Robert StGenis Voice empowered

Designer jeans started to become a fad - which has evolved into a mainstay of American fashion to this day - starting around when I was in 3rd grade. Gloria Vanderbilt  was the pioneer of the industry, creating a line of denim jeans for women bearing her signature on the back right pocket and a swan on the front right pocket. The audience targer for these jeans were geared towards women, not girls. So people like my teachers and Mother. At this point, I don't think my Mother even owned a pair of denim anything. My Father had always looked at jeans as something for farm workers and other "laborers." Some of our teachers did get pairs, but to this point, the idea of jeans on a teacher at school was definitely not part of the dress code. I think Mrs. Edwards, our school Librarian, might have led the "charge for change" and been the first to take that leap and wear designer jeans to work. Keep in mind that women wearing pants was relatively new in the work pla...

Like many a household, family dinner on Sunday evenings was a ritual for at least the entire time we lived in Michigan and somewhat so as I ended my teenage years and my parents' marriage came to its overdue inevitable end in New Jersey. It was one family activity my Father felt was important, albeit not all ended well. He traveled constantly, over 180 days a year he boasted at times. He wasn't into his marriage to my Mom, clearly evident from the 3 abortions he paid for with affairs he was having (which I learned just in recent years) and verbal and physical fights I witnessed over the years. He loved Christopher and me growing up as well as he knew how to but he has been quick to admit later in our lives he was never good with young children. That's an understatement as you'll learn reading this blog. Sunday dinners varied over time and, to a large extent, how my Father was doing financially. They were spaghetti and meatballs, pasta with calamari (where my Mother...

In my post  Being a Junior , I discuss two "washed-up hookers" to whom I would bring doughnuts and coffee daily when I briefly stayed with my Father at an apartment on 79th and 2nd Avenue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. New York had a homeless crisis with mass numbers of unsheltered people and the city was at the early stages of gaining any control over the crisis, one which they were forced into addressing after the settling of a lawsuit  Callahan v. Care y in 1981. In that consent decree, the City and State agreed to provide shelter and board to all homeless men who met the need standard for welfare or who were homeless “by reason of physical, mental, or social dysfunction.” Thus the decree established a right to shelter for all homeless men in New York City, and also detailed the minimum standards which the City and State must maintain in shelters, including basic health and safety standards. In addition, Coalition for the Homeless was appointed monitor of shelters ...

I don't even recall exactly how Laura and I rented a cabin in the Poconos, though I had a failsafe fake ID and a credit card. My parents seemed to most of the time allow me to do most things without much concern, even at 17 years old and still in high school. Laura came up from Toms River and we traveled some 75 miles or more into the Poconos in Pennsylvania. My close friend Steve in Baltimore whom I knew from the beach (in DelMarVa they refer to "the beach" while "down the shore" is purely a "Jersey thing") at the Sea Colony and his Catholic School buds were coming to the Poconos on a school trip and I was determined we would all be there. We met on February 1, 1986 or perhaps it was the Friday evening prior, January 31 which would be logical. (I only know this because I wrote it on the back of photos. I hardly have that good of memory!) Laura & Steve We all had a great time, to my best recollection, but I had to get them back to...

These photos are all tied to multiple entries telling my story through my high school years. Please takes a few minutes and first read and view:  Being a Junior ,   Summer 1986. Part One ,   Summer 1986. Part Two , Senior Year Part Two   and you may also wish to read and view: Senior Year. Part One ,  It Gets Better and  Brett Kavanaugh to get a more complete "picture" of my journey through this period of mine in the 80s. I promise you'll find it at least somewhat entertaining, sometimes perhaps a bit surprising or even shocking and even possibly insightful. Our vacation rental, though we used terms like "beach house" or "summer home" was in the tennis community, which was across from the high-rises on the ocean at the Sea Colony. This picture wasn't ours, but almost identical and on the same street. Like any development, there were only a few varying styles. These are typically 2 bedroom, 2 bath units with a deck. They are one floor units...

This will not mean much unless you first read: Summer 1986. Part Two. In Liberty & Reality The lower right photo shows 2 bad decisions on my part. A horrible perm and smoking. I first started smoking as a freshman in Cross Country when my friend and I would sneak into the woods and smoke during a run. A few of us also tried chewing tobacco while cycling in the same period. Difference then, at my private school, they simply had designated smoking areas for students. We were told it was bad, not that we couldn't under any circumstance. Meanwhile, the video below was being shown during the school year in NYC public schools. It most definitely was not in the Morris School District.

Please also read: Summer 1986. Piers & The Cure. Being a Junior Along with any and all other the rest of my posts. I greatly welcome your feedback. Post anonymously, that is more than fine. I would love to hear from you!  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Statue of Liberty was given to the United States as a gift from France in 1886.  Liberty Weekend , the 100th anniversary, was to be a spectacular weekend and I must say, while I was incredibly fortunate in my circumstances throughout that weekend, I have never had any other experience yet that left quite such an indelible impression. New York and New Jersey were in a turf war starting before I moved to the East Coast in 1985 with New Jersey claiming that Liberty Island was actually in New Jersey waters. They ultimately lost this war and as huge an advocate as I am for New Jersey, this one was bullshit. New York made ...

We moved to New Jersey for the beginning of my junior year of high school. I was transitioning from Cranbook , a private school with a exquisite 600 acre campus designed by  Eliel Saarinen that is largely the birthplace of mid-century modernism among other things, to Morristown High School , a large public high school with 3 mish-mosh institutional buildings put together. Morristown had a very diverse student body, as opposed to Cranbrook where at the time diversity was like a few spare sprinkles on a white frosted cupcake. There were no bells at Cranbrook. Now, I had buzzers, guards, and an Attendance Czar who sent computer generated letters to your parents about your "illegal absence" if you missed a class. We had cubby holes at Cranbrook (which really needed to be changed as I had things stolen from me) but now I had a locker with random locker inspections, sometimes with the Morristown PD. ESL was something I had never heard of before, and teen pregnancy was something ...