Mexican place on Main Street in Port Washington that we went to for many years. Nothing fancy, but good food and drinks at good prices. Sadly we drove by one day and it was gone. Susie’s brother Donnie worked at Villa Rosa in Freeport. Great Italian food, but sadly it too is gone!

The restaurant business is tough, and any establishment that survives and thrives (like our favorite Piccolo’s in Mineola) is an exception to the rule. Yes, restaurants come and go, and like the ones I’ve enumerated above, ultimately all is left is our memories of good food, good times, and great people. We salute those that live in both our memories and in our everyday life, and hope to have lots more drinks and meals with the people we love in the great restaurants that are still around. To the rest of them, thanks for the memories!

Losing a Friend

June 8, 2024 / Sue and Frank D'Elia / 4 Comments

One of the hard things to deal with emotionally when you get older, is that calls you get about a death among family or friends, more likely concerns a friend or relative who is near your age, rather than a friend of your folks or a parent of one of your friends. It has been a pattern in our lives the past couple of years, but it’s still always a shock. That was the case on Wednesday night when we learned that our dear friend, and my former co-worker, Jimmy McGuire had died.

***Jimmy running the board in WABC’s*** ***Studio 8A***

I met Jimmy the first day that I worked at ABC…August 8, 1976. Well, it really wasn’t day, but rather night, as I started my first shift at the WABC/WPLJ Engineering Department at 11:45 PM on a Sunday night. There were a lot more people at the station that night than would normally be around on a Sunday night, because on that night, the main WABC Studio was being dismantled, in preparation for a rebuild, and Jimmy was a part of that crew. A year older than me, we had similar backgrounds and we just seemed to hit it off. After 4 years at WHN Radio, where I was the youngest Engineer by a whole lot, it was good to be starting at a place where there were a lot more folks in my age bracket!

After my two weeks of training were over, I ended up working the evening shift (either 3-11 or 4-Midnight), which Jimmy worked too. This was definitely the shift where the younger guys and gals worked. We started our day with the second half of Dan Ingram’s show, were part of George Michael’s A-Team of Engineers, and finished up our day with Chuck Leonard. We also enjoyed the more laid back WPLJ radio style with Pat St. John, or Tony Pigg, and Carol Miller, ate dinner together, and thanks to Bill Mozer and his Volvo, we traveled home together many nights. Those beginning years at ABC were without a doubt, the best time I’ve ever had working, and since we worked the same schedule, many times our work life and our social life became one.

Jimmy along with George Berger, and other NABET Members picketing in front of the ABC Building in 1977

In May of 1977, NABET (our union) went on strike against ABC and now we had a lot of free time! We had to picket every other day, and we were on different picket schedules, but there was no more coordinating days off, so the younger group was available to hang out together. On July 3rd, because I didn’t have to work, I went to a backyard barbecue where I met my forever partner Susie, and soon she too was in the mix of my ABC Friends, so she’s known Jimmy about a year less than me. Now we had a foursome…me and Susie and Jimmy and his girlfriend Diane, or Dede as we always knew her.

When the strike was over, we went back to work, but we still managed to hang out when we were off. Jimmy liked to go out on my boat, even though he was a rotten sailor, and more often than not ended up hanging off the side of the boat throwing up in Long Island Sound. Jimmy and Dede were always at the Christmas Party we’d throw at my Mom and Dad’s house in Bayside, and were a part of the Christmas tree decorating party my folks had every year! When I popped the question to Susie, Jimmy was an usher in our Wedding party. He also was instrumental in planning my Batchelor Party along with our late friend George Berger, which was legendary!

At work we continued to be partners in crime! Jimmy and I worked so many remotes together for WABC and WPLJ. Big events like the WPLJ Dr. Pepper Concert Series at Central Park’s Wollman Skating Rink, and small 2-man jobs like the year we did Winterfest in Central Park. We also always seemed to end up working the shift before the twice a year time change, and had the task before we went home Saturday night of re-setting the clocks in every WABC and WPLJ Studio. When music ended at WABC, and when combo came in, and we stopped Engineering for PLJ, a number of people went to either TV or Network Radio, but Jimmy and I stayed around at Local Radio. When I became the daytime Group Seven, Jimmy worked daytime in Maintenance, so we were still together. We celebrated with Jimmy and Dede, when about a year after we tied the knot, they too got married. We helped each other move out of apartments into houses, and were there for backyard parties at each other’s homes. We were there for each other through the death of parents and the joy of the birth of our kids!

