Scott Edelman
  • Home
  • Blog
  • About
  • Writing
    • Short Fiction
    • Books
    • Comic Books
    • Television
    • Miscellaneous
  • Editing
  • Podcast
  • Contact
  • Videos

©2025 Scott Edelman

Growing Up and Stuff: An Adventure, by Barney Edelman (Part 2)

Posted by: Scott    Tags:  Brooklyn, My Father    Posted date:  March 25, 2011  |  No comment


It felt good to commune with my father yesterday as I typed the opening of his autobiographical manuscript here. So good, in fact, that I’d like to commune some more. Here’s the second installment of what he sent me a few years before his death at 76 on January 27, 2009.

I’m not entirely sure that anyone out there is interested, but feeling him looking over my shoulders (or am I looking over his shoulders?) is doing wonders for ME.

 

Growing Up and Stuff: An Adventure
Part 2

A few things expanded my universe—clip-on roller skates and bicycles. We started to grow up, discovering ourselves and girls. The games changed to Post Office and Spin the Bottle, and some of this girl stuff without playing any games at all.

Then there would be guy talk. When I got older, I found that gal talk was twice as vivid and left very little to the imagination. So much for the guys who thought they knew it all.

Then, of course, came time to break from those guys on the block and seek another group that was a little more interested in girls and less in a good game of stickball.

I was standing in line in Gym at Seth Low Junior High School when I first met Eddy. He already shaved and had a five o’clock shadow. With these few words we started a long friendship: “I’ve got a date and need a few more guys for her girlfriends.”

Eddy was always the romantic and could find girls anywhere. It led to many adventures and helped mold my teenage experience, and also gave me a group of guys to hang out with.

So I became part of a group that ventured out of my world of the block. We went off chasing Eddy’s love interests and having a great time. We expended this to other boroughs after we got into High School.

We discovered Boro Park, a short ride on a bus for us. It became the place to be for the next few years.

In the summer, it was Boro Park at night and Coney Island or Brighton Beach during the day. How could a guy go wrong? We were on this happy trip and growing into our upper teens. (more…)

Growing Up and Stuff: An Adventure, by my father, Barney Edelman

Posted by: Scott    Tags:  Brooklyn, My Father    Posted date:  March 24, 2011  |  No comment


A few years before my father died on January 27, 2009 at age 76, he sent me a manuscript he’d written about his life growing up in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. I’m missing him, and since I’m in the mood to feel his presence for awhile, I pulled out those pages and started to read. But because I’d like to feel him flowing through me for a bit, I’m going to retype some of it here. I could simply scan it to share—that would certainly be much quicker—but it wouldn’t bring him back quite as strong.

So here is what my father thought important enough to want to tell us. On the front of the yellow folder he sent me was written, “My Long Story,” but inside, he titled what he’d written:

Growing Up and Stuff: An Adventure

I grew up in Brooklyn. You have to understand the sound of the way we talked in Brooklyn. It was rough to the ear, and had its own unique sound. You’ve probably heard someone try to talk the talk of a kid from Brooklyn. They either come close or miss by a mile.

To me, it was a sweet sound, and never having been away from Brooklyn at the time, I had no idea that we sounded different. That is, until I began to travel and heard some very distinctive accents. Have you ever heard someone in Scotland try to imitate a Brooklyn accent?

All over the world, kids play in parks, playgrounds, backyards, and schoolyards. But for us at that time in Brooklyn, it was the streets, close by our houses. Our block was our playground. It was our own safe little universe.

Getting up a game on our block was easy. You’d meet up out on the street and in no time, you could get up a game of touch football. You have to understand that this was all before any formal leagues of any sort had been formed, in our area anyway, long before anything like Little League or anything like it.

It didn’t matter if it was winter or summer. If you were a young, adventurous kid growing up in Brooklyn, the streets were your playground.

The cold winters held the thoughts of snowball fights and ice-skating, maybe a sled ride down a driveway. Or if you were lucky, you could make it over to one of the parks.

The warm summer and long daylight hours helped when you were exploring your youthful needs on the streets of Brooklyn. (more…)

My Father’s unveiling

Posted by: Scott    Tags:  My Father    Posted date:  December 14, 2009  |  No comment


If you follow me on twitter or facebook, you already know how I spent the past few days. For the rest of you …

I flew down to Florida Friday so I could participate in the unveiling for my father, Barney Edelman, who passed away January 27, 2009. For those unaware of such Jewish traditions, an unveiling is when, around a year after death, the marker on a person’s grave is revealed to the world.

