off the leash

Some Random Thoughts on This World Cup and Tournaments Past

Posted on June 20, 2014 by Ken Dowell

Day 2 — The End of the Reign in Spain

For the past 6-8 years Spain has been the dominant team in world football. They were European champions in 2008 and 2012 and World Cup champions in 2010. But it’s not just the trophies that characterize Spain’s reign but the fact that they set the tone for how the game should be played.

Spain came to the fore at a time when the “it’s not how you play, it’s whether you win” school of thought was predominant in the football world. Spain showed that attaching, free-flowing, unselfish, ball-contol football was a way to win. They were a terrific role model for the game, a team that you hoped others would emulate.

Their time has passed. Holland demonstrated that. Casillas, Iniesta, Xavi, Xabi Alonso, Busquets, David Villa are wonderful players and considering what they have accomplished who could deny them one more go at it. But it’s time for Spain to move on.

The team that demonstrated this, the Netherlands, were once themselves the trendsetters in world football. Known as the best team to never win a World Cup, they were runners-up to host Germany in 1974 and runners-up to host Argentina in 1978. The Dutch teams of Cruyff, Neeskens, the Van De Kerkhofs, Krol, were known as the inventors of “total football.” In that scheme you were not just a defender or not just an attacker, all 11 players were responsible for covering the entire field and contributing to both the offense and the defense.

I watched the 1978 overtime final on closed circuit TV in Madison Square Garden. That was the only option for seeing the World Cup at that time. I admired the orange and their style of play.

But it’s that history that made their performance (runners-up again) in South Africa in 2010 so disappointing. Here was the team that invented total football taking a cynical and negative approach to the World Cup final game.

Day 5 – American Moments

As each successive World Cup comes around the media is flooded with speculative commentary about “when will soccer make it in America.” Soccer has in fact come a very long way since that 1978 game when I had to go to MSG to see the World Cup final on closed circuit TV. But what the media are really asking is when will soccer rival American sports, baseball, football and basketball in popularity.

Personally I don’t know why that matters. But if it is going to happen it will require more games like the one against Ghana. If fact a whole string of those games that leads the U.S. deep into the third or fourth week of World Cup play. The U.S. has its moments. The Ghana game was one of them, as was the 2010 1-0 win over Algeria in which Landon Donovan scored in the 90^th minute and the 2-0 victory over Mexico in the 2002 round of 16.

But watching the Ghana game you also clearly got the impression that exciting as that victory was, this team is simply not good enough to go that far in the Cup. What the U.S. team has is tenacity and when you talk about a style of play, that is about as much of a characterization as I can generate for the U.S.A. We don’t really have a style because our soccer team like our society is a melting pot. We have Americans who are of Mexican heritage and we have a growing contingent of Germans with one American parent.

So the big breakthrough in fandom that the media speculates about won’t happen this year either. But bars all over the country will be packed with fans cheering for just about every team in the World Cup and it will be a topic of conversation in workplaces, schools and a parties. That’s not so bad.

Why I Hate Rafa Marquez

This started with the 2002 World Cup. In the round of 16, the U.S. is leading Mexico 2-0, it is deep into injury time, in other words it’s over, and Marquez basically tries to break Cobi Jones’ leg with a brutal tackle. He is, of course, red-carded but that is pretty meaningless as there is no time left. There is really no explanation for this other than that the guy is a dirtbag.

Some years later Marquez shows up playing for the Red Bulls and during his two years with the team he proceeded to get a red card in what seemed like every important game in which he participated. Fortunately he didn’t play that often because he usually earned his $4.6 million a year salary by being injured or suspended. But if the playoffs were on the line and he started in the lineup, the Red Bulls were virtually guaranteed of having to finish with 10 men.

So now, inexplicably, Marquez is back on the Mexican national team. His stupidity at the most inopportune moment is something to look for in future matches. Maybe he is captain of Mexico because he represents the typical level of sportsmanship of this squad. This is a team that if they lose to the U.S. will refuse to shake hands. Where else in professional sports do you see that?

So while I always wanted to root for Mexico as the standard-bearer for our region and also because I have seen them many times in the U.S. and their supporters are a joy to be around, the whole bad-tempered thing gets in the way. Maybe Croatia will finish off a 10-man Mexican team as their captain once again leaves the field in disgrace. One thing is certain, if the Croats lose, they will still shake hands.