Me, the late Al Gold, Su Ronneburger, and Jimmy out to lunch

In the early 90s, ABC separated local and network radio from the companywide NABET seniority list, and Jimmy felt his best chances for the future was to now go to TV, while I stayed in Local Radio. Jimmy went to TV ENG, and loved what he did. He traveled the world on news assignments for ABC and enjoyed it all. As his schedule got crazier and crazier, our lives drifted apart, but there was still the warm bond between us anytime we were together. Over the years that happened many times, but we were all too busy raising kids (Billy, Krissi and Kenny on our side and Melinda and Christopher for the McGuires) and getting on with our lives to have the kind of relationship we had in our younger years.

When I retired in 2016, I went to the NABET Retiree’s luncheon on Long Island for the first time. Jimmy had retired a couple of years before, and it was great to see him and Dede and so many of the folks I started with way back in 1976! The funny thing was that I was the only one that had retired while still working in radio, but even after working for years in television, the group from the WABC/WPLJ Engineering Department sat together…that’s how special those years in radio were, I guess!

Me, Jimmy and the Late Great Jerry Zeller at one of my first NABET/ABC Retiree lunches

The last time we were all together, was five years ago, at a big party thrown to say goodbye to WPLJ that had been sold to a Christian Broadcaster, and would be changing format. Everybody I started working with in 1976 was there, as well as people I’d worked with during my 40 years with the station, and since I’d just retired 2 years before this party, everybody I left in January 2016 when I left WABC and WPLJ for the last time. Even though I knew all these people, Susie and I spent the night with our old friends from the early years at ABC, including Jimmy.

Jimmy and Dede loved cruising, and since as a Disney Retiree he got discounts from Disney Cruise lines, they often times cruised with Mickey and Minnie. In fact, they had just gotten back from a Disney Alaskan cruise with their whole family: Daughter Melinda and her Husband Tom, their two Grandkids, and their son Christopher. It was after a red-eye flight home, that Jimmy had gone out to his car, and had fallen “asleep”. Farewell my old friend…we will often think of you and remember the good times, and Susie and I are happy that your last week on earth you were surrounded by your family, and that your passing was as peaceful as it was. Love you Jimmy!

Carnevale

February 21, 2023February 21, 2023 / Sue and Frank D'Elia / 1 Comment

While they most definitely have been celebrating Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and will continue to do it into tonight, in Italy the celebration of the days before Ash Wednesday and Lent are a big deal too. Celebrated all over Italy, in Naples, where my Dad’s Family is from, the days leading up to “Fat Tuesday” will feature parades, elaborate costumes, and gluttonous feasts as a way to counter balance the stark period of Lenten fasting. Called Carnevale in Italy, that name comes from the term “Carnem Levare“, which roughly translates to “take meat away.”

While we didn’t have masks and multi day parades, the celebration of Carnevale in our house when I was growing up always included an Italian meal on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. Sadly, the tradition in our family ended with my Dad’s death, till one year in the late 80s, my wife Susie and I decided to revive it. That first year, shopping was quickly done and cooking commenced when I got home from work, and our guest list was limited to our family. In subsequent years, the preparation, menu, decorations, and guest list expanded, and it became a way for our family to honor the memory of my Dad.

Once we both retired, there were many years we were not home on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, so our celebration of Carnevale was reduced to dinner at an Italian restaurant or even just pizza! For some reason, this year we decided to revive the tradition!

We started with beef, pork, boneless chicken thighs, and sweet Italian sausage, which was browned in olive oil, and then lovingly placed in our scratch made tomato sauce to simmer for a couple of hours. Paper thin Pork Cutlets from Bagliani’s were stuffed with my Stuffed Mushroom stuffing, rolled up, and browned. They were than placed in a casserole dish with a generous portion of the aforementioned sauce, in preparation for their final cooking in the oven. These beautiful meats, along with the sauce they helped create, will be served with imported rigatoni pasta (because none of our pasta companies seem to remember how to make real rigatoni), and accompanied with garlic bread, and imported Chianti wine!

