Christmas Promise

"Christmas Promise".... was posted on Christmas Eve 2009... I hope that you enjoy it...

Hello my friends,

Well this is Christmas… and as the song goes “… what have you done? - another year older…” ahh, you remember the rest…

The point is this… as I have been in touch with so many of “OUR INWOOD” brothers and sisters… I have come to realize that many of you have done great and wonderful things… you have fulfilled… whether you realize it or not…

“The Promise of Inwood”…

Yes, the promise of Inwood… that your grandparents and parents ordained for you… that you were to be born and raised in a wonderful neighborhood and that you would achieve… greater and better things than they did…

I congratulate you all… at Christmas… for fulfilling the promise… and as we all grow older together… I ask you to pass “The Promise of Inwood” onto your children and yes, grandchildren…

I also cannot avoid a wink, blink and nod… this Christmas Eve afternoon… as I have finished trimming the tree… traced down a short in the wire leading to Frosty the Snowman… and await our daughter’s Christmas Eve date to finish wrapping the last of her gifts…

And the wink, of course, takes me back to an Inwood apartment…

The wink never fails… the corner of the living room which yesterday was bare… is now adorned with the biggest Balsam Pine that you would ever see… it has to be the one that you were eyeing every afternoon in front of DiMeglio’s on Dyckman Street… you remember how you would move closer to the curb and the line of trees… to inhale those vapors of Balsam, Douglas Fir and Scotch Pine…on your way home from school… or on Saturdays before Christmas to look at those toys in the window of Weiss’ Toy Store, especially that model of the USS Saratoga that you intend to glue together and add to your bathtub-fleet… after all the fleet needs an aircraft carrier… last Christmas you added the USS Nautilus… so, your underwater warfare is covered…

The blink also delivers a Christmas treat of walking into Schillingmann’s Ice Cream Parlor… sitting up at the counter and asking Hans for a hot chocolate and an English Muffin… the cup arrives with the hottest of chocolate and real whipped cream oozing over the sides and down onto the little cookie that always placed a Schillingmann’s hot chocolate apart from the competition… the cookie is the memory… buttery and fresh… it was the epitome of class… the English Muffin just added to the holiday atmosphere… and of course, it was the ever present graciousness of Mr. & Mrs. Schillingmann that always furthered the Christmas cheer!

The nod… ahh, my friends… the NOD…

Well you knew it was coming… you just knew the NOD would be saved for last… and you also know… if you’ve followed these annual posts… that something big and beautiful is happening in “OUR INWOOD” and it happens every Christmas Eve…

Dyckman Street is awash in lights… the poles that line the street from Nagle Avenue to Broadway are strung across in red, green, gold and white swaged strings of lights and garland … the stars, the bells and the snowflakes that heralded the coming of Christmas… now shine and glow... for its…

Christmas in Inwood… and the snow is falling…

The window of Barone’s is steamed and foggy with the joy of the evening as bottomless bowls of pasta, warm bottles of wine and the camaraderie of good friends and family celebrate the eve…

Jack’s Pants is now closed… the last pair of gloves and tie and tie clasps have been sold… and now sit wrapped under a handsome tree in a home on Post Avenue…

The little Christmas tree in the window of Tony the Shoemaker on the corner of Post Avenue and Dyckman Street is still lit… and tells everyone passing that good will and good times are his wish to all…

A glance back down the street shows that Regina’s Bakery is selling out the last of its sliced rye’s… and coconut custard pies… Rite Way Fruit has finished selling all of its pears, pineapples and oranges… its snowing harder now… and Inwood is growing quieter as the snow under foot softens the sounds of the traffic…

The LOEWS Theater is showing a holiday flick… As the snow is falling and getting deeper now… It’s Christmas in Inwood and the snow is falling ... it’s a very special time of year…

The clock out in front of Sarafin’s Jewelers can still be seen and it tells all that it’s 9:30 p.m. … just enough time to finish this winter’s trek up Dyckman Street… stop into the HI-HO and buy an Egg Roll... get home… get dressed… and make it over to your favorite girl’s house to wish all a very Merry… and go to Midnight Mass… at OLQM… Good Shepherd or St. Jude… the stop at the corner of Dyckman and Sherman shows that Horn & Hardart has sold its last Rice Pudding, Spaghetti & Meatball Dinner and Health Salad…

A quick glance over the shoulder shows that Barry’s Lounge is jumping… the Chase Manhattan Bank has closed its last Christmas club account… and yes, the T.V. which is still on in the window of Whalen’s Furniture Store shows that the Yule Log still burns with its electronic crackle and pop… which is helping to warm a frigid Dyckman Street… and on the way back from Midnight Mass and a few very warm and very merry Christmas kisses… you’ll see that Ralph still loves Alice and Norton and Trixie feel the same way about each other…

Now you’ve reached Broadway… the snow is absolutely a Blizzard… everything has shutdown and this Christmas snowfall will be a thing of legend… to be nostalgically reminisced about by some guy who attached Inwood to his moniker and who on occasion goes on far too long on a future thing called the internet and on a great site called "Inwood Guy's Blog"…

The winks, the blinks and the nods… take us to a place where heroes came to live… where the dream of a bright future and promise to fulfill that future was formed… where grandparents and parents worked two and three jobs to give us the best possible start of fulfilling that promise… their only ask… was that we do better than they did… in hindsight… they still did better than we did… they started it all… in a beautiful place called Inwood… and still to this day… in a dream full of snow… it still brings us…

Peace,
Inwood Guy