Grandpop Stories

I was a bit younger than most of my cousins, so I only knew our grandpop as an old man. He died at age 78 in 1970, so he was already 70-years-old by the time I was just five. But I also have the perspective of having lived with him every day my entire life until his passing.

Grandpop was always kind to me, though he was certainly losing it in his later years. He used to come into my bedroom in the middle of the night, stand by my bed and wake me to say "Nicky, I'm-a no gonna see you no more. I'm-a gonna die." This went on for many nights in the last year or so of his life. When my mom came back from the hospital after he passed, she was crying and saying "he said he was gonna die!" I remember thinking (not sure if I said it out loud) "well, he said it every day for a year. He had to eventually be right once." Dark humor, but absolutely true story.

In the middle 1960s, my father lived with us on Decatur Street. The marriage was very rocky, and my father was a pretty miserable human being, to be quite honest. I have a very vivid memory of him trying to kick a stray dog I was trying to pet in front of our house (he missed; the dog bit him; Good). I know most of you probably never saw that side of him, but it is true. He had a prior marriage, back in 1930, and he had a daughter, Phyliss, who was born in 1933. I did not know about her until I was in my 40s, and I never met her. She had at least one child, a daughter, who would be my half-niece. I never met her, either, and have no clue what her name was or is. She would likely be around my age, I think.

My father and grandpop absolutely hated each other, and they fought quite often and loudly. As a result, me, my mom and my dad moved out of grandpops house and bought a house on Van Hook Street. which they owned for only about a year in the very late 1960s in what I believe was an attempt to save their marriage. Of course, it did not work out in the end. I was a shy and fearful child, and all this fighting certainly did not help. As an aside, we sold the home to Debbie Cipriani's dad, Rick Anthony, a DJ at WCAM who later died while on the air. He was a good guy.

During our brief time on Van Hook Street, my mom had Bella come over for a visit, and she unfortunately had a major episode during which my mother had to call the police. It was a very difficult thing for a young kid to witness, and I remember it vividly, as there had to have been 20 cops there trying to restrain poor Bella. Afterward, my father verbally berated my mother for being "kind-hearted Annie" by having Bella over for a visit. He said this in front of me, and it's another cruel moment that I will never, ever forget. Not long after, they separated for good and we moved back in with grandpop, where we stayed until his passing.

There was one occasion sometime in the late 60s where grandpop had a huge fight with my mother about something. As young as I was, I have no memory of what it was about. But grandpop left the house in a huff and went on a bender in Camden. He did not return home that evening, and everyone was very, very worried. The entire neighborhood was sitting out on the porches waiting for word of his whereabouts, and I think Uncle Pip and others were out looking for him.

At some ungodly hour of the morning, might have been 3 or 4 am, a taxi cab stopped down Decatur Street, about 15 houses down from ours. I remember looking down the sidewalk as a figure emerged from the cab and stepped into the light down there. And there was the recognizable figured of grandpop, with his customary hat, staggering down the street drunk off his ass. But we were all very relieved because he was safe. I never learned what the fight was about, or at least I don't remember.

Presto's story about the flowers is pretty accurate, but I can add some color. The woman who's flowers he dug up (she lived one block up toward Mt. Ephraim Avenue, I believe) came to our door SCREAMING at my mother, "your father dug up my flowers!!!" Grandpop denied it right to her face, saying "she's-a crazy!" But sure enough, there in our back yard were this woman's flowers, planted there by the old man. My poor mother had to dig them up and replant them back in the woman's yard.

There was another fun moment when some other neighbor woman came to the screen door asking for my mother. I was in the living room, and the old man answered the door. He turned away from the woman and shouted to my mom (and reminder: this was a SCREEN DOOR), "hey Annie, here's a bigga fatta bag!" And my poor mother had to then come to the door and speak to the woman. Can you imagine??

