Something to Read this Summer

For a fun bit of light reading this summer, might we humbly recommend Greetings From Belleville, New Jersey - Collected Writings by Anthony Buccino. Well, no, it's not a travel book, but you could sort of travel back in time if you're of a certain generation. And, no, it's not a book that's full of laughs, but you might find yourself laughing.

Here's a bit of what a critic said about the book:

"The author gives a heartfelt glimpse into life in his hometown. It will appeal most to others from similar places, but the nostalgia and reminiscence will appeal to all readers who long for the home and life of their youth....

"The author's writing is friendly and easy to relate to, but sometimes he spends too long discussing things in depth that most readers are already familiar with (like defrosting early electric freezers). The author's friendly voice sounds like a neighbor swapping great stories on the back porch. Readers feel like they know the author, his family, and his town. 

"The author's casual voice occasionally lends itself to informal grammar and word usage. While many, many details have the ring of familiarity, the author also brings out the unique aspects of his own experience. The author's humor, thankfulness, and openness are the book's greatest assets. The cover image suggests a more rural life than the small town setting depicted in the book."

Well, that gives you an idea. You can form your own opinions when you've read it. If you like it you'll probably like the original collections where some of these essays were first collected. 

And, you know, it makes a really nice gift for your friend who has everything.

Available in print and Kindle or Nook ebook formats.

Excellence in Journalism Awards

Two blog posts by Anthony Buccino have won awards in the Society of Professional Journalists NJ Chapter 2014 Excellence in Journalism Awards.

Time to Change the Air Conditioner earned second place in Online - Enterprise/Series /Investigative Reporting.

Riding Under the PATH Train earned second place in Media Affiliated Blog.

Both award-winning blogs were published on NJ.Com. You can see more of his posts at this link.

Entries were judged by Florida SPJ chapter members. Awards will be distributed at the Yogi Berra Museum on June 28, 2014. See a complete list of winners.

Spring in Jersey

When cherry blossoms bloom in Belleville Park, it’s time to put away the snow blower. Usually by this time of April, in Belleville and Nutley, we watch the falling cherry blossoms and think, oh, they’re like little pink snowflakes. But this year, things have changed.

Continue reading: Hold the Flowers, It Might Snow

The Stuff of My Stuff

Whatever happened to George Carlin's stuff?

Actually, I don’t care what happened to the entertainer’s stuff. His stuff was crap. My crap is stuff. He would say so himself, except he’s gone, and as an atheist, probably not far. But as for me I’ve been thinking about my stuff as I sit here in my man cave/bunker/warehouse with about 60 of those white storage boxes full of my stuff.

I’m not a pack rat. I’ve been writing for more than 40 years, and I don’t have any notes from before 1971, more or less. So, I’ve got a lot of notes about stuff I wrote about, and probably a lot more notes about stuff I wanted to write about but haven’t done so yet. And boxes of books that I used in my research. And more boxes of books I intend to read when I get some time. I can’t bear to part with any of them.

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This Seat Taken? now on Kindle

This Seat Taken? Notes of a Hapless Commuter

By Anthony Buccino

If you ever commuted to work, you'll enjoy your ride reading Anthony Buccino's latest collection "THIS SEAT TAKEN? Notes of a Hapless Commuter" about the joys and follies of getting to and from work in the city using public transit. 

Buccino's bus and rail commuting tales and observations are collected in this new 224-page book which is available on Amazon and Nook, and now on Kindle.

D-Day Ohio,

The German soldier is rolling down the hill, another is falling – dead – down the hill, the smoke is clearing, the gunfire dissipating. 'Wounded' and 'dead' are scattered along the 250 yards of beach and incline where Army Rangers and the Big Red One have taken the hill. The Wehrmacht gives up this beach, these guns, this hill representing the enormous undertaking 69 years ago on Omaha Beach in Normandy, France. 

Anthony Buccino joined nearly 20,000 re-enactors and visitors at 2013's gathering on Aug. 16 and Aug. 17 on the shore of Lake Erie at Conneaut Township Park in Conneaut, Ohio.

The re-enactors recreated the camps, the training and carnage of the D-Day landing on Normandy beaches in France on June 6, 1944.

Read his account of D-Day Ohio in Ashtabula Living Magazine.

My 14-Year-Old Self Came in the Mail

Should I Open?

A large brown envelope arrived recently in snail mail from Ashtabula, Ohio. It contained copies of letters I wrote to a young woman named Mary when we were 14. We met in the northeastern Ohio township, and decided to keep in touch when my summer vacation ended.
I found her on Facebook, and we got in touch after four decades. When she realized I’d become a writer, she mentioned my letters in a box in her attic. Would I like copies? What could I have possible said in those letters to a relative stranger 300 miles away? And why would she save them into this millennium?
“They’re about what you’d expect a 14 year old to write about,” she said.
Would I like to meet myself at 14? Not that I could go back and talk some sense into my head, but what I think about those times now and what I was actually saying at the time, well, they’re mountains apart.

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Time to Change the Air Conditioner

Every year here in New Jersey when we change our clocks to save time, there's another chore around our house. About the last week of April when we spring ahead, it's time to break out the window air conditioners from their closet hibernation In October, it's time to rip off the sealing tape and bring in the units without dropping them on an innocent foot or to the pavement below.

The two bedroom air conditioners need only cross from the closet to the window. It's the monster dining room air conditioner that has been stored in the basement that elicits the most grunts and groans as it travels up a flight of stairs, through the kitchen to rest and catch its breath in front of the window.

It wasn't always like this. When I grew up in the second floor cold water flat upstairs from grandma, we didn't even have screens outside our windows. We had these sliding screens that adjusted to the width of the window and let in a hot summer breeze through about ten inches of metal panels.

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