Category: Astoria Characters

“I’m standing in the center field.” Neil Herdan wants to make sure I can identify him when I arrive at Whitey Ford Field, so that’s the message he texts. The Grape Dutches, a team in the Astoria Social Softball League, is supposed to have a playoff game, but it’s so early that the players haven’t arrived yet. Neil is the only guy on the field. And it’s a good thing because he’s not in center field. He’s smack in the middle of the pitcher’s mound. He apparently has no idea…

Continue Reading →

Gladys Gray is thumbing through an album of old photos, and when she sees the black-and-white studio shot of the wedding, she stops. She points out the smiling flower girl with the chubby cheeks and bobbed hair. “That’s me,” she says. “This was taken 85 years ago when my cousin got married. I remember the exact year because I was 4.” There’s something else about that photo that Gladys will never forget: the bouquets. Bold, bountiful and almost too big to hold, they were made…

Continue Reading →

Tomohiro Arakawa has his hands full. He’s juggling a bulky backpack and a spindly scooter as he orders his breakfast at Lot’s O Bagels on Broadway. The Saturday subways are screwed up. He’s on his way to work in Manhattan and doesn’t want to be late. Scooter aside, Tomohiro stands out in a crowd. He’s tall – 6 foot, plus a couple more inches when he’s standing on the Swagtron – and trim, and he’s dressed in 50 shades of black, which add super-chicness to his stature. Tomohiro…

Continue Reading →

“I call this my black limousine,” says Odette Lupis as she drives her Easy Wheels shopping cart onto the sidewalk. She’s silver-haired and 77, and it’s burdensome and bulky. In the bouncy, bumpy march down the narrow stairs from her third-floor walkup, it has the advantage. Odette, a photojournalist who began shooting when the field didn’t welcome women, made a career of hauling equipment around. Typically, she carried three heavy cameras with her on assignment. She wore two around…

Continue Reading →

Jelani Remy was 7 when it happened. He went to see the movie . He was so captivated by the songs and the spectacle that he couldn’t take his little-boy eyes off the big screen. As soon as he got his birthday money, he bought the cassette-tape soundtrack. “I went through one character at a time and sang each part, over and over,” he says. “I connected with the story, which pulls at the heartstrings. I kept this up for a long time, possibly for years, but I don’t want to admit how long.” Jelani,…

Continue Reading →