As well as helping me cook, Susie has set a beautiful table, and although our celebration will be small this year (just us and our neighbor Doc Anderson), Carnevale is back in our home, as well as memories, almost as tasty as tonight’s food!

Oh Christmas Tree

December 24, 2022 / Sue and Frank D'Elia / 2 Comments

The Christmas Tree is perhaps the one universal symbol of the Christmas Season, and has been the centerpiece of our Christmas celebration for all our lives. If you read my recent blog about Christmas Memories (https://rnewadventures.com/2022/12/12/christmas-in-the-city/) you may remember me saying that in our family, the tradition was that your folks put up the tree and that Santa decorated it, and that was indeed the tradition till it wasn’t, but it spawned a new tradition, making the decorating of the Christmas Tree an event. I remember back in our Jackson Heights apartment sharing the task with my best friend David, and some friends we both went to high school with. When we moved to Bayside, the tradition was expanded to include even more folks. Some were people I went to college with and others were folks I worked with. It just became another occasion and a way to celebrate the joy of the holiday season, with family and friends who were like family.

In a comment about my last post, my college friend Andy Bellenkes said “I rejoice in the memories I cherish, celebrating a Christmas or two with the D’Elias, watching your Dad put up the lights along the roof line of your house, sitting with you, your Mom and Dad (and others whose identities at the moment I cannot recall) in the living room and feeling the familial warmth and friendship that in my memories so characterized your home.” Even after Susie and I got married, we continued this tradition at my folks house.

Here’s a picture from my folk’s house in Bayside, at what was Billy’s first Christmas Tree decorating at his Grandparent’s home. An evening populated with good friends I worked with at ABC.

That baby in my arms is just born William Ryan D’Elia, who now is the father of our

three Grandkids. The little girl in front of my Mom is Melinda McGuire Geraghty,

now the Mom of two adorable little people.

As our kids got older, we also continued the tradition at our Mineola house. Some years there were friends of the kids involved, sometimes it was just family, but it was always an event. The holiday toasting flutes would be brought out, the André would be poured, and somehow the tree would always get decorated! I must admit that I am married to a lady with a sort of Christmas Tree Ornament OCD, who would often times rearrange the ornaments after they’d been placed on the tree (especially when the kids were small, and couldn’t reach that high), but we never objected! It’s a tradition of ours that started in New Hyde Park, traveled with us to Mineola, and now resides on Pennlyn Place in Ocean City!

And then there were the ornaments themselves that had become a D’Elia Family Tradition! There were a few things that came from our folks, that Susie and I remember seeing on the trees we had growing up, giving us a kind of time continuum from our childhood. Then there are ornaments that have memories attached to them from our 44 married Christmases, either from places we bought them or from events in our life. Although our tree is beautiful to us, it’s not a designer tree, with carefully curated ornaments! It’s a road map of our family, and our 44 Christmases!

So there you have it…the story of one family’s Christmas Tree, and the central part it has played in our holiday celebration!

As Susie and I sit here in Ocean City on this Christmas Eve, and look at the 44th edition of Our Family’s Christmas Tree, we think back on all our wonderful Christmas memories from Christmases past, and we reflect on the blessings of Christmas that we’ve experienced. We hope that this Christmas finds you feeling blessed, and knowing that you are loved by those in your life! Merry Christmas……

Christmas in the City

December 12, 2022December 12, 2022 / Sue and Frank D'Elia / 2 Comments

Well, it’s that time of the year, when Hallmark and almost all other networks are hot and heavy into Christmas movies. Watching them recently has made me think about Christmases way back in the 50s when I was a kid.

My Mom’s due date was just before Christmas of 1949, but apparently I had other ideas, so I missed what could have been my first Christmas, and cheated my Dad out of a tax deduction on their 1949 taxes. At 9:15 PM, on Monday, January 2nd, 1950, I was born at Physician’s Hospital in Jackson Heights, New York. It was a neighborhood hospital that has since closed, in the Queens neighborhood that my folks lived in, and that I grew up in. If it’s possible to say this in New York City, I was born in my home town. My Mom, Lilias Chalmers Sim D’Elia was 33 years old, and my Dad, Frank Vincent D’Elia was 39 years old at the time of my birth. Both of my folks were members of New York’s Metropolitan Opera Chorus, and from her stories, this was a very different time for mothers-to-be in the workforce. Being concerned about losing her job because of her pregnancy, my Mom worked every day from the time she found out she was pregnant till I showed up. In fact, Saturday, December 31st, she did both a matinee and an evening show at the Met, and less than 48 hours later, I joined the family, and made my Mom and Dad first time parents.