Posted in Sports, Uncategorized | Tagged Mexico, Rafa Marquez, soccer, Spain, sports, World Cup | Leave a comment

Growing Up in the 50’s: Ode to the Y

Posted on June 18, 2014 by Ken Dowell

I was probably about six the first time I was sent to a summer day camp. I was enrolled in a place called Camp Belle in Totowa. It was at an open piece of land where there was a pretty substantial swimming pool. That was the key to my enrollment because what my mom wanted to happen at summer camp was for me to learn to swim.

So off I went. On Friday, at the end of my first week, my mother wanted to know what I had learned. I duly reported that they taught me how to blow bubbles in the water. She was infuriated. That was the end of Camp Belle and by Monday I was at the Paterson YMCA.

Turns out that was one of the best things that happened during my childhood. Here are some reasons why.

I learned how to swim. Probably the first week. We were in the water all the time and there were trained instructors rather than high school kids with summer jobs. Nobody left the Y day camp without knowing how to swim.

I met kids from different backgrounds and different places. I had no contact with black or Hispanic kids in the town where I lived. All I knew about them was the vitriol that spewed from my father’s mouth. At the Y I learned pretty quickly, as I believe most kids do, that being with people from different backgrounds who have had different experiences, makes things more interesting and more fun.

I learned to do things that I didn’t know I could do. Flips on a trampouline, diving off a diving board, playing full court basketball in a real gym. It gave me some self-confidence that I didn’t have when I started.

And oddly, I had to go to an inner-city YMCA to get to experience nature. On Fridays, we were bused to nearby Garrett Mountain or we took canoes down the Passaic River. We’d stop and swim and swing from the overhanging tree branches. A few years later no one would consider the Passaic, or most of the other rivers in the New York area, to be fit to swim in. So I feel lucky I had that experience.

Now I have a son who is ten. Guess where he learned to swim. And as the summer is about to roll around he will again be going to the Montclair YMCA Camp at the Lake where he will swim, boat, fish, hike and camp. He loves it as much as I did.

Posted in Growing Up in the 50s | Tagged 50's, day camp, Paterson, YMCA | 8 Comments

Paterson Art Walk 2014

Posted on June 15, 2014 by Ken Dowell

Live Painting of mural at Overlook Park, part of Great Falls National Historical Park

Is this an art installation? YES!

Is this an art installation? NO! It’s a scale from Rogers Works at 70 Spruce St.

The Elegba Principle, by Willie Cole

Frida Kahlo by Beck Lane

Double Blind, by Elizabeth Seaton

David Gallo Design

Posted in Art | Tagged art, Paterson, Paterson Art Walk | 14 Comments

Growing Up in the 50’s: The American Legion

Posted on June 12, 2014 by Ken Dowell

My father was a sucker for joining organizations. He was a Shriner. He was Mason. He was a Jester. While most of these organizations touted some socially redeeming qualities he was proud of noting that the Jesters had no purpose other than to have fun. I can’t imagine what kind of fun they had but I’m pretty sure it included some alcohol. What most of these organizations had in common is that membership came with a funny hat that you could put pins in.

But in the 50’s one organization held my father’s highest priority, the American Legion. The Legion is an organization for veterans of foreign wars (there is a different organization. VFW, with exactly that name).

The American Legion describes itself as a “patriotic veterans organization devoted to mutual helpfulness.” It sponsors youth programs like the baseball leagues that you graduate to after little league and Boys Nation, which used to be called Boys State, the avowed purpose of which is to teach “rights, privileges and responsibilities of franchised citizens.” I once interviewed for Boys State but suspect I was rather quickly excluded from consideration for slouching in my chair.

It apparently also sponsors junior shooting sports programs. Don’t know exactly how that’s supposed to fit in the mutual helpfulness category.

But from my immature perspective living with my dad in the 50’s, the American Legion was a bar. It was an exclusive club, the primary benefit of which was cheap beer.

We were a working class family. My dad wasn’t going to be sipping martinis at the country club. But he could be sitting at the Legion hall with a cheap can of Rheingold or Schaefer, and not everyone could do that.

To be a member of the Legion you had to have served overseas during a war. But not just any war. It has to be an official, sanctioned, declared war like, in my father’s case, World War II. I found this out when my father recruited my uncle (I think he was an uncle although bloodlines on my mother’s side of the family were often difficult to ascertain). After all the papers were filled out and my dad came to collect the membership application he spotted a problem. Apparently my uncle did not qualify for cheap beer because he had fought in the Korean War. So if you were part of the military force that invaded some smaller country that we never officially pronounced ourselves as being at war with, that wasn’t good enough to join the Legion. I’m sure that at some later point in time the survival of the organization dictated that if you got shot at in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan that was good enough even though you might not have been playing by the Marquis of Queensbury rules.

