Bigenwald Family Adventures

May 16, 2007

He Had a Good Run

Joseph V. Sullivan, a proud New Yorker, World War II Veteran and my grandfather died on Friday after a long, spirited battle with Prostate Cancer. He was 87.

Joe lived most of his life in the Bronx. He grew old without a driver's license or meeting a stranger. If he was in the room you knew there would be talk, there would be laughter and, within a few minutes, there wouldn't be any more shrimp on the buffet.

As a native New Yorker he loved the Yankees. He would tell his great-grandson stories about seeing Babe Ruth play, stories about the greatness of Joe DiMaggio and stories of how George Steinbrenner took the joy out of baseball. The good stories always started with "In Nineteen Fifty-seven....", the best ones "Well, Did You Know...".

Later in life he met and wooed his wife - Mary Wright (nee Callahan). They met, appropriately for a South Buffalo girl, in a bar in Miami. Mary claims she thought the bar was a hot dog stand and she was just hungry, but she stayed for the drinks and conversation and a short decade later married the man from New York. They were married in 1977, and in an afternoon he became a husband, father and grandfather. He was 57, she was younger...

After getting married the couple moved to New York City as Joe was still working for the municipal government. After two years Mary longed for the comforts of South Buffalo and Joe sought out a new adventure. Joe adopted his new home town and became an ardent Bills Backer and true Sabres fan. Knowing his oldest grandson was a passionate Sabres fan who was now living 500 miles from his favorite team, Grandpa Joe sent clippings from the Buffalo News whenever the Sabres were noteworthy. In the process he kept a young kid connected to the team he still loves, 30 years later.

Joe was a voracious reader. He devoured novels, usually three at a time. His library card would wear out before it expired. He enjoyed mystery novels and loved finding new writers in the genre, if only because he had already finished with Christie, Chandler and Hammett...

Joseph V. Sullivan, the only person in his family to see his 80th birthday, reached the end of the line three moths past his 87th. In his own words, he had a hell of a good ride. In lieu of flowers, Joe would prefer you offer a toast to a well read life, preferably with a Tanqueray and Tonic.

11:21 PM in Family | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

May 03, 2007

Getting Ready in the Pen

Joey at the Cougar's Camp

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April 02, 2007

A Little History Lesson

My son has a family history report due next week on immigration. He started by gathering information about my great-grandmother.

We are lucky enough to still have my grandmother around. So he was able to listen to her stories about her parents. She gave him several great stories, including one about Minnie and the $9 hat... That was three week's salary then, but Minnie had to have the hat...

06:16 PM in Family | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

March 22, 2007

It's a sad day

He was born, lived and died as Calvin DeForest, but was best known and loved by millions of college students and other late night junkies as Larry "Bud" Melman. He died late last night after a long illness. He was 85.

He started Letterman's tradition of putting straight men in odd situations and making them funny. If you like Biff Henderson, thank Larry...

04:07 PM in Television | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)