I have another vivid memory of Cousin Donna coming over to babysit me on a night when my mom went out somewhere, maybe on a date, as this was after my father had moved out. The old man was really pissed off about something. Not really sure what, but I gather he was mad at my mother for something. Anyway, he was in the basement doing his "ooo-ooo-ooo, dee-dee-dee" noises and banging on the ducts down there very loudly. I remember Donna being very scared, but this was something I was used to -- nothing new -- so it didn't really bother me. I suppose I calmed Donna down by telling her this was business as usual.

And then there was the 1969 moonwalk. Me and my mom sat watching on the black-and-white TV in the living room. The old man was wandering back-and-forth from the kitchen to the front of the house, as he was wont to do. My mother keep telling him to sit down and watch, and he would wave her off like, "I don't want any parts of that." Finally, she said, "pop, sit down and watch! The men are walking on the moon!" His classic reply: "You believa datta bull-a-shit??" Maybe he was ahead of his time.

He started to get a little crotchety in the last few years, and he used to refer to my friends as "the gotta damma gang," which was hilarious given how innocent they all were. He would often not finish his lunch, put the remainder of his sandwich in his shirt pocket, and head upstairs. My mother would yell at him and ask him where he was going with the sandwich, and he would say "I eat-a later." And I can remember him eating pea soup, getting it all over his hands, and then grabbing a roll and trying to hand it to me, saying "You wanna roll?" No thank you!!

Again, many of these things are simply the result of the ravages of age, as we are all kinda learning ourselves now. But again, he was a good man, a nice man, an immigrant with little education who worked hard to provide for his family after the terrible loss of his wife at age 30, the results of an abortion gone bad. This final story sums him up for me, and I will never ever forget it.

My mom got me a puppy that we named Skippy. It was a cute little beagle. The old man LOVED that dog. Sadly, he got out of the yard one day and was struck by a car on Decatur Street. I can remember Gary Talvacchio rushing into the house to tell us, and the old man hustled out there, picked up the puppy and brought him in the living room. He died there on the rug, as the old man hovered over him, saying "he's a just sleeping." He was crushed by this dog's death, and he cried over him. It hardened him further to life, and he was obviously very deeply affected by it, as I was. It was one of the most traumatic experiences of my life, and to this very day it haunts my dreams. But it made me love the old man. He had a good heart.

A Little Immigration Reality

 I think it's time to discuss immigration, because a lot of you simply do not understand it.

The laws of the U.S. allow people to apply for asylum. Many, many immigrants have done that. They then have to wait for a judge to hear their cases, and this unfortunately can take as long as five years, perhaps longer. This is a result of Congress' inability to pass meaningful legislation to alleviate this situation despite multiple administrations of both parties pining for just that. 

Many of these folks have been in this country illegally for decades, building families, owning and renting homes, holding jobs, paying taxes, and contributing to the economy. Like the rest of us, they keep their heads down and live their lives. 

But yes, they remain here illegally, and there is no argument to that. They are now living in mortal fear of deportation back to a country they likely barely recognize. 

No one, not even the most left-wing person you know, has ANY issue shipping criminals back to the countries from which they came, believe me. Have at it. 

But it's these hard-working, yet still illegal, immigrants who present the problem. 

What do we do with them? Should they and their families be summarily forced from their homes and sent back? Or would it be more compassionate and right to allow them the chance to become legal citizens before taking such drastic action?

It's important that we all remember these people are likely no different from our own ancestors, who ponied up to Ellis Island over 100 years ago seeking a better life. Do not buy into the fear mongering of Trump and his ilk about how these people are somehow evil monsters hell bent of destroying America. 

Demand that your representatives fix the laws, not punish innocent people who are here seeking a better life. It is possible to be compassionate and still uphold the laws and have a secure border. 

Act like these people are your grandparents. Because they damned well could have been. 

The Trump-Hitler Comparisons Make You Mad? Tough Noogies

I know people hate it when Trump is compared to Adolph Hitler, and I get it. Hitler murdered over six million people and caused a World War that destroyed a great deal of Europe, cause the deaths of 50 million people. So yeah, that's a pretty high bar of evil.