The story I always heard was that when my folks got married in 1947, they were lucky to get a sublet apartment from a friend in Jackson Heights, as apparently in post World War II NYC, apartments in their price range were not easy to come by. It was a 4th floor walkup apartment in one of Jackson Height’s many Garden Apartment complexes. It had been a somewhat fancy one bedroom, one bath apartment in it’s day. It even had a dining room, and looked out over what had been manicured gardens. That dining room became my bedroom, the gardens became overgrown and neglected, and the neighborhood changed, but we lived in that sublet apartment until I was 18 years old, when we moved to Bayside. Our apartment was just slightly off Roosevelt Avenue on 84th Street, so a feature of the apartment was also the #7 elevated line running by the windows! The 82nd Street stop of the #7 train was just a 2 block walk away, and my folks could be at the Met just off Times Square in Manhattan after a 20 minute ride, so it was a very convenient distance away from work for them and it was the first home I knew.

I’ve seen lots of pictures over the years, so don’t really know when I actually start remembering Christmases, but think it was probably about 1953. Our apartment in Jackson Heights was pretty good sized, but the living room also contained a baby grand piano, a big console TV/Radio/Record Player, a large mahogany dish hutch, a couch, coffee table, an armchair, and a small pump organ. I’m sure the furniture worked out better when they’d had a dining room, but my arrival had taken that out of the equation, but we always had space for a Christmas tree…a real tree

Now, you may ask, did we drive out into the country (that would have been Long Island) and cut our tree down? Well, my Dad was a product of growing up in NYC, and didn’t even get a driver’s license till after I was born, and a car was several years later, so no. In those days in Queens, you got a tree in the neighborhood, either at an establishment that had popped up in a vacant lot, or you bought one that was leaning up against the front of the A&P or Dilberts grocery stores around the corner on Roosevelt Avenue. It was just like in the movies, but our trees never came with a wooden X on the bottom! My Mom and Dad would then carry it home, up the four flights of stairs to our apartment. I don’t know where the tradition came from, but the tradition in our house when I was growing up was that your folks put the tree up, but Santa was the one who decorated it. I remember one incredible year when it seemed to be magically decorated in minutes, but I’m sure I’d probably fallen asleep, and it just seemed like minutes! Ahhh, that Santa!

Speaking of Santa, a visit with the jolly round man was always a part of my holiday, usually at Macy’s on 34th Street, sometimes between a Met matinee and evening show. My memories are of that Toyland/Santa Village being as grand and incredible as it always looks in movies, and the toy department in Macy’s being huge. From large Lionel Train layouts, to every new toy you could think of! Of course, without the internet, we were a lot less informed than I’m sure our three Grandkids are today, but somehow, we knew about the latest from Remco, AC Gilbert, American Flyer, Lionel, or Fisher-Price, and they were always on our Christmas Lists.

One of my first Christmases, “Santa” brought me a red pedal fire engine, that I enjoyed for many years. This was also the first of the “problem” gifts I received at Christmas! Late this Christmas Eve, after my folks had done an evening performance at the Met, they opened what must have been a huge box, to assemble the truck. As my Dad put it together (probably with my Mom reading him the directions), he made an unfortunate discovery! There were only 3 wheels in the box! My Dad, ever resourceful, figuring that I should at least be able to sit in it on Christmas morning, fashioned an empty cigar box as a substitute wheel. FYI…before they went to sleep early on Christmas morning, they discovered that the missing wheel had rolled out of the box and was lodged behind the couch….Christmas was saved!

Christmas morning I found that Santa had set up a Lionel freight train under the tree, and that became a valued D’Elia Family heirloom. With a Pennsylvania Railroad steam engine (that actually puffed smoke) with coal tender, and then a box car, tanker car, gondola car, and ending in a light-up caboose, it made many passes around that tree until it eventually years later became a part of my yearly train set-up. That same little old Lionel train also made many revolutions around Susie’s and my tree in Mineola, and got to be played with by our three kids, and today it resides in North Carolina with our oldest son Bill, so the next generation of D’Elia kids can marvel at 1953 Lionel excellence!

