Old Lyme Shores, July 1979 (Age 3)

My nana (my dad's mom) had a cottage on Long Island Sound in Old Lyme, Connecticut. [I'd put a line here about how all of us cousins were pissed that our parents sold it in 1980, but that would make it sound like we're still mad about it, and we're totally not. Like, at all.] Old Lyme was so much fun: the carousel, donuts, Italian ice, movies on the beach...  Above, Jene holds Shawnee, and I'm in my Spider-Man shirt on the rock in front. 

Jene's in a Wonder Woman bathing suit, I'm on the right, and this dude and presumably his daughter are looking on. Not sure if the girls are burying someone or not. (Identification alert! My dad says this man was his "idol," Dick, and his kids were Gretchen and Scott.)

Me in Long Island Sound. 

Me *from* Long Island Sound.

Me with Old Lyme legends Abby (sitting) and Nikki (standing). I had not seen or heard from these two in 45 years, but grew up seeing them in photos and wondering where they are. But this year...I found Abby! Without using facebook! Which admittedly would have been the easy way, but whatever, I hate facebook. Anyway, it's been great reconnecting with Abby and comparing Old Lyme memories. She's 3,000 miles away but who knows, maybe we can have a reunion next time she's back in New England.

Jene and Nikki, who I always thought looked very Poky Little Puppy-like in this shot.

Wow, an actual wave on the sound. Jene rides it on a float.

Me and an unknown girl.

Fenway Park, July 1982 (Age 6)

 

Seeing the Red Sox at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts with the family. You can see a second-edition 1982 scorebook at the bottom of this picture.

 

Since it's clearly the Kansas City Royals on the field, and it's summer, this puts the game at Saturday, July 17th, or Sunday, July 18th, 1982. 

Jene's not as excited as I am! We used to call her "The Eck" when she had a hat on, because her moss in the back made her look like Dennis Eckersley. (People just call him "Eck" now, but I swear we all called him "The Eck" in the early 80s.)

Some random guy enjoying a summer day at Fenway. The lefty in this picture and the top one may be John Tudor, who started (and lost 9-0) on the Sunday, so I'd guess that was our game.

I'm thinking this was my first time at Fenway. My first overall game was September of '80, Red Sox-Yankees in the Bronx. (I grew up an hour from Yankee Stadium and 2.5 hours from Fenway Park.)

Essex Steam Train, August 1979 (Age 3)

Summer 1979, I'm guessing August based on the order of photos in the original album. Here's Jene with her pal Shaunee, and me with a "walking" Mickey Mouse doll that I still have. This must be Old Saybrook, Connecticut, where my grandpa and grandma had their cottage, because we're about to go to nearby Essex.

Me with Mickey and two more friends. Still in pajamas, but soon it was off to the train.

The Essex Steam Train, with my grandpa and Jene, all of us in the middle window.

Mom the photographer has now joined us on the train. The modern version of this train started in 1971 and is still operating today. Along with...

...a steamboat. I seem to know something's up with Dahmer over there.

On the Connecticut River with Gramps.
 

Neighborhood Goofin', 1979 (Age 3)

Here's my sister, Jene, in our driveway in May 1979. Congrats on getting married *this* month (as I write this), August 2023, Jene & Duane!

Here's Jene and I. That's a Plymouth Horizon. In the back is our house (red until around...1989?) with our old back deck before it became two-tiered, and Pine Mountain*, which was, in a general sense, between us and Danbury Airport.

Me in "regular" pose. And, wait for it...

Me in "wacky" pose. That's one of those jackets that had multiple bootleg baseball team logos. *Even* then I remember questioning why as a fan of *one* team, I'd be forced to represent *many* teams. Maybe those jackets were just meant to show you were a "fan of the game."

I can't explain why suddenly we have black and white pictures... maybe another family took these and we got copies? This is my dad pushing me on a swing at Ridgebury School, just through the woods from our house.

Down at the nature trail adjacent to the school. Jene's at far left, me and my dad are in the middle. The gaggle of neighbors consists of Mr. Benson and his two kids on the bridge, and two Quinn kids over in the stream. If we've got dads and kids, maybe Mr. Quinn was the photographer here. Jene and I took my dad to this spot last summer as part of his 80th birthday celebration.

Christmas 1978 (Age 3)

Just a few pics from Xmas '78. Here I am with Santa at my nursery school. (I went to 3-yr old nursery school and 4-yr old nursery school. 4-yr old NS was in NS! Meaning North Salem, NY. Even though we lived in Connecticut.) Pretty cool pants.

At home on Christmas morning. Cookie Monster jammies. And a Disney-heavy gift.