But after watching yet another documentary about Hitler and Nazi Germany, it's impossible to deny the comparisons.

Why?

Because Trump is obviously following in Hitler's filthy footsteps with regard to his behavior in acquiring and keeping power. It's as plain as the nose on your face.

Like Hitler, Trump uses a firehose of misinformation to distract the public, while discrediting the free press. And like Hitler, Trump's efforts have borne evil fruit — the majority of Americans simply do not trust the press any longer, which leaves them ripe for conspiracy theories and crackpots.

Which is exactly what Trump wants. Then, like Hitler, he becomes the sole source of "the truth."

Like Hitler, Trump is seeking to surround himself solely with loyalists. That is the sole qualification for the jobs to which they are being appointed. This is intentional, part of the plan. Trump does not care a lick if they do their jobs. He only cares that they do HIS bidding. In many cases, "his bidding" will involved the destruction of the very entities to which they have been appointed to lead.

Like Hitler, Trump already began corrupting the judiciary in his first term by appointing loyalists who will not hold him to account for his misdeeds. These corrupt justices of the High Court were selected and groomed by the religious right Federalist Society and lied their way to their appointments before taking cases that favored Trump and then ruling in his favor. These included, of course, the over-turning of Roe v Wade and the REAL abortion of placing the POTUS above the law, granting him immunity for virtually any deeds committed that can be classified as "official duties." Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, is more anti-American than that.

Hitler, once in total command of Germany, immediately betrayed his loyal SA and replaced them with his hand-picked protection squad known as the SS. These soldiers/murderers were forced to swear an oath of loyalty to Hitler rather than Germany. Trump is putting loyalists in place in high-ranking positions in the military, people who he believes will do his bidding and put his wants and needs ahead of their loyalty to the Constitution of the United States.

Is it then far-fetched to think that someday he might demand that all U.S. military personnel take a similar oath of loyalty to him rather than the Constitution? Honestly, I don't think it's far-fetched at all.

With complete loyalists at the upper rungs of the military, and with complete immunity for official acts, and with a House and Senate who refuse to stand up to him, and with a Supreme Court that will apparently give him everything he wants, I think it's perfectly logical that he would consider it. The checks and balances set up by the founders will be toast.

Of course, this is the part where Hitler really began his plan to murder six million people and initiate a World War so Germany could rule over all of us.

I kindly doubt that is in Trump's plans. However, I firmly DO believe he will attempt to remain in power for life, or at the least, make certain that the right wingnuts, uber-wealthy, and religious whackos are able to accomplish this. J.D. Vance is certainly a firm believe in all those insane things, and I have no doubt he will assume the presidency at some point within the next four years and continue Trump's evil agenda.

Trump told his minions that if they got out and voted for him this time, they would "never have to vote again." What does the rational mind tell you about a statement like them?

It tells me that they are working on ways of corrupting the system that will allow them to remain in power and impose their beliefs upon us all for eternity.

Scoff if you want, but this is not only within the realm of possibility, it is actually already in progress in many ways and in many venues across this land.

Pay attention, people. Democracy is in grave danger here and also in other places across the globe. If we don't stand up and speak out, it could vanish before our very eyes.

This Will Never Be Forgotten Nor Forgiven

 No, You Are Not Forgiven

No, "family and friends," you have not been forgiven for what you have done. In fact, you will NEVER be forgiven, and we can't ever be friends nor family again.

You see, you still have no idea what you have done here today. None. You are either too stupid or too filled with hatred to see it.

You have given the United States of America away to the wealthy class that has been trying to take it back from the middle class literally since the days of FDR. You have disgraced the memory of your middle class parents and immigrant grandparents. That's what you have done. As if that in itself is not enough, consider your moral decay.

You watched another election, but THIS time it was "fair" for you because your candidate won. For FOUR SOLID YEARS we had to listen to you whine that the 2020 election was "stollen," and now all of a sudden those very same election procedures were absolutely secure? You are not very smart.

This will never be forgiven nor forgotten.