Oh, and the presents I remember, besides that Lionel Train set. There seemed to be lots of building toys, like sets of Lincoln Logs, Tinker Toys, Erector Sets, and I remember getting them all, and building incredible edifices. There were trikes and as I got older bikes (one that I couldn’t try on Christmas Day, because Santa had gotten a defective version). There were lots of Dinky Toys, and there were accessories for my trains. One year, the hot present was a slot racing set, a Lionel version of which I found under the tree…but only one car worked Christmas morning! There were also two-way radios, a crystal radio set, and other small electronics that probably were my early entry into my life in radio, but that was as far the electronic’s industry entered into those early Christmases of my life…so different from our kids and Grandkids! One “electronic” game I remembered getting was Tudor Electric Football Game! You set up the players on the field, plugged in the cord, turned it on, and a motor vibrated the playing field, and the players “magically” moved across the field…but not necessarily in the correct direction! I remember that one year I got a kid’s version of the very popular Polaroid Camera – magic! Then there were the “toys” that might seem questionable looking back from today’s world view. Things like my AC Gilbert Chemistry Set, where if you closely followed the instructions, you could produce a test tube full of truly noxious smelling material, with an odor that took days for your mother to get out of the apartment. Or the Wood Burning Kit, that allowed a young child to use a soldering iron type of tool to burn designs into balsa wood! But the worst had to be the Lead Soldier Kit, that came with molds, little lead bars, and a little plug-in electric hot plate and pot that you used to turn the bars into molten lead, that you then poured into the molds to make the soldiers. Today, that would be a lawsuit waiting to happen!

One of my main Christmas Eve memories, that I’m sure started as a convenience for my Mom and Dad long ago, is a tradition of long standing in our family. Now remember, most Christmas Eves my Mom and Dad would be getting home after 11 PM, having just done at least one opera performance (and 2 if the Eve fell on Saturday). Sometime, before I was aware of it, they started having their own quiet time celebration as they decorated the tree, assembled gifts, and set everything up. There was some food and a drink or two as they both played Santa for me (amazing how Santa and my Mom had such similar hand writing). When I got older and got to participate, the tradition became Italian Cold Cut Sandwiches and André Champagne, before I’d scurry off to bed, to get up way too early. Eventually, the opening the presents part of Christmas became a part of that Christmas Eve celebration too, as then on Christmas morning I could get up as early as I wanted to play with my gifts, while my folks could get some shut-eye, as they probably had to do a show that night! Now, we don’t open presents on Christmas Eve, but the tradition of Italian Cold Cut Sandwiches and André was a staple of our kids growing up, was something we continued to do as they became young adults, and is still something Susie and I still do, as do the kids in their own homes! It’s something that Kenny has even tried to duplicate when he’s been away from home performing on Christmas Eve, either on National Tours or even Cruise Ships! Funny how Family Traditions sometimes get started, and then endure!

So I’ll be thinking of my folks, and the Christmases of my childhood, and all those wonderful Christmas memories as we eat our sandwiches this December 24th, and probably shedding a tear or two thinking back to when I was a kid, and when Billy, Krissi and Kenny were little too! Christmas is a time for memories, and Susie and I are very blessed to have so many wonderful ones, shared with family and friends that are like family…people that we truly love! Hope you get to bathe in your Christmas memories this year, and even make some new ones! To quote the immortal words and sentiment of Clement Moore’s classic story, The Night Before Christmas………

“Happy Christmas to All, and to All a Good Night!”

September 29, 1979

September 29, 2022September 28, 2022 / Sue and Frank D'Elia / 2 Comments

September 29th in the year 1979 was a Saturday. I know that because that afternoon, at the C.W. Post Interfaith Chapel, Susan Johnson became Susan Johnson D’Elia, and my life changed forever! The story of how we ended up there started years before, but really got guidance a little over 2 years earlier, on the afternoon of July 3rd, 1977, when both Susie and I were guests at an early July 4th party in the back yard of Mary Ann and Bill Epperhart’s house in Oyster Bay. Sue knew Mary Ann as they both worked at Glen Cove Hospital as Registered Nurses, and Bill and I had been friends since we met years earlier at WCWP, The College Radio Station of C.W. Post College. There’s that CW Post connection again!

