Nancy Ruhling's Astoria Characters

It’s turn-your-ears-red cold when Andreas Chronis makes his arrival at the soccer field in Astoria Park early in the morning before work. Andreas is competitive on and off the soccer field. As the joggers run rings around the track, Andreas ties his dark hair up in a man bun and starts kicking the ball around the perpetually green artificial turf. “I always get emotional on the soccer field,” he says, sending the ball spinning into the air like a shooting star. “I’m competitive…

Continue Reading →

Oh, it feels s-o-o good to get dressed up again! For Colleen Hill, getting dressed up means donning a chic 1960s black velvet dress whose bat-wing-like bell sleeves are trimmed with outrageous curlicues of rigid white ruffles. Colleen’s a curator at FIT. It, of course, complements her black patterned tights, her kicky dark-purple secondhand suede ankle boots and her leopard-print cloth mask. She bought the dress on Etsy and remarks that it’s silk velvet, which nobody makes any…

Continue Reading →

What with the world in its current state of uncertainty, it’s the little things that we count on for comfort. Rosario’s is at 22-55 31st St. One reassuring thing we know for sure is that six days a week, Rosario DiMarco will be sitting at the deli counter at Rosario’s and that his 97-year-old father, Santo, will be there with him. Rosario, who is wide of shoulder, short of stature and long of chatty conversation, opened the old-fashioned Italian deli and pizzeria on 31st Street…

Continue Reading →

“I’m interested in everything,” declares DeeAnne P. Gorman, throwing her arms out as if to embrace not only the New York City skyline but also the entire world. DeeAnne’s the board president of the Greater Astoria Historical Society. DeeAnne, poet/vocalist/place enthusiast/activist/history buff/animal adopter/and a whole bunch of other things, is on the roof of her apartment building, sitting in a beach chair soaking up the sun. There’s a little chill in the autumn air so…

Continue Reading →

When Concepción Gonzalez lifts the lid off the enormous pot, steam fills her tiny kitchen, misting her eyeglasses and the window. Concepción checking on the tamales. As she does every weekend, she’s making tamales, a humble task she has performed for the better part of her 62 years. The recipe, which she brought with her from Tochilmilco, Mexico three decades ago, is based on one her mother taught her. “I added my own touches,” she says in Spanish, as her daughter Teresita translates. The…

Continue Reading →