You voted for a man legitimately convicted of 34 felonies for having sex with a porn star and covering it up so that you, the voters, would not find out about it. That's called "election interference." Little did the orange moron know that IT WOULDN'T HAVE MATTERED TO YOU ANYWAY. You heard this and said, "he was railroaded and he is my guy." This with literally ZERO evidence to back up the claim. You did this because you were paying a dollar more per pound for butter.

This will never be forgiven nor forgotten.

You voted for a man righteously convicted of sexual assault, the same man who said on tape that he grabs women "by the pussy." The same man who's best friend, Jeffrey Epstein, spent his entire life grooming young girls under 18 to have sex with him and his rich friends. The same man, Epstein, who called TRUMP (oh, the irony) "a man with no moral guardrails." The same man, Epstein, who "killed himself" in his jail cell while UNDER SUICIDE WATCH. Riiiight.

You voted for a man who was credibly accused of gang-raping a 13-year-old girl along with Epstein, a case the details of which are absolutely disgusting, a case that was dropped by this young girl because her life was threatened. A man who has over 30 other charges of sexual  assault made against him. A man who's former wife testified raped her violently and tore her hair out by the roots, the same woman who later died "when she accidentally fell down the steps" (right) in her own home, a women who was buried in the rough on your golf course because you learned that a grave site is exempt from taxes. And you didn't even cut the grass on her grave. You voted for him. You did this because coffee was more expensive.

This will never be forgiven nor forgotten.

You voted for a man who asked for the files on all our undercover people overseas, took them home after he was president, kept them, and then watched as "an unusual number" of these people were killed in the line of duty. When he was indicted for stealing said classified documents, you said, "no, they are out to get him he is my guy." This with literally ZERO evidence to back it up. You did this because ground meat cost you .50 per pound more.

This will never be forgiven nor forgotten.

You voted for a man who mocked the disabled, simulated oral sex with a microphone, called the press "the enemy of the people," stood by and watched a comedian call Puerto Rico "an island of garbage," called his opponent a fascist, communist and socialist. He did those things because he knew YOU would be dumb enough to accept those things as "okay" and "true." Which you did happily. You did this because potato chips were 75 cents per bag more.

This will never be forgiven nor forgotten.

You voted for a man and a party who have continually said they want to eliminate social security and take down Obamacare, cutting your retirement income and rendering literally millions of people uninsurable. This same man has NEVER produced a single actual idea nor policy on healthcare, ever. Not one. All this is stated in his Project 2025, which he told you is "not part of his policy." Yet he has produced no other policy, and today, just two days after the election, one of his people has already laughed at you and said "Project 2025 was real all along." You have screwed yourselves and you have screwed us all. This because milk costs you .50 more per half gallon.

This will never be forgiven nor forgotten.

You voted for a man who's ham-handed attempts to reverse the results of the 2020 election in Georgia led to a RICO indictment of him and his cronies, many of whom will invited back in his new cabinet come January. By very definition, these are people who are too corrupt to be trusted with the reigns of power, yet you in your sheer ignorance have handed it right to them and expected them to suddenly behave like civilized, law-abiding people. You did this because salami was $1 per pound more.

This will never be forgiven nor forgotten.

You have voted for a man who has lied literally hundreds of thousands of times over the past few years, lies that can virtually ALL be easily disproven by facts (those things you don't recognize). Again and again and again he has lied to you. But instead of understanding that these things were provable lies, you have railed against the people reporting on his words, the people who know him best who have warned you about him, and the people who have had the guts to speak out against his lies. "They are all lying, but he speaks the truth," you have said.

This will never be forgiven nor forgotten.

You voted for this man because you have ignored all relevant economic data that shows the U.S. economy as the strongest in the world at this very moment, that inflation is waning, that the stock market is cruising, that job growth is way up and unemployment is way down, that corporate profits are gigantic. No, you said, these things are not true because Donald Trump says otherwise. You did these things because cheese is .75 more per pound.