So, to continue our story, let’s go all the way back to the fall of 1967, when as a 17 high school graduate, I started as a commuter freshman at C.W. Post College. I wasn’t a great student, and really had no idea where I was going in life, which is why in short order I was a Theater Arts major, an English Major, a Philosophy Major, and a Political Science major, before finally settling on being a Music Major. Along the way, thanks to a class I had to take, I got involved at the college radio station, and as stories like to say, “the rest is history.”

Meanwhile, the young lady I was going to make my wife 43 years ago today, knew she wanted to be a nurse practically from the moment she was born it seems. Her early life lead up to it with Candy Striper and other volunteer jobs, and working at Nursing Homes, until finally after graduating from high school, she enrolled in the Pilgrim State Hospital School of Nursing on her way to getting her RN. There was lots of hands on learning at the hospital, but for their academic classes they were bused to C.W. Post College, and there’s that connection again!

As Susie is 2 years younger than I am, after meeting we discovered that we’d both been at Post at the same time! After 4 years of college, I graduated in the Spring of 1971, while Susie graduated from the 3 year program at Pilgrim in 1972. While we’d never met, nor to the best of our knowledge had we ever seen each other, the real possibility exists that during those couple of years that we both walked on the Brookville Campus, we might have passed each other, and that was our C.W. Post connection!

So, after that July 3rd, 1977 party, Susie and I were definitely an item. I think the description “Love at First Sight” could indeed be applied to us, and it only took me getting my permanent job at ABC Radio for me to take the leap, and on Christmas Day, 1978 ask her to marry me! In case you’re wondering, she said yes, and the planning began! The first hurdle was where to get married. Susie was raised a Protestant and I a Catholic. The question was how could we honor both of our families’ history, and answer was very easy for us….The Interfaith Chapel at C.W. Post! It was a lovely building, in a beautiful setting, on the college campus we’d both traveled while in school! Connection complete!

On the afternoon of Saturday September 29, 1979, at the Interfaith Chapel, with a Catholic Priest and a Protestant Minister officiating, in front of our family and friends, we joined two lives into one, and this great adventure we’ve had the past 43 years started! My life has been blessed every single day since then, because this wonderful lady is my lover, my best friend, my teacher, really, my EVERYTHING! Thanks for saying “I Do” 43 years ago today, I thank God every night for bringing you into my life! I love you more each day, and will love you forever and here’s to another 43 years of love together!!!

HAPPY 43rd ANNIVERSARY TO THE LOVE OF MY LIFE!

FYI..unlike the usual occurrence in this blog, Susan Johnson D’Elia did zero proof reading on today’s story. Any and all mistakes are exclusively the fault of yours truly.

September 11th Remembered

September 11, 2022 / Sue and Frank D'Elia / Leave a comment

I first wrote this blog several years after the 9/11 Attacks, and over the past 21 years, I have revised and republished it several times. The following is my latest revision of our personal memories of that day we’d all really rather forget, when our world changed forever.

Anyone who was just about anywhere in the New York Metropolitan area on the morning of September 11, 2001, will always remember that day, and where they were. I know in our family that’s the case. My wife Sue was at work at Hampton Street School in Mineola. Our oldest son Billy was in his second year at Ithaca College, and his brother and sister, Krissi and Kenny, were sophomores at Mineola High School. I was at work at WABC Radio, 17 floors above Penn Station.

I remember it was a great looking, if uneventful, September morning. There was just a touch of fall in the air – it was one of those special kinds of days we get after the humidity of summer leaves. I was, as usual, on the 7:24 LIRR train from Mineola to Penn Station. Just before the train entered the tunnel under the East River to take us from Queens to Manhattan, we got our usual view of the Manhattan Skyline. The Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, and the Twin Towers…they were all there. As I said, a totally uneventful September morning in all respects….but that was soon to change.

