This is from Russ. My first post on the blog:

  This post might be of more interest to family, but all can obviously read if you're interested. We spent a few days in New Haven with our kids. Showed them our first apartment and some of our haunts when in law school. We went to Frank Pepe's Pizzaria, where pizza was supposedly first introduced in 1925.  It really was great pizza. We had gone there in 1969 and 70 when living there, and fun to return. 

   We also went duck pin bowling in West Haven. My father used to amuse the four sons on Sunday(his only day off) by driving from the Bronx to Bridgeport to duckpin bowl. Apparently there were hundreds of duckpin lanes in the fifties, but only a few remain. Camaron, Josh and Matt genuinely enjoyed it. I couldn't bowl because of my back(it's really bad), but just talking to the owner about the history of duckpin bowling was great for me as far as good memories were concerned.(For those who care, in duckpin bowling the pins are 1/3 the size and the ball the size of a grapefruit. You get three rolls in a frame because it's harder to score than in regular bowling. And the alley we went to was seedy like the one we used to go to in the fifties and early sixties.

   Some more reminiscing. My father used to take us and as many of our friends as could squeeze into his station wagon on Sunday to Little Italy in NYC to Vincent's, where we would "dine" on take out scungilli and calimari in the hottest red sauce imaginable. It was served in chinese food take out containers, with a biscuit in the bottom to absorb the sauce. The biscuit was really, really hot.

  More reminiscing(best suited for family and close friends who might care about my ramblings). My father, for all his faults, was truly amazing. He worked six days a weeks,usually getting home one weekdays after 7, but still raised 4 boys after my mother died when we were 15, 12, 10 and 3 years old. We lived in a one bedroom apartment, with the four boys sleeping in the one bedroom and my father in the living room. But on Sunday he somehow had more time for us than any of our friends' parents. Our tiny apartment was the center of activity for many of our friends, and we went somewhere like Bridgeport, Bear Mountain, Little Italy,etc. every Sunday, or he cooked soup for the neighborhood.

  One more bit of nostalgia. In driving around we would listen to The Shadow(Lamont Cranston) on the radio, and of course the Giant football games.  Grier, Modulewski, Katkavage and Robustelli up front, with Y.A Tittle or Charlie Connerly as quarterback, and The Chief, Alex Webster with Frank Gifford in the backfield. And of course, Sam Huff as middle linebacker.

   Hope you're not asleep yet reading, but you can always just turn the computer off. I'm enjoying this.

  Well, tomorrow we're going to Cape Cod, and then Woodman's in Ipswich for the very best fried clams imaginable(we are experts in fried whole bellie clams). Then Laconia and the lakes and mountains  in New Hampshire before heading to Portland and up the coast to St. John for the ferry on the 12th to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

  My back went out lat Monday, and it was quite severe for 4-5 days. Getting a little better, but it happens every 6 months or so, so it would have happened if I was still working, and I'd rather have it happen on this permanent vacation than while working. Just something to get through.

 The trip is everything we had hoped it would be. I know there will be ups and downs, but so far the first nine days have been great. Can't wait for the Maritimes in Canada and even more excited about getting out west to the rockies and the West Coast.

  That's it for now. Hope some of you found this a at least minor interest. I know I thoroughly enjoyed writing it. Try sending an email like this to a relative or friend, reminiscing about the past. It feels great.

  Best regards, Russ.