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SOME NOTES ABOUT MY HOMETOWN
SCHENECTADY, NEW YORK
| July 9, 2006 - I was born in Schenectady, and lived in the area for a total of five years of my life. Despite the brief cup of coffee I enjoyed there, all of my relatives still called the area home, so my family would pack our bags often and head on the "travellin' roads" with my grandparent's house on Eastern Avenue in Schenectady as the magnificent destination. There, my
family was surrounded by the rest of my insane clan, eating, laughing and running wild through the two floor rowhouse surrounded by a once proud but always declining neighborhood. Kilgore's Tavern across the street was the source of tons of late night gossip, as Grandma, with eyes of an eagle and the nose for any scrap of excitement, would sit out on the front porch and listen in on all the shady goings on. If it was late enough, she would have to resort to peeling back the curtains of the living room to see what the flashing blue lights were
already checking in on. |
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There really isn't much words can do to describe the insanity of those weekends, or the embarrassing feasts of excess rolled out on Sunday mornings after Church with three or four generations of family squeezed into the kitchen. Loads of kielbasa, fresh rugelach (Polish croissants you cut open and fill with butter), rye bread, and a slew of breakfast foods covered the table while debates raged about politics and the news. As the debates grew louder, the yelling and laughter was only eclipsed by my Grandma shushing
everyone at the head of the table. She would then lower her voice, and as everyone listened intently, she would deliver an impassioned speech about the subject relating Old World thinking that started logical but soon got crazier and crazier. Just before her sons and daughters would start to raise their voices and disagree, my Grandfather would sigh, "Now Fran..." and the decibel level would return to its normal pitch, everyone talking over everyone else while the food on the table continued to disappear.
It was magical.
And during the summer, I would always spend a week or two with my siblings at my grandparent's house. It was those mornings - Grandma did not let you sleep in - that I read the Daily Gazette from front to back, pouring over every minute detail in all of its beautiful, compact, and tiny serifed font. While I scoured the newspaper, I would eat Cocoa Puffs cereal, along with ample helpings of Grandma's homemade bread, and the specialty every growing boy needs, rye
bread and butter dipped in a cup of coffee. (I stopped drinking coffee around age 12) The Gazette changed its font in the early nineties, around the time the newspaper turned 100, an event that still disturbs me to this day.
And so with so many of these moments popping into my head at random times, its easy for me to love Schenectady, its history and the run down architecture that harkens back to its Golden Age when the city was bustling, the economy strong, and wildly ethnic neighborhoods filled with delis, bakeries, restaurants, bars and a unified culture all to itself. Here are some more facts about the city that I always love:
- It's nickname: The Electric City, because its the home to Thomas Edison's little company that could, General Electric.
- The zip code 12345 resides in the heart of Schenectady.
- Growing up, I believed my last name, Schliefke, to be derived from the town I was born in - both were unpronounceable to many, and both began with Sch-. It wasn't until I was about fifteen years old that I realized it was just coincidence. Oddly enough, that's also when I started to spell Michael correctly (instead of Micheal).
- Kurt Vonnegut, who used to live up the road from my kindergarten in the same town as my cousin, writes about Schenectady as Illium in a bunch of his books.
- Schenectady is the 1954 Little League World Champions, in '53, they finished second.
- 'The Way We Were' was filmed on the campus of Union College.
- The Unabomber's mom and brother live in Schenectady.
- Fictional characters Doctor Octopus (Spiderman's nemesis) along with Grace from 'Will and Grace' hail from Schenectady.
- NBA Coach Pat Riley, Mickey Rourke and the woman who played Alice in the Brady Bunch are from Schenectady.
- I lived in the same house as the Johnny Grabowski, the catcher for the Yankees' Murderers Row of 1927 alongside Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.
| A TRIP TO THE MOLSON GRAND NATIONAL I dug through my own archives and scrap books to come across one of the earliest and rudimentary trip reports. In the summer of '84, a couple of my Uncles took me and a bunch of my cousins across the Canadian border to witness the spectacle of drag racing in person. I remember
Shirley Muldowney, the first woman race driver raced that day, in between the rains that hounded the daytrip. While I started to do some research into that day's events, I found out Shirley not only broke her legs that day (I remember her being in a crash), but it kept her from racing for two years. Why did I include this little story here? Shirley was born in Schenectady in 1940.
The image to the right is a scan of my drawing I did recounting the events of that day. Loud engines, rain, and a lot of Canadians not afraid to whip it out and pee at will were among the most vivid events of the day. Take a look if you've got the time. A few more random notes: |
the first 'SCHLIEFKEVISION trip report' details my 1984 trip to St. Pie, Quebec to see some hot drag racing action with my uncles and cousins.
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- My cousin Bob (depicted as 'Running Robby') went on to a successful high school and college running career, and now lives in Alpaus with his family, where Kurt Vonnegut called home in his days as a press writer for GE.
- My cousin Dan, (depicted as 'Dreaming Danny') fulfilled his dreams by becoming an engineer and has designed, built and worked on cars his entire adult life, and has similarly raised a family.
- My Uncles Jim and Dave are still just as insane and excitable as that funny little trip 22 (yikes) years ago.
- I've been searching out and successfully documenting the little oddities of life while still drawing pictures for years now.
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