I don’t want to create the impression that my father abandoned the family in favor of draining cans of beer at the Legion Hall. In fact he tried to make Legion membership a full family affair. Unfortunately neither my mother nor I seemed capable of generating enough enthusiasm to really make this work.

For my mother there was the Legion’s Ladies Auxiliary. I’m not that up on what exactly they did but I seem to remember them participating in some type of regimented ritual at the wakes of members or members’ family. My dad served a one-year term as commander of the local post which made my mother the First Lady of the Anthony Wayne American Legion Post. I do not recall her ever mentioning that to anyone. (Anthony Wayne by the way, aka Mad Anthony Wayne, made a name for himself by killing massive numbers of Native Americans.)

For me there was the fledgling drum and bugle corps. My Dad brought me out to the Legion Hall parking lot where the guy who was organizing this handed me a French horn and taught me about three notes over a period of a few weeks. During my short time with the corps we did participate in one parade. We marched but didn’t play because we weren’t ready. Not sure we ever did get ready and if “we” did I was no longer around.

Posted in Growing Up in the 50s | Tagged 50's, American Legion | Leave a comment

Wyoming is Beautiful

Posted on June 10, 2014 by Ken Dowell

A couple years ago I was waiting in front of a downtown Denver hotel for my car that was valet parked. Another family of three was waiting next to us. As the valets brought up two cars with Wyoming plates, the young girl next to us was looking at us and whispering to her father. He came over and asked, “Are you from Wyoming?” They were disappointed when I explained we were from New Jersey and it was just a rental car with the Wyoming plates. His parting words were, “You should come up to Wyoming sometime. It’s beautiful.” He was right.

Coming into Wyoming with my son Kevin and daughter Juli.

The “world’s largest elkhorn arch” atop the main street in Afton, Wyoming.

Jackson Hole Ski Resort

View from Jackson Hole Aerial Tram

Grand Teton National Park

Moose habitat

It’s June, but there’s still snow on the Talbot Lake Trail.

The Tetons

Hidden Falls near Jenny Lake

Area around Jenny Lake

Yellowstone National Park

Old Faithful

Nature’s hot tub

Grand Prismatic Spring

Minerva Terrace

Mammoth Hot Springs

Don’t step on the geyser!

Posted in Travel | Tagged Grand Teton, Jackson Hole, travel, Wyoming, Yellowstone | 1 Comment

Off the Leash Road Trip

Posted on June 9, 2014 by Ken Dowell

Photos by Kevin Dowell

Posted in Travel | Tagged Idaho, Montana, road trip, travel, Utah, Wyoming | Leave a comment

Growing Up in the 50’s: The Corner Store

Posted on June 5, 2014 by Ken Dowell

This used to be a corner store.

so was this

An institution of 1950’s culture was the corner store. It was a predecessor to the modern day convenience store and somewhat similar to the urban bodega.

The corner store invariably had a counter up front with the cash register where they sold cigarettes, candy and small items like batteries or film. An important stock item during my childhood was baseball cards. There would be a soda fountain/lunch counter that usually served sandwiches, often hamburgers and grilled cheese, ice cream and fountain drinks, the most popular of which was the egg cream.

There would also be a full magazine and newspaper rack and shelving units that would include stationary, toys and greeting cards. The stationary was probably on a shelving unit that would be six feet wide with about four levels. Yet I can’t ever remember going to get something and having it not be there. Can’t say that about Staples.

The toys would always include small items which were standard gear for us like a yoyo and the small pink rubber balls that we used to play handball against a school wall. Another popular item was plastic models of cars and airplanes. You could buy the glue off the shelf then too since we used it to hold the pieces of the models together rather than to get high.

There were miscellaneous random items too numerous to mention but basically you could go to the corner store for just about anything other than furniture or groceries.

These types of stores still exist but there are probably only about 10 or 20 percent of the number there were in the 50’s. Most have fallen victim to the onslaught of Wal-Mart, Staples, strip malls and megamalls.

In the immediate neighborhood where I grew up, say a six-block radius, there were three corner stores. They were all literally mom and pops. Sometimes it almost felt like the proprietors were our moms and pops because the men and women behind the counter were not just selling us baseball cards, they were our neighborhood watch, our babysitters and supplemental educators. Each was a hangout for mostly elementary and middle school kids with each store attracting its own click. No one ever chased us away.

I remember two stories that demonstrate the role that these stores and the men and women who ran them played for neighborhood children.

