July 1st, 2024

Good mornings folks,

    The Rochester International Jazz Festival is over for another year. Despite the rain, it was a very successful event and people really seemed to enjoy themselves. Lots of folks stopped by the store all week long. We saw quite a few people who we only see once a year, but that’s  what makes the Jazz Festival so special.

    There was one unfortunate incident during the festival that put pall over things for me personally. I went out to  my car one day and found a parking ticket for not displaying my handicap sticker and it went downhill from there. Now I’ve been parking in the same spot for the past 18 years with my handicap sticker, but somehow the sticker must have fallen when I shut the car door. I had a ticket for $200 for not displaying my handicap tag…. the ticket came with information on how to pay or contest it. There was a website and an email address, but neither were valid! Now the University of Rochester is the new owner of the garage. They’ve been operating it for about a year. They’ve installed all kinds of new high-tech gates for collecting fees and they raised the rates to $100 a month. The whole thing created quite a bit of angst which I will have to deal with when I go back this week. One thing for certain though…. I’m going to go out in the garage near where I park and draw a big white circle around the filthy plastic toothpick that has been lying there for at least three years… that’s right no one has cleaned the garage in at least three years, and that toothpick is always there, close to where I park.

      At any rate, the rage that I felt was actually a very cathartic experience. It brought out all kinds of "old man” anger against the system. In order to cool off I thought I’d take a little drive around the downtown area on my Optimus scooter. No sooner did I get out on the street, when a panhandler came up to me and asked me for a few dollars (inflation!). I’ve always been good to panhandlers, but I at that moment I just had a chip on my shoulder. I looked him in the eye and said "hey, I’m disabled…you can’t panhandle me. There must be some kind of rules. There must be some kind of organization, even for people who panhandle. You just don’t panhandle handicap people..we are on the same team as you!". He paused, looked at me and said yeah you’re right!

    While we’re on the topic of age and rage, I have a few things to say. At nearly 77 years old I guess I qualify for being an old man and as we age, everyone seems to handle things in a different way…. some of us become more reclusive. We hide out..we don’t wanna show our age. We don’t want to show our disabilities. Why would you let your conflicts and disabilities determine who you will be rather than your strengths and achievements

     Well, I’ve got a new mantra. "Make them all crazy!" Think…...Dustin Hoffman in the movie "Midnight Cowboy":  "I’m walkin’ here. I’m walkin’ here!…… get out of my way". Instead of being embarrassed about aging and disabilities…and all of the paraphernalia that comes with it….I say,  FLAUNT IT….Yeah run them over with your walker. Knock them out of the way with your cane. Run them down with your wheelchair!  Have a little pride. There are a lot of old folks with still with enough gumption to attack the world. I’m on their side. We will not be defined by our disabilities, but we are defined by what our contribution has been to the greater good…and most old folks that I know have paid their dues. So watch out world we’re coming on strong. We’re tough. We’re coming with walkers. We’re coming with mobility scooters. We’re coming with all sorts of canes and sticks. We’re going to take back our world.

With peace,

John Bernunzio

The most tender moment we had in the entire jazz festival was a visit from our longtime friend and jazz genius, Steve Greene. For many years, Steve conducted improvisation workshops in the back room at our store on Saturdays. His hilarious videos advertising the event still exist on YouTube if you want to laugh, give them a visit. I told him the day will come when he will once again holds court in my store. You can view one of his videos  right here, or search YouTube for Steve Greene/Bernunzio