Photo of the Day: Riding on a Sunlit Summer Sunday Morning, Englewood NJ

What a difference a few hours make! As I write this on a late Sunday afternoon, the sky is gray and cloudy, with at least some rain predicted.

But this morning—well, it could have been what a local forecaster of some years ago used to feature as one of “the 10 most beautiful days of the year.” Bright blue skies, comfortable temperatures and humidity.

A whole group of guys—it must have been between 15 and 20 of them—thought the same thing, because they were out on their bicycles in my hometown.

They were riding single file as they rounded the corner across from me, barely slowing down. Not that it mattered: at that time of the day and week, traffic at this thoroughfare is much lighter than from Monday through Saturday.

I could barely whip out my iPhone to photograph the scene fast enough. Anyway, I was glad I could time what I did.

Photo of the Day: 7 Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Pentecost, St. Cecilia Church, Englewood NJ

A number of people, including myself, lined up after morning Mass on Pentecost Sunday in front of this display at my longtime spiritual home, St. Cecilia Roman Catholic Church of Englewood, NJ. 

The white tags here, in English and Spanish, list the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit” understanding, wisdom, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord.

Photo of the Day: Stations of the Cross, St. Cecilia R.C. Church, Englewood NJ

This Good Friday, my longtime parish, St. Cecilia, conducted a bilingual “Living Stations of the Cross.”

A couple of hundred people followed the solemn procession through the streets surrounding the church.

I took this picture on the steps of the church, where this recent tradition of the Passion narrative began with Pontius Pilate’s interrogation of Jesus and the scourging of this man of peace at the hands of Roman soldiers.

It took much preparation involving multiple people for this devotional practice of pageantry and pathos to occur. Congratulations to all the organizers.

Photo of the Day: Donut-Hole Snow Mound, Englewood NJ

We’re almost two weeks into spring, but the mountain of snow and silt from the late February blizzard that my hometown deposited in the greenery of Veterans Park has only dwindled without entirely disappearing. The “mountain” had become a hill, and, at last, just a mound.

Then yesterday, I saw something unusual, which I tried to capture in this photo. At that point early in the day, a large round hole had opened beneath a thin arch of snow overhead.

I peered more closely. I could see drops falling from the arch. Higher temperatures (they reached the high 70s later in the day) would, before long, eliminate that thin white veneer overhead.

And so it proved. This morning, the hole was gone and the snow pile was even more noticeably lower.

Continued above-freezing temperatures, along with rain over the next few days, should eliminate the white stuff at last, leaving only a memory of a storm that for a while left streets impassable and frustrated those of us who had to shovel.

Photo of the Day: Mountain of Snow, Veterans’ Memorial/Depot Square Park, Englewood NJ

I took the image accompanying this post two days ago, after rising temperatures had helped melt some of the 27 inches of snow from earlier in the week. To clear space in the large parking lot just north of our city’s downtown, a tractor moved all that white stuff into a mammoth pile.

Make that two mammoth piles. The one seen here was in the park. Another was in a single spot in the parking lot.

Believe it or not, these piles were even wider and higher when the tractor finished its work. I’m just hoping that Mother Nature will take care of the rest in short order and reduce it all to large puddles.

Photo of the Day: Altar Display, St. Cecilia Church, Englewood NJ

I took the image accompanying this post at the Christmas vigil service at my longtime spiritual home, St. Cecilia Roman Catholic Church in Englewood, NJ.

Photo of the Day: All Souls' Day Display, St. Cecilia Church, Englewood NJ

Over the weekend, my longtime parish, St. Cecilia, decorated a back corner of the church in connection with All Souls’ Day, in recognizing those who died in the past year.

What’s on this display in this photo I took reflects the traditional Mexican observance of Día de los Muertos (“Day of the Dead”). This corner attracted quite a throng of parishioners at the conclusion of the morning Mass I attended, and, I imagine, all the others this weekend.

Photo of the Day: Fall Festival, Englewood NJ

Today, my hometown of Englewood, NJ, celebrated its fall festival in Depot Square. The event featured several service providers, numerous food vendors, and several rides. I couldn’t resist taking this particular photo—especially since some corn was among the items sold at the food stalls.