One of the corner stores I visited was Balkan’s. Mrs. Balkan worked there and I believe was the only one who ever worked there. One day I walked to Balkan’s to buy a newspaper. Unbeknownst to me it was during a New York newspaper strike so instead of having 10 or so newspapers on the rack in front of the store there was only a couple. I picked one up, walked into the store and made some flippant childish comment about how there weren’t many choices today. Mrs. Balkan sat me on a stool at the lunch counter and explained the strike to me. She then told me that the Herald-Tribune, which was the paper still being published, was a fine newspaper that I should be happy with.

There was another corner store, the name of which I can’t remember, that was closer to my grammar school and thus was where I gravitated to during school lunches and after school. Once a week my mom would let me buy lunch there. The standard was a hamburger and a chocolate egg cream. One day, without thinking, I walked out without paying. I was probably in third or fourth grade at the time and upon realizing it later in the day I was horrified. So I spent an anxious night at home worrying about my crime before I could get over there and pay the next day. When I arrived with the money and a lump in my stomach, I started to explain but the woman who ran the store cut me off and said, “I know. But I also knew you would come back with the money.”

Posted in Growing Up in the 50s | Tagged 50's, corner store, shopping | 5 Comments

The Paterson Museum

Posted on June 3, 2014 by Ken Dowell

I was born here.

Part of exhibit by Eastside High art teachers. This piece by Vivian Reyes

One ring of that bell and I’m gone.

Motorcycle racing at Hinchliffe

The engine for Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis built by Wright Aeronautical in Paterson

Apparently gas was once $1.11 per gallon.

Fire wagon

Posted in Art, History | Tagged art, history, museum, Paterson, Paterson Museum | Leave a comment

This is Hinchliffe

Posted on May 29, 2014 by Ken Dowell

In 1932 a 10,000-seat Art Deco stadium made of concrete opened on a hill overlooking the Great Falls.

Eighty some odd years later a volunteer crew of 500 teenagers from Paterson’s high schools used 500 gallons of white paint donated by Valspar to try and give the decaying structure a facelift.

The view from center field.

The ticket windows

Hinchliffe Stadium is steeped in history, not just the history of Paterson, but the history of America. Paterson was America’s first industrial city, the brainchild of Alexander Hamilton. In this blue collar town, the public funding that financed Hinchliffe as part of the New Deal provided jobs for laid-off millworkers.

The 1930’s and 40’s were the heyday of the Negro Baseball Leagues. Hinchliffe is one of the few remaining stadiums that hosted these games. It was home to the New York Black Yankees and the New York Cubans. (Thus starting a continuing tradition of New Jersey-based sports teams calling themselves New York.) The Cubans included the first Dominican players to play professionally in the U.S. In 1933 Paterson hosted the Colored Championship of the Nation.

Hinchliffe was also a stage for Paterson’s favorite sons. Larry Doby, who was to become the first black player in the American League when he was signed by the Cleveland Indians, ran the base paths at Hinchliffe. Doby, a future Hall of Famer, was a product of Eastside High School. Lou Costello, born and raised in Paterson, appeared at Hinchliffe numerous times in the 40’s with his comedic partner Bud Abbott. One can only assume that they did their famous “Who’s On First” routine right here in the ballpark.

Future Hall of Famer Larry Doby was a product of Eastside High.

Patersonian Lou Costello and his partner Bud Abbott played Hincliffe in the 40’s.

In 1963 the stadium was sold by the city to the Board of Education for $1. It is still owned by the board of ed. It was a welcome home for Paterson’s high school athletes for decades but as urban schools declined in the 80’s and 90’s, that decline was apparent in the condition of the stadium. With no funds available to maintain the facility it eventually shutdown in 1997.

My memories of Hinchliffe may not be quite as historically significant. From 1932 until the last game on Nov. 28, 1996, Hinchliffe was the site of the Central vs. Eastside high school football game. My dad took be there a couple times in the 50’s. I don’t remember much about the games themselves but I remember the electric atmosphere and the packed stadium. It was as if the rest of the city shutdown for these two hours while all eyes were focused on Hinchliffe.

My father was a graduate of Central (later replaced by Kennedy High on the west side). He was a member of the band so he was part of the Thanksgiving tradition at the stadium.

My other memory of Hinchliffe is very different. In 1988 I did the PR for a new professional soccer team, the Cosmopolitan Eagles, who played in the American Soccer League and called Hinchliffe home. This was a time when there was no real professional soccer in the U.S. The NASL had folded and MLS was yet to be formed. With the Eagles we used the term “professional” loosely. I remember a game where we had our eye on the gate to see if there were any decent players we knew coming through the turnstile so we could redirect to the locker room and equip them with a uniform. I enjoyed having the run of the historic stadium and it was still at that time fully functional.