This will never be forgiven nor forgotten.

You voted for this man even though he constantly spews hatred for people who do not look like him, for transgender people who will now live in fear, for immigrants LIKE YOUR PARENTS who are only here looking for a chance to live their lives in peace and prosperity, but who will now be fearful, expecting Big Brother to be hiding around every corner ready to get them. If all these people are rounded up and shipped out of here as Trump would like, will YOUR children be taking the thankless manual labor jobs these people do quietly every day? No, they will not. You did this because rice cost .99 per bag more.

This will never be forgiven nor forgotten.

You complained ENDLESSLLY about "the immigration problem" even though Trump, with two years in office and control of the Senate, never bothered to pass a single piece of legislation on the issue. And when the Republicans and Democrats in the Senate finally did get together and draft a Republican-written, bi-partisan piece of legislation that would absolutely help the situation, your orange god told them to scuttle it because it would hurt his chances of re-election. Yet you still voted for this horrible, corrupt human being.

This will never be forgiven nor forgotten.

You voted for this guy even though for literally years you have listened to him say bigoted, hateful, ugly things as he ginned up fear in this country. He told you the country is a crime-riddled sh!thole even though crime is down everywhere. You bought into this fear and hate because you are ignorant and can not separate fact from fiction and reality from fantasy. You said "he talks in a way that I understand" in defense of such hateful rhetoric, yet he speak on a third-grade level. If you really CAN understand what he is saying, why are you not appalled by it? You did this because a can of beans costs .10 more.

This will never be forgiven nor forgotten.

You see, you people still think this election was simply about Republican vs Democrat or Liberal vs Conservative. No, it was not. It was about Right vs Wrong and Good vs Evil. Now that you have stupidly put your support behind Wrong and Evil, how can you think we would EVER be able to look at you the same way again? You have become like the sheeple of the Weimer Republic in Germany, who looked to their own selfish needs while their government was overrun by horrible, hateful, ignorant people. This is the door YOU have opened here in my beloved country.

This will never be forgiven nor forgotten.

You are no longer my friends nor my family. If I never see or hear from any of you again, that's fine by me. I'll be too busy here fighting to get back the Democracy YOU have taken away from me and my real family.

Lesson #2: Trump WILL End the War in Ukraine

Funny to hear that coming from me, huh? But he will do it, and it will happen rather quickly. He's told you how many times, if you have been listening. 

First, he will bow to his master, Putin, and will immediately cut off all aid to Ukraine, deeming it "too expense and a waste." Putin will then take whatever parts of Ukraine he wants, enslave the Ukrainian people, execute their leadership, commit atrocities, etc. 

Congrats! "Peace" in Europe, Trump will say.

Wait: there's more. 

Secondly, this action will begin to destabilize the North American Treaty Organization. Trump will then move to render it powerless by bitching about how much it costs us, how the other nations aren't paying their share, etc. This from a loser who NEVER pays his contractors in full (ask them). Before long, NATO nations will be in disarray as far as supporting each other in times of aggression. 

Despots, oligarchs, and fascist all over the world will celebrate this news. Putin especially. 

Putin will then move on another European nation he covets. No one will come to their aid. They will be overrun. 

Trump will stay out of it, claiming neutrality and saying it's "not our problem."

Before too long, Putin's power base will be overwhelming, and without the power of the United States and NATO to stop them, the axis of Russia, China and North Korea will be able to act as they wish without fear of repraisal. 

That's what Trump wants, and that's what WILL happen if we elect him. 

For those of you who intend to vote for him because of your wallets, ya might wanna pay attention to all this for five minutes because it WILL destroy our economy. 

Which was Putin's goal all along.

No, He Did Not Call You "Garbage"

I'm gonna explain this one last time here, in case Danielle decides to post on daddy's account next. I've already blocked mommy and her, as I'm sick and tired of the ignorance and hatred coming from these people. 

It's amazing that they can't see what they've become because of this guy. 