The reason the unveiling was held Sunday, rather than on a date closer to the anniversary of Dad’s death, is because he and Mom met 57 years ago yesterday, on December 13, 1952. Mom felt it was right to choose that date, that there was a certain symmetry to it. Since they were an unbreakable couple. and had been married 55 years—he died four days after that anniversary—it seemed proper to my brother and me as well.

Here’s what I saw at the Star of David cemetery Sunday.

BarnetEdelmanUnveiling
It felt odd to be snapping a picture after such an emotional event, and yet … I don’t live in Florida. I won’t be able to visit him often. I wanted a picture so I could visit with him at any time I chose. If that’s a sin, well, I’m guilty.

I’m home now, exhausted from an emotionally draining weekend. But before I crash, I thought I should pop up here to say that I’m back, and that we’ll soon resume our regular programming, already in progress.

My Father’s birthday

Posted by: Scott    Tags:  My Father    Posted date:  December 1, 2009  |  No comment


My father was supposed to have turned 77 today, but instead he passed away on January 27, 2009. We’d left very little unsaid to each other, and I said those things that I needed to say when he was no longer around to hear them earlier this year. So what I write today is more to mark the absence than to add anything useful or illuminating.

There he is below in his high-school yearbook. “Cheerful and happy all day long” is how some anonymous fellow student wrote him him up, and it’s nice to know he was thought of that way back then. While I can’t say that he was always cheerful and happy, he was certainly calm and even-tempered, and a peaceful influence on my life.

BarnetEdelmanHighSchool

He married when he was 21, and I was born when he was 22, so when he posed for the school photographer, I really wasn’t that far away at all. I wonder what he would have thought if he could have seen the path ahead. (more…)

In which I dream of my Father

Posted by: Scott    Tags:  dreams, My Father    Posted date:  November 10, 2009  |  No comment


I dreamt this morning about my father, who passed away in January. Perhaps he was in my mind because I’ll be heading to Florida next month for the unveiling of his grave marker. I’m not sure of the reason, because the dream wasn’t about his death. Actually, the dream didn’t seem to be about much of anything.

Irene and my son and I were visiting my parents in Florida. We were driving to some local tourist trap, but I wasn’t yet aware what it was. At the door, I showed my tickets, but 1) my Mom wasn’t there, at least momentarily, visiting the rest room or something, 2) I had many more tickets than were actually necessary for us to enter, which had to be sorted out, and 3) a young boy whom I did not know was with us, who couldn’t have been a stand-in for my son, since my son was there at his current age. Not sure what significance any of that had. After I handed in the correct number of tickets and the boy wandered off, we went inside.

DadPlant

It turned out that we were visiting a farm, and as the crowd of tourists gathered in the farmhouse living room, the farmer explained the basics of how they harvest, make bread, etc., which I found irritating, since I’m surrounded by farmers in real-life. I have been both here and in our previous home in Maryland, so for at least 20 years, I’ve found nothing touristy about visiting a farm. Those are simply our neighbors, doing their daily work. If I wanted to visit a farm, I could just walk down the street. So I kept thinking, why would anyone think Irene and I would find this experience new and different? (more…)

In which I dream of surfing the Web with my father

Posted by: Scott    Tags:  dreams, My Father    Posted date:  July 15, 2009  |  No comment


I dreamt of my father again last night, the third or fourth time I’ve done so since he died in January. In the dream, he was alive again, and while not young, he was in his late ’50s or early ’60s, as opposed to his mid-’70s, looking sort of like he did in this photo.

momheatherdad

I was visiting him in the living room of a house or apartment, only it wasn’t a place where he and my mother had ever lived in real life. I was showing him something online, and the site we were looking at wasn’t appearing on a desktop, laptop, or iPhone—the screen was being projected, taller than a person, on the wall of the room in which we spoke. And as I showed him various sites, he became concerned that I was downloading too many megabytes, that it would be too expensive.

He got up and leaned against the wall, scrolling through the pages by dragging his hands up and down quickly, making them whiz by, saying that this would all be too expensive for his internet provider. He worried about the cost of all the pages I was showing him. I wish I could remember exactly what sites it was I was trying to visit with him, but I can’t.

I expressed shock that his internet provider was so tight with the megabytes, and promised to find him a better one. I woke as we discussed this.