The potential was there if it was done right. We hosted Millionarios from Colombia one weekend and put a few thousand people in the old stadium. The Eagles, later renamed the New Jersey Eagles, lasted two years at Hinchliffe before moving to Cochrane Stadium in Jersey City where they survived for another couple years.

If you drive through Paterson these days you’re likely to see the banners heralding Hinchliffe as “Paterson’s Field of Dreams.” The city has committed to put some funds into its survival. The stadium was recently named a National Historic Landmark and there is a bill before Congress to make it part of the Great Falls National Historical Park. Those designations make some more funds available. And there is a grassroots group called “Friends of Hinchliffe” working to raise the money to revive the facility. I took a look at their Web site and made a donation.

Posted in Baseball, History, Sports | Tagged baseball, Hinchliffe Stadium, history, Paterson, sports, stadiums | 6 Comments

Growing Up in the 50’s: Christmas Time in Paterson

Posted on May 27, 2014 by Ken Dowell

One of the things that I most looked forward to as a child when Christmas time approached was a night of shopping with my Aunt Ann. My aunt was a wonderful woman who did more nice things for me than I can possibly recall. This once a year outing was one of my favorites. In the 50’s we didn’t start shopping for Christmas in November. There was no such thing as Black Friday. Santa Claus’ participation in the Thanksgiving Day parade was supposed to represent the start of the retail Christmas shopping season but even that was pushing it. Most people got their stuff a week or maybe two before Christmas. My Paterson outing was usually the night before the night before Christmas. Why Paterson? Because there were no big malls and the city downtown area was the mecca for most shopping and entertainment, as well as some other things you couldn’t get in a small town like specialist medical care or a YMCA. Downtown Paterson was built around the intersection of Main Street and Market. The centerpiece was City Hall, a three or four story structure originally built in 1891. The street outside of City Hall served as a transportation hub for buses so this was the point of departure for most of us coming into the city. Three of Paterson’s four movie theaters were in the downtown section, the Fabian, which was the high-end choice, the U.S. and the Garden. There was also the Plaza in the Totowa section where I spent many a Saturday afternoon watching such classics as Ben-Hur, Godzilla, and Journey to the Center of the Earth. A lot of theaters for one town but in the 50’s it was one theater, one movie. No multiple screens. What was great about shopping in downtown Paterson was that each store was unique and individually owned. You didn’t see the same stores in every shopping area you went to. There would be completely different options in downtown Hackensack or downtown Newark. The store which was what we would now call an anchor was Meyer Brothers, a full block department store with revolving doors, dinging bells and a mild perfumy smell. Since it mostly sold clothes it wasn’t on my favorites list but was a staple for my Christmas excursion. In back of City Hall was a ticket kiosk where you could buy tickets for any of the three area Major League Baseball teams, for Broadway shows or for concerts at Newark Symphony Hall. The nearby record store mainly sold 45’s of the top hits as played on AM radio. When I was hanging out downtown with my friends I had two favorite eateries. One was Nedicks, which was possibly the only chain store in town. Nedicks was an urban staple at the time, selling grilled hot dogs on steamed buns and orange drink. The other was Grant’s, a 5 and 10 across the street from Meyer Brothers with two floors of random inexpensive stuff and a lunch counter where the prices usually fit a kid’s budget.

But for my special night of Christmas shopping with Aunt Ann, we went first class, walking down to the end of Main Street and up to the second floor Chinese restaurant, Port Arthur. There we would get a window table, eat Chow Mein because I didn’t realize there was any other type of Chinese entrée, and overlook the bustling holiday scene on Main Street. -0- Some other “Growing Up in the 50’s” posts: The Corner Store Thinking in Ethnic Slurs The Night Two Guys Burned Down A Decade of DIY Tricky Dick on Main Street Bomb Scare! The Shop Baseball

Posted in Growing Up in the 50s | Tagged 50's, Christmas, Paterson, shopping | 52 Comments

off the leash

Some Random Thoughts on This World Cup and Tournaments Past

Growing Up in the 50’s: Ode to the Y

Paterson Art Walk 2014

Growing Up in the 50’s: The American Legion

Wyoming is Beautiful

Off the Leash Road Trip

Growing Up in the 50’s: The Corner Store

The Paterson Museum

This is Hinchliffe

Growing Up in the 50’s: Christmas Time in Paterson

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