It was a late Sunday afternoon . As usual the mother had prepared a dinner complete from roasted meat , boiled potato and cooked vegetable . Dessert was homemade apple pie with vanilla ice cream on top and a slice or two of extra sharp cheddar cheese on the side. Her kitchen had already been cleaned up from any traces of dirty dishes or any sign of having been used at all for such a Sunday meal . Many a Sunday in past the children would be allowed to go to a afternoon movie each with enough pocket change for some candy and a soda , not so for today . Today after all the domestic work had been completed the father and mother simply told the children they were so tired after working their jobs all week that they needed to take a nap . So this child went over to a friends house . That child went to her bedroom . A sister went over to her girlfriends . The youngest girl would be playing quietly with a girlfriend in the basement play room . A middle child cared not to visit any one or go out of the house passed the time in a sorta free falling matter of imagination by watching old black and white movies in a basement television room . An hour passed quietly with no signs of life noise on the floors over head . Marlene Dietrick saved the day by dropping the house door key out the bedroom window . A secret double agent would save the day after obtaining said key . Young sister and friend would ascend to upstairs for snacks . Role playing through dolls can become so tiresome that sugar and other carbs are a necessity ! With in basement television room , movie credits rolled on to a Kurt Weil musical score symphony hall style . All was as it should be in movie world . Double spy agents saved the day by out smarting Nazi SS officers and villains . Marlene Dietrick could go on to sing more songs like Falling in Love Again or Belly Up to the Bar Boys ! Middle child took a break from a darkened room to go upstairs . Afternoon sun poured into house windows as he walked into the kitchen . he heard his parents bedroom door opening and closing . His father appeared wearing clothes a cut above day to day but not quite formal or dress like in style . perhaps a bit sporty in appearance . His bright green eyes glared down onto middle child . His carrot red hair was neatly combed with a touch of Vitalis hair tonic . tops of curls glistening highlights of afternoon sun. Middle child came to an abrupt halt . " Daddy !! Where are you going ? asked middle child . " Out for a walk " replied Daddy . Can i come too Daddy ? " said middle child . " Well , yes . Only we have to go now " " Oh Daddy , i am ready ! " The afternoon sun although waning beat down relentlessly as if all living beings were on trial and would be made ready to crack and spill a gut . Into the angled bright afternoon light Daddy and middle child walked .With out eye wear protection the sun's brightness was causing Daddy and middle child to squint their eyes to the point of almost not seeing , next to imagined blindness . Big man hand holding little boy hand they proceeded on their journey .The side walk on which they walked was gray slate from local blue stone mines of the Victorian days . Heat waves were rising from the pavement of Doubleday Street . The Daddy and middle child passed many double family homes with yards and gardens leading to the corner of Doubleday and Chenango street . On this corner was a grocery store owned by the city's mayor . In Passing the establishment the middle child glanced into the plate glass windows on the Doubleday side . With in , piled four boxes high was a display of sanitary napkins . The boxes were light purple and exhibited a beautiful flower underneath a brand name . Much to the amazement to the middle child was recognition of said product . With a slight blush , a memory entered into middle child's mind . Middle child had seen the same product in his family's bathroom closet . At the time middle child deduced the product to be foot pads that his mother would use when wearing stiletto heals . Middle child remembered packing two sanitary napkins into his mother's stiletto heals and attempting to walk . Middle child decided to keep these shaky finding results a secret to be carried to his grave . At the intersection where Doubleday street met Chenango Street the pedestrian would have to decide right towards Saint Pauls Church or The Fischer-Scholderal Funeral Home , or left the old riddled and littered business -manufacturing districk . Directly across Chenango Street was the old shoe store . Middle child remembered over hearing Daddy read out loud to the Mother a news paper article about the shoe store clerk , a women , being robbed and savagely beaten then left for dead . Turned out the shoe store clerk happened to be the a doctor's sister the vary some doctor the mother worked for on the other end of Chenango Street in the Hillcrest area . Chenango Street was a series of red brick four story buildings from the eighteen hundreds whose facades exhibited brick masonry work in designs reminiscence of Roman architecture with dates of building completions proudly hand made in clay brick atop . From Doubleday Street corner to the old viaduct over the Lackawanna Station and railroad tracts . Day in and day out this part of Chenango street was run on railroad time comings and goings . On the next corner directly next to the railroad tracks was Eldredge Street . At this inter section was the barber shop Called Riley's Barber Shop . Daddy , middle child and younger brother would have their hair cut there every two weeks . On the east side of Chenango Street between Doubleday Street and Eldredge Street was Chris's Hot Dog Stand . At Chris's you could get the best Spaghetti and Meat balls on earth . Chris's chili dogs could supply a Food channel with enough material for at least five year series . On this same east side of Chenango Street were located two Beer gardens commonly called bars . One being the North Side Tavern The seconded Being Known as Dud and Tom's . Both staples of the block , both had become standards for many a year , For today Daddy and middle child's walk would end and conjoin with patrons at the North side Tavern . From the blinding angled light of late afternoon sun into a darkened smoke filled room , Daddy and middle child walked into an atmosphere of magic like that which Marlene Dietrick would have made an entrance . From the dimly lite room any one at any age , be it father or be it son holding hands could see how easy it could be to be "Falling in love again . Never wanting to . What are we to do ? Can't help it . " Bellying up to the bar like the boys they were , Daddy and middle child took their place at the bar . Middle child was amazed at how many of the bar's denizens began greetings to the Daddy . This must be the real club thought the middle child ! Some people appeared ghost like , holding drinks in one hand and a cigarettes in the other hand . All seemed to have arrived at the point of no escape . The time was to forget their lives of being vets of the war of day to day . Some were real vets of real wars from the World War One or Two or the Korean War . Some people just needed to escape a life of hand to fist always robbing Peters to pay Paul . All the club members seemed to have a common communal denominator either through genial or acquired need to self medicate at the local watering hole either being social or to find a quiet corner to fall into a slump when the click turned off in their head and be left alone . There was no escape from the darkness while looking through the bottom of the hour shaped glass . The beer the alcohol was the cancer of their day . Like prisoners within bars that were self made or real hell that their lives had became . There would never be any escaping this confining hellish condition , period . Stardust lands where it is destined . Everyday settlements descend to be born new in another day as some expel last breaths to ascend again to the stars and planets and the darkened comfort of beautiful outer space .
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