who's all hung up

  on that happiness thing

Who's trying to tune all the bells that he rings
And who's in the corner and down on the floor
With pencil and paper just counting the score (N.Young)

some things are so ironic that they can't be attributed to irony. yesterday i received a shocking phone call that a lifelong friend had suddenly passed away. I was standing in the Silver Bullet Bar at Monmouth Park....An hour or so earlier when i walked into the bar i scanned the barstools and Pub Tables looking to see if this friend was there.....for it happened to be the place i had seen him the last 3 or 4 times..(outside Clavins of course was another common meeting place). In fact yesterday i almost texted my friend to give him a heads up that i was headed to the Track as i usually do.....but i wasn't sure exactly where we were going to be and so i did not.....but he was certainly on my mind as i drank my beer and read the racing form. ....i was positively stunned when i picked up the phone and learned that he had died.

I suppose i was about 10 when i first met him and for the next 7 or 8 years we were very close....when summer came and a lot of the guys we knew left Bayridge for a few months , me , Mac, Dano and Dermott would hold the Ft in the schoolyard , 76th street stairs and the hockey court on Shore Rd....drinking cold beer, listening to the Dead and waiting for the September return of the Breezy crowd.......over the years we would drift in and out of touch but our paths crossed a lot on Wall Street..at Concerts ...The Belford Ferry..Ranger games...Monmouth County Bars  and of course the Racetrack. it was at the track on Derby morning that i last saw him....we bumped into each other and chatted for a good hour about everything from the old neighborhood to who we liked in the Big Race and everything in between. I'm very sorry this morning coming to grips with his passing....Rest in peace my friend, for a kid from Brooklyn you achieved a great deal in a short life.

Who's saying baby, that don't mean a thing
'Cause nowadays Clancy can't even sing