Saturday, May 9, 2009

Up On The Roof: In Tune


To compensate for that so-called singing from the previous post and as a special treat for Alexandra, aka Ms. KV
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1 comment:

stephanie pinto said...

The terrace shown in the "Up on the Roof" is just like the one my family occupied when I was a child. We were in KCPH, and I suspect that the one in the video might be either H building, or B building. I know that terrace isn't K building as it is on the 13th floor, and K building only had 10 stories.

We lived at KCPH from 1945 until we moved to Chatham Green in 1962. we had some fabulous parties on that terrace. Robert Wilson was at one of the most famous ones, as my cousins, the Nichols, who lived in L building, persuaded my parents to let their crowd have a new year's party in our apt. and babysit the kids, of which I was one, while all the parents gathered at the Nichols for New Year's. About ten minutes to midnight the gang took all of the kitchen pots out on to the terrace, and began banging them on the parapet at midnight. There wasn't a pot left that was undamaged by 12:15. My cousins were terrified of what my mother would say, but she was actually pretty calm all things considered. I remember that the mother of one of the gang, Kitty Bini, made the gang contribute something from their allowances to replace some of the pots.

Bob Wilson was at another party with my cousins while still a teenager. This one was at the Falk's apt, who lived in a penthouse apt in L building, that had three bedrooms, and two terraces, one facing Catherine Street, and one facing the court. Some of the boys, decided to see if they could walk on the parapet. I am pretty sure Malcolm Morrison was one of the walkers, and maybe Roger Donodeo as well, Kit Carson, maybe Tops Bini....I could never get the truth, but I know that Bob knows which ones actually got up there.

Another true confession about KCPH was the fact that, although strictly forbidden, the Lanza girls and I decided to see if we could shoot water on our friends in the courtyard. My father had hooked up a hose so that we could water all the flower boxes, so we took the hose, and waited until somebody we knew came along. The unhappy candidate was Drew Garbarini, who lived in G building (his mother, mary, died about 5 years ago.) We waited until Drew got close and turned the hose on him. He was very annoyed, and yes we are still friends. I spent a weekend with him and his wife about a month ago. He didn't think it was as funny as we did, nor did Johnnie Christopher. We never did it again. But the boys got even. A week or so later, a bunch of the girls, the Lanza's and some others were sunbathing on the terrace, and the boys came and started throwing pebbles at us. A truce was declared, so that did end all of the throwing.

June 10, 2010 at 2:30 PM

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