Photo of the Day: Stations of the Cross, St. Cecilia Parish, Englewood NJ

I took the attached photo late this morning, when I joined hundreds of other parishioners gathered on Demarest Avenue outside St. Cecilia Church in Englewood NJ for the Stations of the Cross. 

This procession of pageantry and devotion through the streets surrounding our venerable church represented the solemn Good Friday reenactment of the last, agonized journey of Christ in atonement for our sins.

Photo of the Day: Creche, St. Cecilia Church, Englewood NJ

Late yesterday afternoon, I, like so many other parishioners, lined up in front of this creche on the altar at my longtime church, St. Cecilia Roman Catholic Church in Bergen County, NJ, to take this photo.  

You will find the same image all over the world today, but those who go here feel a proprietary interest in beholding this—and those who have ever attended Mass here know exactly what I’m talking about.

Photo of the Day: Englewood ‘Night at the Market,’ Bergen County, NJ

Last night, my hometown, Englewood, NJ, closed off a couple of portions of its downtown to hold a “block party.” This year’s gathering—a celebration of the city’s 125^th anniversary—featured live music and food vendors along East Palisade Avenue from 5 pm to 11 pm.

Relieved that the heat and humidity from earlier in the week had dissipated with the thunderstorm from the night before, I was among the residents who roamed around this stretch. I took this photo not long before twilight.

Quote of the Day (Richard Lewis, on Childhood Memories of Palisades Amusement Park)

“In Brooklyn, where I was born, they had Coney Island. But in Englewood, where I lived from before I was a year old, we didn’t need Coney Island, because we had Palisades Amusement Park. When I got to be about 10 years old, I would walk down the hill from my house and take the bus to Cliffside Park that would stop right in front of the amusement park. I must have done that hundreds of times in my childhood. The roller coaster was my favorite. That and the Wild Mouse. I would go on them over and over and over. It didn’t matter that I was nauseated for, like, 30 days. I was under the spell.”—Stand-up comedian and actor Richard Lewis (1947-2024), as told to Eric Levin, “Richard Lewis: Safe at Home,” New Jersey Monthly, Nov. 15, 2010

I have to tell you right now that over the years, despite his prominence as an entertainer (it’s not every one whose obituary runs on the front page of The New York Times), I had followed Richard Lewis only minimally.

Yes, I knew he was from Bergen County and had even graduated from public school in my hometown of Englewood, NJ. But I had never caught his act, in person or on TV, and only knew, in the most general way, about the neuroses that fed his art.

Then, several months ago, I read that he was suffering from Parkinson’s Disease. As my late mother had also been afflicted with this, I knew what he must be experiencing, and my heart went out to him.

Then, earlier this week—as much out of the need for laughs as curiosity—I rented from my local library Curb Your Enthusiasm, and was delighted to watch Lewis act as a foil to longtime friend Larry David.

Then came the news that he had passed away on Tuesday.  

Since then, I have been reading about his memories of growing up in Bergen County—not just the kind of idyllic memory of Palisades Amusement Park that fellow baby boomers have had, but also of seeing on his street Mickey Mantle (still in his Yankee days, and none too pleased about encountering a kid with a Brooklyn Dodgers shirt!), or coming back to his hometown for a stand-up appearance in 1989. 

(These and other rueful reminiscences can be found here.)

Lewis might have moved out to the West Coast years ago, but you couldn’t take the Jersey boy out of him. Maybe that was an indelible part of the guy who Anything But Love co-star Jamie Lee Curtis hailed as “a sweet and funny man.”

(The image accompanying this post was taken of Lewis on Sept. 26, 2013, by Joeyjojo86.)

Photo of the Day: Dead of Winter

I took the accompanying photo nearly a week ago, while walking on the road past Brookside Cemetery, in my hometown of Englewood, NJ. The snow on the hillside would melt away shortly, the result of rising temperatures and several days of rain.

