Month: January 2012

Little cuz Allison Ciaramitaro just got offered a job down in Texas as the morning meteorologist at a station KMID. Don’t ask me what it stands for.

Being a meteorologist was a dream of Ally from before she went to college.

I distinctly remember the standard speech I give to all kids before they go off to college and exactly where I had this conversation with Allison, in Sista Felicia’s kitchen.

It goes like this-

“listen, no matter what anyone tells you, college is a cakewalk as long as you do two things-

Devote at least an hour and a half to doing your homework, and don’t skip any of your classes. A typical college you have about 3 or 4 hours of classes and then if you add an hour and a half of homework that’s a measly 5.5 hours out of 24. Believe me if you just don’t blow off your classes and do the homework you’re pretty much easily gonna get a 3.0 or higher and then you still have 18.5 hours of the day to do whatever you want. Get hammered if you want, JUST DON’T SKIP YOUR CLASSES & DO YOUR HOMEWORK! Devoting 5.5 hours of your day to actual work will be the easiest you’ll ever have it for the rest of your working life so suck it up and then party like a rock star the rest of the time.”

Standard speech I must have given a hundred times now.

Anyway Congrats Cuz! Proud of you!!!!

Hi Joey,

The recent cold snap (relatively speaking) in New England reminded me of the winter of ’76-’77. I was living in Newton at the time; one Sunday I drove up to the north shore and took some pictures. I can’t exactly place the landscape — somewhere on the Annisquam River, I think — but Gloucester Harbor was frozen hard enough to be able to walk out to the fishing boats. Today, by contrast, Seattle is colder than Boston….

Regards, Bill Langer

Blue Shutters Beach Blog

“You don’t know, you don’t even know the half.” Often said of great people in ones life you couldn’t even begin to comprehend. It’s a brotherhood these selections in friends that you make in life that forge a bond greater than steel. This is beyond ones professional accomplishments in life for I didn’t know him in that capacity, “The how are you” drawn out in a question he would often ask while being right in you’re grill.

I can only speak to how we shared amazing times. Well this guy Rick most certainly made the most of it. Ricky ticky tampa’s shenanigans even caught me of all people off guard on many occasions. “Rick was just completely unpredictable in nature being that he was the path.”

To delve into all these stories one accumulates in life would be foolhardy at best. I couldn’t imagine growing up with him like Joey has. I had only met him through his brothers later in life in my 20’s. He most certainly had a great spark for interesting moments that only got bigger as I got to know him better. Last time I was staying down in Florida I pressed to see him. He was off the radar for a minute but meet us at a dinner down on the beach. He showed me this awesome place for cheeseburgers and we shared a great conversation. It seems trivial but I love food especially Cheese burgers and in life the small things you learn about people make all the difference.

You talk about fiesta his name comes up arriving on mysterious floats, you talk about Vegas the cigar smoke sneaks around the corner, you talk about Nantucket wearing reds, Boston nights at Daisy B’s, Florida trips filled with baseball, and I could spill on…We don’t but being in the circle of someone’s life that has touched many others is a gift. Friendship is steady work never waist or misplace a drop, it should be right behind family in slot two.

MVP Rick will be missed and the soil of my life will forever be enriched by knowing his. We as friends are left to keep his memories alive. We are spread far apart right now, a collection of people but look to the memories for comfort. I would love to launch into the story of him upstaging a high brow fashion show in Nantucket. The laughter of the crowd, the cheer of his friends, he just lit up the room that night like so many others. Codename Lion King the fuse burns wildly a final mission, get us a table a big one.

Joey, Joey, Joey I see a friggen Rainbow… I’m picking up what you are laying down….Be well in these difficult times abroad everyone and lets respect his wish to pay things forward…. “Outstanding” I’m thinking about all you guys right now stay blessed…I’m smiling wildly as always, life we got away with it living less ordinary.

“Time is the fire in which we burn.”
Delmore Schwartz 1913-1966

Born to Jewish parents in Brooklyn, NY, Schwartz attended Columbia and the University of Wisconsin before receiving a degree from New York University. He studied philosophy as a graduate student under the great Alfred North Whitehead at Harvard while he roomed with the poet Robert Lowell. His first book, In Dreams Responsibilities Begin, based on his parents failed marriage, gained him widespread notice. He went on to teach writing at a number of schools including Syracuse and Kenyon. Among his many students and protégés was Saul Bellow whose Humboldt’s Gift is based on their relationship. Lou Reed of the Velvet Underground also studied with Schwartz, wrote at least two songs in his memory and named him the “first great man I ever met.” Schwartz died at 52, alone and isolated from the world, from complications of alcoholism and mental illness.

Greg Bover

 

Gregory R. Bover
VP Operations, Project Manager
C. B. Fisk, Inc
978 283 1909
www.cbfisk.com