I've heard Joe Biden speak many times. I've heard Donald J. Trump speak many times. Both of their messages have been crystal clear over these past years. There has been no ambiguity. 

No, people, Biden did NOT call all Trump supporters "garbage." Biden has a stutter. He is very old (as these very same people were very anxious to point out weeks ago). He stumbles upon his sentences from time to time as everyone knows. 

Note:, Biden is NOT running for president, in case you missed it. 

What he was obviously (if you are not a cult member) saying was that one supporter and his message of hatred was "garbage." Which I agree with, as should you. 

Again, I used deductive reasoning to make this assessment. Biden stutters. He has NEVER talked in such terms. Ever. He has always been 100% inclusive in his language. So, to think he would suddenly change colors in this moment is just dumb. It's not who he has been; it's not who he is. But of course, these desperate, twisted people are going to try and use this gaff as some kind of "October surprise."

Sorry, folks, but the intelligent people are on to your bullshit. Ain't gonna work this time. 

Trump, on the other hand, calls us liberals nasty names at virtually every single speech. He has called Harris a socialist, a communist, and a fascist on a nightly basis. Comically, those are three very different things, but he is too g-d dumb to know it. It's who he is; it's who he has always been.

So when I tell people to smarten up on this issue, that's why. If that bothers you, well, SMARTEN UP.

In Defense of Pete Rose (Finally)

I am a huge baseball fan, and always have been. I played the game from 1965-1968, again from 1973-1976, and then, after over a decade playing softball from 1976-1992, returned once again and played from 1993-2017. A lot of my life was spent between those white lines, and they are moments I would never give back. I loved every second.

So today, I want to write about the complicated legacy of Peter Edward Rose.

Let’s face it: like a lot of professional baseball players (Curt Schilling, Barry Bonds, Lenny Dykstra and Wade Boggs come immediately to mind), Rose was not a rocket scientist, nor was he a candidate for the Nobel Prize.

But his job description was not “Rocket Scientist” nor was it “Nobel Prize Winner.” Nope.

Pete’s job was getting hits, catching and throwing, and winning baseball games. Anyone who says he did NOT do those things at a Hall of Fame level has never held a baseball in anger. The 1980 Phillies simply do not win a Championship without Rose. This is inarguable.

But Pete was his own worst enemy.

Every day, he walked past a sign in every MLB clubhouse than warned against the dangers of gambling and promised every player that, should he get involved with gambling, that he WOULD be banned from the game for life.

I suppose Pete thought he was above such things. He was arrogant in that way, and really, that same kind of arrogance may have been what made him such a great player given his rather pedestrian skill set.

I am certain he gambled on baseball. I am certain he gambled on his own team. Yet I am 100% certain he bet on his team to win.

For years, I felt no pity for him. He made his own bed. Thanks to his friends Joe Morgan and Mike Schmidt, Rose finally did get a meeting with the Commissioner of Baseball, Peter Seitz. In that meeting, he was told that, in order to get back in baseball’s good graces, he would need to cease any association with gambling and gamblers. That was made very clear to him,

Pete went directly from that meeting with Seitz to Las Vegas to sign autographs and kibitz with his gambling buddies. That’s self-destructive behavior if I’ve ever seen it.

But things are different in baseball today. After a century of decrying the evils of gambling, now I have to sit through ad after ad PROMOTING gambling. The announcers at each game even have the audacity to give the odds of “Alec Bohm driving in a run tonight” or “Aaron Nola getting seven strikeouts or more tonight.”

I find it infuriating, and I find it hypocritical.

How can baseball or anyone else now keep Rose out of the Hall of Fame if they are literally IN BED with gambling on a nightly basis? How long will it be before some addle-brained superstar gets in knee-deep with the wrong people and gets himself banished from the game? You already came dangerously close with the Ohtani mess.

In closing, I have the following advice for baseball: 1) get all this gambling bullshit off the air every night and away from the game; or 2) put the goddamned guy in the Hall of Fame where he belongs. Shoeless Joe, too, for that matter.

It’s just common sense.