Shortly after the first plane hit at 8:46 AM, word started to come into the newsroom that a plane had hit the World Trade Center’s North Tower. It was primary day in New York, and there were reporters around the city for the various TV morning shows. Almost immediately, Dick Oliver of Channel 5 went on the air from Park Row, just outside of City Hall. They weren’t the best shots, but you definitely could see the fire and damage to the tower. Everyone assumed that it was a small plane that had hit and no one could understand how someone could have missed seeing a structure as big as the World Trade Center on a beautiful, clear morning. There was speculation of a student pilot, or someone who had a heart attack – just about anything but what had really happened, which up until that point was unthinkable to most of us.

By 9 o’clock, better pictures of the damage were available on TV, including long shots of the buildings from further uptown. Just before 9:03 AM, I was standing in studio 17E next to Chief Engineer Kevin Plumb, when we noticed a plane flying into the frame of the shot. Assuming we were looking at a small plane trying to get a better view of what was happening, one of us commented, “what the heck is that plane trying to do?” At 9:03 we were shocked when we saw that plane (which we later found out was a Boeing 767) crash into the South Tower and explode in a ball of flames. At the same moment, Susie was standing in the Teacher’s Lounge of Hampton Street School, next to a good friend, Midge McInnes. When that second plane hit, Midge lost her brother who worked in the tower at just about the level the plane hit. In that moment, everyone who saw that happen live, knew that life as we had known it up until that moment was over, and that there was a brand new reality.

I remember all hell breaking loose at the station as we all went into high gear. There was an incredible amount of misinformation flying around, and frankly, open fear from some. Many tried to act professionally, but since no one knew exactly what was going on, and since we were all working 17 floors above Penn Station and a couple of blocks west of the Empire State Building, we frankly wondered if we might be in the target zone for future attacks. The next hour was a blur of news reports, discussion and speculation. Shortly after the first plane hit, our morning anchor George Weber took off downtown armed with a cell phone and a recorder. He phoned in a couple of reports about what he was seeing, but as the cell phone system overloaded, we stopped hearing from him. Then at 9:59 AM, the South Tower collapsed. Faces stared at the TV pictures, and as a group, were almost unable to fathom what we’d seen. Less than 30 minutes later the North Tower collapsed, and these twin buildings, which were so identified with the skyline of New York City, were incredibly gone, along with close to 3,000 of our fellow New Yorkers.

So many questions hit us all at once…who would do this, how did it happen, how could these two huge buildings collapse, and one that was on all our minds at WABC, where was George Weber? The news reports continued, but with all the confusion it was hard to tell what was true and what wasn’t. Were there more hijacked planes out there, and had other attacks taken place in Washington and elsewhere around the country? Getting a landline phone call was very hard; cell service was pretty non-existent, communications among families and friends was almost impossible. It was over an hour later when we heard from George. He’d walked for blocks from the WTC site and had waited on a line at a pay phone before he was finally able to check in with the station. Okay, we knew one of our friends and coworkers was alive…but what about everyone else.

WABC’s 2001 9/11 Montage

The day dragged on, and we watched TV as they tried to figure out what had happened, and what was happening. One of the hardest tasks of the day was getting in touch with friends and family, finding out if they were okay, and assuring them that I was fine. The first response of the city was to shut down, and a lot of us wondered if we’d get home. Being above Penn Station, we kept looking down at the crowds milling around a closed Penn Station. We also kept looking a couple of blocks to the east at the Empire State Building and realizing it was once again the tallest building in New York!

Later that day, the Long Island Rail Road started running and those of us from Long Island headed downstairs, and like every other commuter that day, got on any train as long are it was leaving New York City! As the packed standing room only train came out of the tunnel into Queens, everyone looked to the south where the twin towers of the World Trade Center had been on the way in that morning, but now were replaced by smoke. It was very quiet in the train as everyone realized that those two buildings we’d seen every day on our commute into Manhattan were gone, along with all the folks who were working in them.

The days after September 11th were very strange to say the least. The fact that there were absolutely no planes in the sky made for a very eerie quiet that was very unlike the norm, especially for us living in Mineola, which could alternately be in the flight path to either LaGuardia or JFK Airports. I know that for weeks after the planes started flying again, every time one flew over I would find myself stopping and looking at it. Taking the LIRR into the city in the days after September 11th was also different. There was an uneasy quiet on the trains, that I guess came from a lot of folks who would rather be somewhere else, but who had responsibilities and had to do what they were doing. I remember not seeing people that had been regulars on our trains, and wondering if they were in the towers when they came down, or were they perhaps too scared to venture into Manhattan again. Questions I’d never have the answers to….

