I don't think we knew any Cifunis, but I can certainly ask my parents. They might know better than me. Actually, I'm sure they do.
Monsey was a nice place to grow up, but certainly in the past 10-15 years, things have been getting pretty bad, community-wise.
I never knew Little Ray, but I do remember seeing an autographed photo of him up in the Palisades Mall right after it opened up. For some reason, I think it was in Chili's, not the sports memorabilia store they had on the top floor. But yeah, at the time, I was just really shocked that he had happened to walk into that place to begin with, as I guess it was only 2-3 years before he passed.
I do have wonderful memories of going to the Wizard of Cards in Nanuet, Mr. Comic at the Spring Valley flea market, and Danny's Dugout in Suffern for all of my baseball card needs. At the young age of ten, there weren't many.
And I even remember going to some of the Gloria Rothstein shows at the WCC with my father - it was there that he bought me a nice '64 Topps Bobby Richardson card for $4 when I wasn't more than 7 years old. I remember freaking out, thinking it was so amazing to own something of Bobby's. THE Bobby Richardson! Of course when I told my friends the next day, they had no clue who I was talking about. If the player wasn't named Mattingly, Murphy, Strawberry or Joyner, they probably never would have cared.
Graig
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