Jersey Mike

Ten years ago- on May 14, 1998- we bid farewell to The Chairman of The Board- ol’ Blue Eyes, Frank Sinatra.
I remember it almost as vividly as I recall where I was the morning of September 11, 2001 – driving into the Lincoln Tunnel to do some work in New York City, the news was delivered to me via 1010 WINS-

And I’m pretty sure I still have my copy of The Daily News from that day.

Things like this really put this new world in which we’re living in a whole new perspective.

Gasoline was less than two bucks a gallon.

I didn’t know what a text message was.

And we could still board an airplane without taking our shoes off.

Here’s a nice interview/article with Frank’s daughter Nancy- talking about growing up Sinatra.

(And for anyone who ever thought that I was yanking their chain telling them that Ol’ Blue Eyes used to live in my hometown, Hasbrouck Heights- here’s your proof.)

“He wasn’t quite on the map when I was a baby,” says Nancy. “He was on the road all the time with the band. We were living in a flat in New Jersey when I was born. They didn’t have any money. But once he hit, he really hit. Later, we moved to Hasbrouck Heights and had a lovely little house there, but you could get to the windows from the street – once people knew he lived there, they would come to get a glimpse, which worried my mother [Sinatra's first wife, Nancy Barbato] because I was a tiny little toddler, and she didn’t want anybody stealing me from the front yard.

I wish I’d been a bad girl – The Guardian