I’m thinking that perhaps I had this dream because of Charlie Brown, and the appreciation I wrote for him yesterday at Sci Fi Wire. While I was writing it, which wasn’t easy, something popped into my head and I thought, “Oh, I’ve got to to tell Dad about that,” then remembered, “Oh … that’s right … I can’t.”

So Dad was already in my mind yesterday more than he is during a typical day, perhaps sparking the dream. Whatever the reason, it was nice to see him again.

Happy Father’s Day, Dad

Posted by: Scott    Tags:  My Father    Posted date:  June 21, 2009  |  No comment


This is my first Father’s Day without him.

In my mind and in my heart, I’ll always see him like this.

Happy Father’s Day, Dad!

In which my father makes the Year’s Best

Posted by: Scott    Tags:  My Father    Posted date:  June 18, 2009  |  No comment


I was quickly skimming the front matter to the newly arrived Year’s Best Science Fiction earlier today to learn from Gardner Dozois’ Summation whether there was anything I’d missed in 2008. When I got to the list of people who had died since the previous Year’s Best, I thought, hmmm, I wonder how many of them were older than me when they passed and how many were younger? (What can I say? Maybe once you turn 50, those sorts of things pop to mind.)

So as I continued skimming, not really counting, but just getting a general idea, feeling rather light-hearted and thinking it might even be amusing to report the split in numbers over on my Twitter feed, I was unprepared to come across this (click to view at a more readable size):

YearsBestBarnetEdelman

I was stunned to see that my father, who died on January 27, was on the list. I never expected to see such a thing, especially not mere months after his death, and so, three days before Father’s Day, I wept.

Thank you, Gardner, for including Dad.

Another painting from my Father

Posted by: Scott    Tags:  My Father    Posted date:  April 4, 2009  |  No comment


As those of you who’ve been reading my meanderings already know, my father passed away in January. Dad was an accomplished artist, and many of his paintings hang in our house. This week we added one more.

A couple of weeks ago, I’d happened to mention to my mother that my wife and I loved a particular painting of his, and she surprised us by packaging it up and shipping it north from Florida. She told me that she did this partially because it was my birthday, and partially because she felt that since Irene and I liked it so much we should have it to enjoy.

Here’s the fanciful fish I’ve admired for years:

When I unpacked the painting and prepared to hang it, I saw that there was a second, secret painting hidden on the back. Dad usually stretched his own canvas rather than purchase it prestretched, and if he didn’t like a particular piece, he’s remove it from its frame and use the reverse side.

Here’s the image I discovered on the back:

Not a painting I’d choose to look at every day—it seems a bit too melancholy for my taste—but it’s certainly beautiful in its own way. Sadly, I’ll never get the chance to find out what caused him to abandon it.

We hung it at the top of the stairs, where we’ll see it every day. After doing so, I took a step back, admiring it. I wanted to tell Dad how beautiful I thought it was and how happy it made me to see it hanging there, and in that moment it hit me once more how there’s no longer a way for me to tell him those things. I got choked up remembering yet again that our conversation has now turned into a monologue.

I miss him.

My Father: December 1, 1932-January 27, 2009

Posted by: Scott    Tags:  My Father    Posted date:  February 3, 2009  |  No comment


My father, Barnet “Barney” Edelman, seen with me below in our last picture together, passed away one week ago today.

He had been ailing for quite a while from a variety of illnesses, including congestive heart failure, but what finally took him from us was either polymyositis or dermatomyositis. Though his agonizing symptoms seemed consistent with one or both of those, his doctors were never really sure, as he was not responding to any medications. As his body withered, his many physicians were puzzled, and wished they had a Gregory House on staff to solve the medical mystery. (more…)

‹ Newest 1 2 3 Oldest ›
  • Follow Scott


  • Recent Tweets

    • Waiting for Twitter... Once Twitter is ready they will display my Tweets again.
  • Latest Photos


  • Search

  • Tags

    anniversary Balticon birthdays Bryan Voltaggio Capclave comics Cons context-free comic book panel conventions DC Comics dreams Eating the Fantastic food garden horror Irene Vartanoff Len Wein Man v. Food Marie Severin Marvel Comics My Father my writing Nebula Awards Next restaurant obituaries old magazines Paris Review Readercon rejection slips San Diego Comic-Con Scarecrow science fiction Science Fiction Age Sharon Moody Stan Lee Stoker Awards StokerCon Superman ukulele Video Why Not Say What Happened Worldcon World Fantasy Convention World Horror Convention zombies