One thing that made the post 9/11 strangeness livable was the feeling that we were all in it together. There were American flags on houses, cars, businesses…virtually everywhere! Our Boy Scout Troop did a huge drive to get some of the supplies that the rescue workers at Ground Zero needed, and we had great response. People were friendlier to each other and more respectful…even politicians! From New York City to Washington, the political discourse had a united front. We weren’t Republicans or Democrats, Liberals or Conservatives, we were Americans. There was no finger pointing, just everyone shouldering the load and helping to move forward. If every cloud has to have a silver lining, that was September 11th’s.

Too bad that 21 years later, so many seem to have forgotten. There’s no way that anyone who lived through that day will not be thinking today about their experiences, about all the New Yorkers who are no longer with us and about how the rest of us pulled together as a team. On that day, 2,750 people lost their lives when the World Trade Center was attacked. Members of our Mineola Community were among the 455 of those victims who were fellow Long Islanders. Within the 2,750 victims that day were 415 who were emergency workers in New York City, who responded to the World Trade Center. They included 343 firefighters from the New York City Fire Department, 37 police officers with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department, 23 police officers of the New York City Police Department, 8 emergency medical technicians and paramedics from private emergency medical services, 3 New York State Court Officers, 1 Patrolman from the New York Fire Patrol, and 1 Special Agent from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

For months after 9/11, there were important people in our lives that we never saw, because we had friends and neighbors who worked around the clock for months on “the pile” looking for remains of the 2,750 victims of the attack. Today, I’ll also be thinking about my friends who were involved after the towers came down. People like NYPD ESU Officer Scott Strauss who pulled the last survivor out of the rubble, or PAPD Detective Don McMahon, who’s partner sped towards the Towers from JFK airport that morning just after the first plane hit, and who was the first PAPD Officer to die that day. Donnie then spent the next 6 months at the on site morgue, working to identify remains of the victims when they were found. We’ll also be thinking today of the many Firemen we know, both NYFD and others who spent so many hours on the pile digging, without regard for their own personal safety, and sadly several we know are paying the price with their health today. We Thank God that there are so many people among us who run towards trouble as the rest of us run away! As we remember 9/11, and the days, weeks, and months afterward, we thank you for your service and for your friendship and for setting an example for the rest of us.

In the fall of 2004, our youngest son Kenny started as a freshman at the Manhattan Campus of Pace University, which was located just across from New York’s City Hall. Members of the senior class who worked orientation, told us stories of what 9/11 was like for them, just days into their freshman semester at Pace. Kenny’s 4 college years were virtually spent at Ground Zero. In his second year, he lived in an apartment just behind the heavily damaged Deutsche Bank Building. As a Junior he lived in an apartment on John Street, just up the street from the South Street Seaport. The truth is that for years after, the neighborhood was an ongoing demolition/construction site, and frankly nobody wanted to live there, which is why college students (or their parents) could afford the rent. There were so many visible reminders of that horrible day, every time we drove through the neighborhood, around detours, and looked at the remains of the destroyed buildings. Remember that in addition to the North and South Towers, other builds lost due to the attack were 7 World Trade Center, Manhattan Community College’s Fireman Hall, 5 World Trade Center, St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, Marriott World Trade Center, US Customs Building, The Deutsche Bank Building, and several others. It took years for the area to appear “normal” again.

But as we remember 9/11 today, I know we live in a better world because people like Scott and Donnie are a part of it. As we remember those who died 21 years ago, I hope we will all also remember the heroes of September 11th. Friends, neighbors, family members, and people whose names we will never know, who stepped up on that horrible day. Ordinary folks who did extrodinary things, and renewed our faith in our fellow human beings. That’s the lesson I try to take from that horrible day 21 years ago. Yes indeed, 9/11/2001 was very personal to us!

FDIII – 9/11/2015

WABC’s 2002 9/11 Montage put together for the first anniversary

R New Adventures

Come with us as we journey through our next chapter

Author: Sue and Frank D'Elia