BROOKLYN GIRLS

New York neighborhoods used to be measured by the quality of their saloons. One of the reasons Brooklyn’s Bay Ridge always hovered near the top of my list was Tomorrow’s Lounge on 86^th Street.

It was a Donegal joint, owned by Jimmy Morrow (hence the name) and managed by the dapper Tony Harkins when I first visited back in the 70’s.

 

Tomorrow’s was like paradise to Turner & Kirwan of Wexford. It sported a piano for Pierce, we bought a Fender amp for my guitar, stuck two Shure microphones into it and voila, we were a happening band with our own PA sound system.

 

We had already snagged a Manhattan Thursday residency at John Mahon’s Pig and Whistle (frequented by a bevy of Radio City Rockettes, no less). We were on the pig’s back!

 

But Bay Ridge was the making of us. Within weeks, staid Tomorrow’s piano lounge was rocking to a whole new clientele of twenty-somethings singing along to Dylan, The Dead, Simon & Garfunkel, T Rex and our own thorny songs.

 

It was a whole different world to Ireland, socially and otherwise; we were unleashed and liberated by this lovely neighborhood. We played at least 4 hours a night and got better by the minute. 

 

On one of our first breaks I was standing by the jukebox when a lovely young woman murmured, “Wanta dance?”

 

I looked over my shoulder. There was no one behind – could she really mean me? I had never been asked to dance before – not even at a ladies’ choice back in Ireland. My life changed, American women were open and friendly, they worked long hours and didn’t have time to beat around the bush.

 

My brother, Jimmy, soon arrived from London, the three of us along with our best friend Bob Schwenk got a roomy apartment on Ovington Avenue. Now we could really explore the wonders of Bay Ridge.

 

Back then, the three main ethnic groups were Italian, Irish and Norwegian with sprinkles of just about every other nationality. In the more commercial areas  it was a rare street corner that didn’t house a bar, each with its own steady clientele.

 

These saloons functioned like clubs, everyone was on first name basis, and you were made to feel at home as soon as your butt hit a barstool.

 

Bay Ridge food too was splendiferous, especially in the Greek diners and Italian restaurants, while the Sicilian and Calabrian young ladies vied to take you home for dinner, so their families could delight in your “cute accent.”

 

On nights off you’d stroll hand-in-hand with one of these sultry beauties down by the broad Narrows and marvel at the sea-going vessels inching by. 

 

“The Verrazzano hangs like a string of pearls in the night

I’ll steal them for you, darlin’, wear them tomorrow

Make everything be alright.”

 

Those lines from Brooklyn Girls still echoes from those innocent days, while across the river Staten Island brooded mysteriously. 

 

Word of Turner & Kirwan of Wexford was spreading. The Daily New devoted two pages to us, we bought a van and began to play from the Jersey Shore to The Hamptons, all through Queens, up into the stormy Bronx and beyond to New England.

 

In an odd way, my heart always remained in Bay Ridge and those early days of acceptance. We released an album and WNEW-FM played it often. 

 

In Bay Ridge no one ever called us Turner & Kirwan of Wexford, we were just Pierce and Larry – still are to those who remember.

 

Many of our original following got married, and moved off to Staten Island, Jersey and Pennsylvania. But every now and again I hop what used to be the RR and walk the old streets.

 

Vestiges of the past still remain, The Three Jolly Pigeons rocks on, The Canny Brothers still sing their Bay Ridge anthems, the local “wise guys”, once so formidable, are all old men now who shuffle down 86^th Street for espressos on 3^rd Avenue.

 

New nationalities abound in the carefully kept side streets, all friendly when smiled at, and why wouldn’t they be? Bay Ridge is still Old Brooklyn, a little paradise nestling at the mouth of New York Harbor where apartments are large, and rents lower than in trendy “new” Brooklyn.

 

As for Tomorrow’s Lounge, it’s long gone but lives on in the hearts and minds of all who ventured there.

18 YEARS WITH THE ECHO!

Almost 18 years ago I wrote my first column for The Irish Echo. It concerned an official projection that in order to stay solvent Social Security benefits would need to be cut in 2034.

Back then in 2007 we were about to enter the Great Recession that would continue until Barack Obama brought some stability to the economy in late 2009.

 

Small wonder that the Social Security crisis of faraway 2034 was put on the back burner. We could all be dead by then. Some of us are.

 

But after two Trump administrations, with a Biden one in between, and a Covid pandemic, the latest projection is that we are now only 7 years away from what could well be a social Armageddon in 2032.

 

I sometimes wonder if I’m living in a different universe than the vast majority of American politicians and political commentators.

 

I appreciate a little titillation as much as the next person, but it doesn’t surprise me in the least that two American presidents had close relationships with Jeffrey Epstein. The rich, the famous, and the depraved often move in the same circles.

 

Nor does it surprise that almost every person I know above the age of 62 really depends on their monthly social security benefits.

 

Politicians and the chattering classes seem to believe that these benefits are the icing on every retiree’s cake; when in reality, that monthly SS bank deposit tends to be the main part of their cake.

 

In an economy where working people have been fleeced by high prices, rents, education and health costs, few have amassed much of a retirement cushion.

 

And yet when President Trump’s Big Bad Beautiful Bill was recently passed by both houses of congress, did you hear one mention of the coming Social Security reckoning?

 

I did – but it was the projection that tax breaks, new and old, had moved the SS date of reckoning up to 2032!

 

Indeed, there was scarcely a mention of the $3.4 trillion dollars addition to the national debt that the BBB Bill had bestowed upon us. 

 

There’s an old saying, “Each country gets the government it deserves.”  Americans voted for the King of Debt so we must accept the consequences.

 

However, I’m not sure how many of us realized we were also voting for a rubber-stamp congress only too ready to relinquish the power of the purse.

 

It’s hard to believe now that the US Federal Budget was not only balanced but delivered a surplus in the Clinton years between 1998 and 2001. That’s just 24 years ago.

 

With the current national debt over $36.2 trillion, when you add the $3.4 trillion cost of the BBB Bill, that will bring us within shouting distance of a $40 trillion debt in 2035.

 

And that’s at current interest rates with absolutely no room for any national emergencies over the next climate-changed 10 years.  All hail the glorious Republocrats!

 

The once debt-haunted Republicans have completely caved to their master in the White House, and does anyone believe that if the Democrats regain Congress in 2026 they will announce, 

“First things first, let’s come up with a credible plan to reduce this unsustainable National Debt!”

 

In the recent BBB Bill debates, the main argument seemed to be - we have to extend the tax breaks because the electorate doesn’t have the stomach to pay higher taxes.

 

Imagine if we ran our households like that?

 

But back to Social Security benefits! Unless we get our ship in order by 2032, many more millions of senior citizens will join those already mired in poverty. Is that the kind of America we wish to live in?

 

I don’t have any easy answers but here’s a gradual solution over 10 years that could return the Social Security Fund to some form of solvency by 2032:

 

Raise the taxable maximum amount of earnings from $176,100 to $250K.

 

Raise the current Social Security (FICA) tax rate from 12.4% to 13.4%.

 

Raise the full retirement age for Social Security Benefits from 67 to 68.

 

I know, that’s a lot of pain to go round. But we allowed the Social Security Fund to approach insolvency on our watch, we can begin to deal with it now or face a tsunami of pain in 7 years.

 

Oh, and one other small thing. Why not elect politicians who are more interested in saving Social Security than pontificating about conspiracy theories? 

 

You’ll have an opportunity in 2026. Use it! Time is tight.