Fresh Meadows, that is!
Although the photo hardly matches the name, it was a rather pleasant place to hang out in my youth.
Later this year, I'm attending a book launch party in my old 'hood. Although the lavish steak house, Bloomies, the bowling alley, and the bookstore have been replaced by a Hooters, Daffy's and Five Guys, I'm jazzed to set foot in the old Century Meadows Movie Theater (now the AMC Loew's million-plex) where I first saw Sean Connery as James Bond and made out in the dark -- long before the term "hook-up" was coined.
I didn't technically live in Fresh Meadows...I lived in the small private homes on the other side of 73rd Avenue. I always wanted to live in one of the apartments though...they seemed to have more of a community feel. And now, both sides of the Avenue seem to be reuniting.
My classmates have grown up to be amazing and funny 50-something boys and girls -- including a TV producer, an optician, an actor, and a medical educator. (Of course, we have a bunch of doctors and lawyers too.) Our grade school is now 75% Asian, but it looks and smells exactly the same as it used to, and I'm happy to report that oak tag is still available in the corner store. However, the 20-story building, which once appeared to be a luxury skyscraper, looks rather small and average.
Many of my classmates have raised sons and daughters of their own (who are probably sick of hearing our tales of assembly day, dixie mesh, shop classes, and Vietnam protests).
Sadly, we have had some suicides and early deaths like all boomer graduates. We will miss Ira and Fred. And some of our coolest teachers (like the beloved Yvette Levy) cannot be found online and may be long gone.
But the miracle that is Facebook is bringing many of us back together. The community's name of Fresh Meadows is actually appropriate now. We will all roll around in our field of memories and dreams and breathe in our collective wisdom and wit. Perhaps we will even imagine that we can smell that lingering scent of our first cigarettes and whiskey sours at Leonard's of Great Neck or that essence of school yard weed.
Comments