November 22, 2021

Good morning folks,

Front porches have always intrigued me. Before the exodus to the suburbs people had small backyards and most leisure time was spent on the front porch. Everyone knew their neighbors and would see each other on a daily basis on the "front porch". That’s also where a lot of great guitar and banjo picking was done for years. Front porches say a lot about people. As a sophomore at McQuaid Jesuit High School, in 1962 I read the novel  To Kill a Mockingbird. Since then, I’ve always been the type of person who tried to look at the world from "Boo Radley‘s front porch". Atticus Finch said, "You never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them." Just standing on the Radley porch was enough for Scout. I went downtown to see the movie version in the theater. I loved the movie, but I remember relating to my English teacher at the time, Edward Zogby SJ, "why was the movie in black-and-white". He looked at me through those big black, horned rim glasses and said, without a pause… "because life then, was in black-and-white." How different things are now 60 years later.

"John’s Corner" has been my own front porch…the world from my very own perspective. But as I age, I am more interested in other people’s perspectives…other front porches. I am constantly fighting the battle of becoming a cynical old man with no sense of future. From my vantage point the state of the world often seems a dismal and foreboding place. I also look at my past and wonder how it could come to this. The future can be downright frightening. But then, there’s the babies! We had an opportunity this weekend to visit my son Jay and his lovely wife Taylor, their son Rocco and their five month old twin daughters Olive and Scarlet. Looking into their eyes, their front porch, I can see the future and it is not black-and-white, it is in living color, it is hopes and promises…..it inspires me and keeps me looking forward.

Sincerely, 

John Bernunzio

Three generations on the front porch in Penfield,NY!

On Saturday we were privileged enough to be visited by the illustrious Rochester guitar legend, Mel Henderson…. I think he left with the guitar but I’m not sure ha ha. 

Today, all of my employees have their own particular passion and expertise in the musical world. I have given them free reign to buy and sell that which they are experts about…in that sense we are all now in a "cooperative" making our way through this crazy business. WE WILL BE OPEN FOR WALK IN CUSTOMERS ON BLACK FRIDAY!! 

Check out the store hours here!

…and then there was this.