Jene gets gerbils at age 6. I believe they were named Ridgey and Bury after our elementary school, Ridgebury School, which was right through the woods from our house. I'm thinking one of the cats got to Bury, because I remember Ridgey being, like, the main gerbil. Later I got my own gerbil which I named Danny.
 

New York City Trip, 1980 (Age 4)

I grew up an hour away from New York City, and my love it may have started with the trips my grandpa would take us on when I was little. Here we are going to the circus at Madison Square Garden in 1980, probably April or May. Above, Jene and I with Gramps. (Top of parking garage between 30th and 31st Streets.) 

Between MSG and 2 Penn Plaza, at street level.

2PENN, which is undergoing a major renovation as I type this, 43 years later.

Looking east from that same parking garage at St. John the Baptist, because of the architecture, yeah, that's it, the architecture....  What's with me thinking "hands on knees" is the proper pose for parking garage shots??

The parking garage we were standing on is still there today, as seen in the above satellite map pic. The orange arrows show where we were standing and the direction of the shots looking out at MSG and then the church.
 

My 4th Birthday Party, 1979

The dining room in Ridgefield, September 1979. I still have that Spider-Man. And note the picture of me crawling on the sand as a baby. That hung in our hallway for the life of that house--I hadn't realized it had gone up so soon after the moment happened. (Showing you part of the physical photo album, with my mom's handwriting on "Jere's 4th.")

Blowing out the candles as my dad looks on. Hey, why is Stefan blowing too?? WTF.

Left to right: 

Carter (born in the same year Carter was elected! He was a big motorcycle guy and the Internet tells me he was still doing motocross as of a few years ago. 

Ali, who've I've been in touch with somewhat recently--she became the head cheerleader and always kind of felt like a second sister growing up. 

Jessica, who ended up going to a different school I think, never heard from her post-nursery school. 

My sister, Jene, whose own kids I still think of as being the age of the kids in this picture, but who are actually all full-grown adults now. 

And me.

Left to right:

Stefan again. This guy became a professional magician, and my sister keeps in touch with him.

Possibly Timmy, who ended up getting a mohawk in middle school, long before I knew you could get a haircut that wasn't, ya know, the same one you'd always had.

Chris. Went on to be one of the popular crowd in high school, on the football team, etc. I always felt like despite that I wasn't popular, I'd grown up with enough of the popular kids so that they gave me a "break," like, nobody was gonna beat me up, they pretty much left me alone.

The party rages on.......

Group shot in the living room for present-opening. Is that my to-this-day friend Pat in the striped shirt at right? Hmm...
 

Jere's 21st Birthday Family Party, 1996

Check out the New York/New Jersey Knights hat, the Ohio State shirt, and that Levi's one I looooooved over it. And my high-shaved sides along with the long hair in back. Easing toward the mullet-hawk...

Also starring Jene and Amanda (age 1.5), and Spike the cat at age 12. And mom and dad. At the house in Ridgefield.

Puerto Rico, 1987 (Age 11)

A family classic! The "Steve" video, in two parts. From one of our Puerto Rico trips, Caribe Hilton. This dude Steve came up to us and offered to film us for ten bucks or something. The colors were a little off but hey it's a nice doccumentation of the family and the hotel grounds. Enjoy the totally not staged antics of me, Jene, mom, and dad.

Mom & More in '89

 

Here's a video from my mom's book signing (The Port of Missing Men by Mary-Ann Tirone Smith) at our hometown bookshop in 1989. This was her third published novel and many family members, neighbors, and friends turned out.

My dad filmed the action on our old giant video camera that you'd pop VHS tapes directly into. He is also the narrator/interviewer/agitator. What you see is unedited. I don't know why he stopped filming (or went back and started taping over) that one intro section.

While watching, I was wondering where I was, until my friend Mike's mom comes in and gives a baseball update! We played for Squash's in Pony League that summer, and it sounds like one of us was twirling a gem in the midst of this book extravaganza.

Books on the Common is still in business at the same location in Ridgefield in 2023! Sadly the longtime owner, Sally Ruggles, formerly Sally Silbernagel, died last summer; she is visible at the beginning and end of the video.

See the video description on the YouTube page for the full list of attendees!

Thanks to my sister, Jene, for holding onto this video all these years!

Here Shall Be...

 ...all the photos, all the videos, all the audio from my life before the Internet, 1975-2005-ish. 

2005 was around the point I started uploading pics and vids to the Internet, which you have followed in real time on my blog A Red Sox Fan From Pinstripe Territory, my YouTube channels (jps8080 and matseighty), and my Twitter (rsfpt).

So here comes all the stuff from before then: My pre-Internet family & friends photo/video album, piece by piece, labeled by year, as I upload it all.

This is gonna take a lonnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggg time....

Jere in Ridgefield, CT, 1995. Video still by Markus Chan.