R.I.P. DAVY JONES

Recently we were all saddened to hear of the death, at only 66 years of age, of  Davy Jones, the sole Englishman among the members of the 1960's pop quartet, the Monkees.  The 1960's coincided with the first decade of my lifetime.  Everyone who knows anything about me knows about my lifelong obsessive love affair with the music of that era.  To this day I still enjoy their TV show in reruns.  They were originally intended as a variation on the Beatles but they seemed, right away, to have taken on a life & perosonality of their own.  Jones, Peter Tork, Mike Nesmith & Mickey Dolenz were a jovial quartet, at least from the looks of their public persona.   It was nice to see all the outpouring of interest in Jones & sorrow for his death.  Women in my age range have reminisced about how he was their first crush in grammar school.   I was especially happy to hear about his connection to both New York & Pa.   I can still remember the Monkee Halloween costumes my  Jackson Heights friends & I used to wear during the band's heyday.  Over the cours of the several decades since then, the band's members had often gotten back together for reunions, most notably in 1986, & they very recently went on a concert tour to celebrate their forty~fifth anniversary.   Etta James, another famous 1960's singer, & Whitney Houston, also died recently, but as far as I'm concerned there is something especially sad about Jones' death.  He was a part of the world in which I grew up. 

DIVINIE MERCY SUNDAY

In my last post I mistakenly said my appointment for the blood drive was on Friday. It was on Thursday. Conveniently it was very easy for me to get there because it was at O.L. Mt. Carmel church on William Street in Pittston. Although it wasn't until 4:00 p.m. I, of course, being so compulsively punctual, got there at around 3:00. A few of the phlebotomists who showed up that day were regulars so at least two of them, Marlene & Tina, recognized me quite well by now. The women I spoke to at first, when I told them I was so early, let me get an early start. Marlene, though, came over & reminded me that I was going to have to wait until a double red cell opening was available because that's what I had promised to do. After it was all over I got some apple juice & cookies & a coupon for a contest. My old Knights of Columbus council, 794 in Lindenhurst, N.Y., used to give us a really nice full meal. There's a bitter rainstorm right now ever since last night. It's very common lately for some obscene reason. We always get such bad weather, with intermittent spurts of niceness. Easter & Divine Mercy Sunday are now both over. The English prince's wedding supplied us with a lot of nice hoo~ha, as did the beatification of Pope John Paul II. On the more morbid side we were all relieved to find out about the death of Osama bin Laden a few days ago.