Photo of the Day: Halloween Décor, Downtown Englewood, NJ

I took the photo accompanying this post last week. This bit of seasonal decoration was erected outside an eatery on Palisades Avenue, the shopping district of my hometown, Englewood, NJ. 

Tomorrow, I am betting, parents will be escorting youngsters up and down the avenue, maybe even past this point. Hopefully, the little ones won’t be too scared by what they see.

Photo of the Day: Juneteenth Festival, Englewood NJ

Today concluded a four-day festival in my hometown in Bergen County, NJ, that was devoted to Juneteenth—the federal holiday that takes its cue from the order from a Union general reading the order proclaiming freedom for slaves on June 19^th, 1865 in Texas—the westernmost, and most remote, state of the former Confederacy.

The Englewood event, held at Depot Square, included various rides and food sellers. Residents placed their chairs on the broad stretch of grass on the square, eating and enjoying the spectacle just before them, with summer only a mere couple of days away.

Photo of the Day: Christmas at St. Cecilia’s Church, Englewood NJ

Yesterday I attended a Christmas vigil Mass at my parish church, St. Cecilia’s in Bergen County, NJ. For me and my family—as well as, I suspect, for more than a few of my readers—this venerable, beautiful building holds a lifetime of memories.

Those memories continued to warm my heart even on a hideously cold day outside.

Photo of the Day: Downtown Tree in Autumn, Englewood NJ

A late dear friend of mine who had moved to Florida said once that one reason why she missed the Northeast was the chance to see all four seasons, especially fall. After the sometimes brutal heat of the summer this year, autumn, though not yet in its mature beauty, arrived a bit earlier than I expected, but I’m just fine with that.

Though it’s best to see the changing colors in the countryside, it can surprise you even in a suburban downtown, as it did with me on Dean Street this morning in my hometown of Englewood, NJ. It was still early in the morning when I took this photo, just before shoppers would come out in droves.

Photo of the Day: Petting Zoo, Fall Festival, Englewood NJ

This past Sunday, my hometown of Englewood, NJ, held what it called its “Fall Festival.” There are those—high-school students and their parents, I would guess, most prominently—who see the period immediately after Labor Day as the fall.

I still hold out for the date of the traditional autumnal equinox—i.e., tomorrow. Pushing for any earlier date ignores not only that celestial fact, but the gradual but real increase in September temperatures over the last few decades.

Well, even if my city’s sense of seasons might be a bit off, its sense of what will bring out crowds isn’t. This past summer, the festival featured roughly 50 merchants and information vendors promoting their businesses in Depot Square.

But I couldn’t help but smile at the free petting zoo. Its creatures certainly appealed to me—a big reason why I took this photograph.

Photo of the Day: Juneteenth Celebration, Englewood NJ

My hometown, Englewood NJ, celebrated Juneteenth with not one but four days of a festival from this past Thursday through Sunday. I took this photo yesterday, as residents thronged Depot Square to eat, go on rides, and, as you see here, listen to the music.

For those who’d like to ponder the meaning of Juneteenth, when it began in 1865 in Texas (the last state in the Union to hear the proclamation that all slaves were free) and to our own time, I urge you to read this blog post from historian, literary critic, and public intellectual Henry Louis Gates connected to his PBS documentary series The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross.

Photo of the Day: Petting Zoo, Caribbean Festival, Englewood NJ

On Sunday morning, approaching the railroad tracks in my hometown of Englewood, NJ, I saw booths being set up for 50 assorted food, merchant and informational vendors for a one-day Caribbean Festival. It was a good opportunity for many people to promote their work, I thought, in a time when COVID-19 has crimped that chance.

For the families streaming through the space on Depot Square, it was also a nice way to experience a beautiful day without driving too far, with games and music also coming from the booths.

But a bit farther on, I came upon this petting zoo. More decades than I want to admit have passed in my life, but the sight of these creatures that I photographed reawakened in me a child-like sense of wonder that I thought not merely dormant, but maybe even dead at times.

Judging from the kids lining up around the enclosure in no time, I think today’s generation had a similar reaction. Who says you knew electronic games to have fun?