Bonni Brodnick Blog

By Bonni Brodnick The pocketsize Mini Coopers are about the cutest things on Westchester country roads. Going through a mid-life crisis (although at “mid” life he’d be living to 104, but don’t say anything), my husband gave in to buying a two-toned red hot Mini with a white top. I was used to driving around in a blue Volvo Mommy station wagon where I just hop in, shift into first gear, and go. No one ever looked at me. I didn’t even have to wear lipstick. “You’ll see,” said my husband. “When you drive a Mini, everyone waves. It’s just like boating.” Long Island Sound: Interstate 684? I saw no connection. No connection until I drove his Mini Cooper. Within three miles from home, two Mini drivers waved at me. Suddenly, I was no longer invisible in a Volvo station wagon. I was someone! I was also slightly embarrassed. “Yeah, hi,” I muttered and returned a wave limply under the dashboard, too abashed to look at the other driver. Another mile down the road, another Mini waved. What is this ...

POUND RIDGE PAST: REMEMBRANCES OF OUR TOWNSFOLK, by Bonni Brodnick, with photographs by Fran Collin and graphic design by Gina Federico, is a collection of more than 30 first-person interviews with the town's elders. The historical, personal recollections in this book span from the rural 1920s to the swinging 1970s and reveal what life was like in Pound Ridge, New York in the 20th century. Signed copies of the book are $30 + $4 for shipping/handling. To place your order, contact poundridgepast@gmail.com or PM me on the POUND RIDGE PAST Facebook page.

By Bonni Brodnick When I was growing up, there was a strict seasonal dress code for boys and girls. Undershirts, layer number one, and turtlenecks, layer number two, were de rigueur winter- wear. If you didn’t have a turtleneck, a dickey sufficed. An itchy wool sweater made for toasty layer number three. We wore thick, pilled tights under corduroy pants in winter and stiff new blue jeans in spring. There was no white after Labor Day, and anyone who wore sneakers in the winter was considered completely déclassé. Jumping ahead three decades or so, and I now have two teenagers. They ask for only three things (okay, four, if you count the latest iPod): blue jeans, sneakers and polo shirts. They ask for these winter, spring, summer and fall. For my 17-year old son, the blue jeans have to be two sizes bigger than his waist so that they look like they will literally slip off should he bend down to pick up something (which would be a miracle, especially if he did this in his bedroom). On the o...

BEDFORD MAGAZINE / March 2005 "GETTING TO KNOW YOU: Oscar Andy Hammerstein III" By Bonni Brodnick   Oscar Andy Hammerstein III, painter, writer and Hammerstein family historian, truly has the muse -- just like his father, Jamie Hammerstein; his father’s father, Oscar Hammerstein II; and his father’s father’s father, Oscar Hammerstein I. A South Salem resident, Andy, who recently appeared in the PBS documentary series, “BROADWAY: The American Musical,” gives us a perspective on the 101st Anniversary of Broadway; how his grandfather, Oscar II, and his partner Richard Rodgers, changed the American theatrical and musical landscape with such masterworks as Oklahoma! and Carousel , the importance of a good libretto and the future of The Great White Way.                                      ...