Category Archives: Yonkers

The Lake Shore View: Snow Is Child’s Play

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There is a grade school located just down the block from our apartment building, and it has a big front yard where the kids regularly play during recess. So yesterday, the day after Chicago’s first real snowfall this winter (about five or six inches), I got to take some “aerial” photos of children playing in the snow.

When I posted this pic on Facebook, one of my friends back in the D.C. area informed that the schools in her Maryland suburbs did not allow kids out to play in the snow. That surprised me a bit, but it occurred to me that I don’t have any strong memories of doing so myself when I was little, lo these many years ago.

We probably did, but New York City’s maritime climate doesn’t exactly make it a winter wonderland most years. As I recall it, when it snowed, it either was piddly little stuff that barely covered the ground, or ginormous nor’easters that dumped feet of snow and shut everything down for days.

Just as well, I guess. The place where I did most of my growing up had many wonderful kids, some of whom are still very close friends. But there was a tough crowd that included a few hard characters who were, not to put too fine a point on it, a little bit psycho. And a lot bigger than I was. And in a few cases, quite a bit older on account of the fact that they’d been left back in school a few times.

I suspect that some people think I’m riffing when I say some of my junior high school classmates were old enough to drive. I am not.

Now I spent a good part of my childhood being short, chubby, slow and clumsy, until I grew to my permanent height of 5’10″ and became just slow and clumsy. It was hellish enough being forced to play dodgeball against guys with a bad attitude, about a foot in height and 100 pounds on you.

So a snowball fight could be seen by the wrong people as an opportunity to seriously injure someone using a weapon that disintegrated without a trace on impact and left no fingerprints.

Enough about my character-building childhood. Here are some more winter scenes from Chicago, including the first signs of ice forming in Belmont Harbor. I’ll wrap it up with the Cooler on the Lake Shore Chicago vs. D.C. Weather Smackdown.

In the Smackdown… according to Weather Underground… on snowy Thursday, Chicago O’Hare reported a high of 34, a low of 19 and .05 of an inch of precipitation. Washington Reagan National had a high of 57, a low of 44, and .24 of an inch of rain. Yeah, snow is a lot prettier than rain, but 23 degrees warmer is what it is. Point for D.C.

On Friday, Chicago O’Hare reported a high of 22, a low of 16 and a trace of precip. Washington Reagan National had a high of 51, a low of 29 and .05 of an inch of precip. Same as above in principal. That flipped the overall lead back to D.C. by 82-81.

“I’m From Yonkers. You Know I’m A Fighter.”

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This one is mainly for friends who grew up in my hometown of Yonkers, New York, but also for anyone who likes a story about an athlete who used sports to escape the mean streets.

The New York Times last Thursday ran a story in the sports section about Jimmy Kennedy (linked here), who recently signed to play defensive end with the New York Giants. Kennedy grew up in Yonkers and played football for Roosevelt High School, from which I graduated well before he attended. The story even includes a photo of Kennedy practicing in the red and white colors of the Roosevelt Indians.

Photo credit: Joyce Dopkeen/The New York Times

Kennedy was the linchpin of the 1996 RHS team that was the undefeated New York State Champion, then played at Penn State before launching a respectable, though not stellar, pro career that has now taken him to six NFL cities.

Kennedy’s story may not be as Hollywood-ready as that of Michael Oher of “The Blind Side” fame, the once-homeless African-American teenager adopted by an affluent white Tennessee family, who is starring as an offensive lineman for the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens after achieving All-America status at the University of Mississippi. But it’s pretty close.

Kennedy, according to the New York Times story, had to adopt adult responsibilities at an early age because his mother battled drug addictions that she eventually defeated. He was a foster child and also lived with a grandmother. He had relatives who did jail time. He has admitted to selling drugs in the past.

He also was plucked out of special education classes, in which it was ultimately clear that he did not belong, by Tony DeMatteo, who had a long and respected career as Roosevelt’s football coach (and who I remember fondly for allowing me to be student manager for the school’s baseball team in my senior year, even though the gap between my love of sports and my talent for playing them couldn’t have been wider).

Kennedy, now 31 years old, has not had the kind of breakout pro season that some expected from him, and his well-traveled career has taken him from the St. Louis Rams to the Denver Broncos, Chicago Bears, Jacksonville Jaguars, Minnesota Vikings and now the Giants, who play in the New Jersey Meadowlands not far from his hometown on the other side of the Hudson.

But he is admirably undeterred. And I can thank him for what is now my favorite quote — and perhaps the most apt — about the place where I lived for a good part of my youth.

“You ask me who the best defensive tackle is in the NFL, I’ll tell you Jimmy Kennedy. So whether y’all believe or I believe it in my head, that’s all it takes,” Kennedy told the Times, adding, “I mean, I’m from Yonkers. You know I’m a fighter.”