A image potpourri - 1) my father at about 5 in 1918 (Im guessing) in NYC with a horse -- during a reasonably flush period for the Kettelhacks: I believe they lived way uptown on Amsterdam Avenue when this was taken; Herman, my grandfather, was a successful businessman (import/export), though I dont know what the wars effects were on that (their Germanness couldnt have made them popular), but my fathers earliest memories recall a pretty well-heeled life: he had a nanny; he remembered being in a high chair at Luchows (oh ye who knew not Luchows! - Hello Dolly era belle epoque German palace of a restaurant that presided over east 14th street until the early 80s, briefly after which it turned into a gay bar, then was razed -- one of NYCs great institutions; I had dinner there during its last still florid days, played violin in it when the violinist in the band said sure-why-not -- ach du liebe!). Anyway, the Kettelhacks were clearly doing very well for a while -- their upbringing in Bremen had been similarly comfortable. This would have been a couple years before they left for what turned out to be a financially disastrous return to Germany, after the return to New York from which my 39 year old grandfather died of that sudden heart attack, and life took made a 180 degree swerve toward somewhere very much else. 2) Love the pic of my bro Bob crouching down on a sidewalk in Forest Hills where my parents and he lived when he was born up till they moved to Amityville in 1949. (They lived above a funeral home.) Those eyes! I always had the feeling my brother hadnt entirely incarnated into this realm -- seemed like there was always a bit of him that hadnt quite arrived yet. A sort of where the hell AM I? thing -- but more poignant, touching than that makes it sound. His stellar sense of humor probably had something to do with this. (Everything really WAS absurd to him.) 3) And heres my mom again, probably about 21, in her Alice Blake loveliness -- she had a number of jobs to support herself and to pay for classes at the Art Students League, one of which was modeling for a dress designer, dont know which one. (She also worked at Macys -- hence that pic I posted a while back of her dressed like a doll at the Macys Toy Pavilion at the 39 worlds fair; maybe thats how she got this job.) This is the only time I have ever seen her in an evening gown. But look at that profile! And that beauty which comes from somewhere not entirely earthly.
Posted on: Fri, 04 Apr 2014 19:31:17 +0000
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