After The Fire House

I hadn’t seen him in 35 years but Eric Sonlin was there. He left with a full box of Gaeta’s Tomato Pie. When I first offered it up he laughed and blushed then walked off, but I saw him hesitate in the stairwell and think for a second. He turned his ass right around and said, “You know what? Maybe I will. I mean, if you’re serious.” I was serious. Gaeta’s is the best tomato pie of all and tastes even better on day two. Sonlin is no dummy. He was going down to the Birds game at the Linc the next morning and Gaeta’s is tailgate gold. I already know it did the trick.

Woody and Jen Stover had stuck around after for a bit with the friends they brought. Woody offered to help me break down the PA and carry some of my gear up the stairs. I begged him off but I teared up just now thinking about the guileless kindness in the offer. 35 years had gone by and the neighborhood still showed up ready to help me carry my shit. My Pop was there ‘til the very end nursing a Yuengling and shooting the breeze with Kaya and the documentary crew while they packed up their cameras and loaded out. He helped with the gear even though I told him to sit back down. “You did sound a little preachy in moments tonight.” Thanks, Pop. John the bartender from The Firehouse filled up a growler for the crew because he is a sweetheart. By the way I just donated the $420 we collected that night to the Crawford Family's GoFundme. I left a note that the donation was sent with love and prayers for a speedy recovery from everybody who came to the 11.23 performance of Fox Chase Boy. So we did some good.

Before I actually began work on Fox Chase Boy I had been sitting still with the idea for years. Someday maybe I would try to tell this story as well as I could. I don’t think I really believed I ever would. Over the years people had taken cracks at it. Journalists from all over the place, the Philly DA in the 2005 Grand Jury Report, and of course the church had tried to make clear their versions of what happened when Jim Brzyski came to St. Cecilia’s in 1981. Despite all good intentions (or otherwise), these accounts left me wanting for something more complete. There were things missing from every account I read or heard or watched.

Before I knew anything else about it, an image of The Rockledge Fire House came to me. That was it. When I tell you that I didn’t know a single other thing about what I was going to do I mean it. Everything else: the words, the jacket, the sneakers, the mic & amplifier, they all came after The Firehouse. Every day things still occur to me about how to make the story more clear, but The Firehouse has been a light way out front that I have been following since I first started scribbling shit in my notebook. I didn’t always know what it would look like but I knew from the jump that I would end up there on Huntington Pike in that Firehouse basement. Thank you to everyone who came out to laugh and cry Saturday night. That show closed a circle in this process but now it starts all over again. I’m figuring out what the next right thing to do is. We’re pretty far along in making a documentary and there will be more live shows in the New Year. Like I said Saturday night, I’m going to try and correct the record. If you’re not yet on the mailing list and you want to be, go to www.foxchaseboy.com click on the SHOWS tab and enter your email address for more of this blog, updates, and new performance dates. I won’t spam you. I promise.

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