Description

A signed limited print may be available of this piece! (click here)

Around 1960-61, we moved to New York City from Newark, New Jersey, to the Upper East Side of Manhattan. It was an area known as Spanish Harlem - The Barrio.

We lived on the fourth floor in a railroad-style apartment. A railroad-style apartment usually has two entrances, one in the front  and one in the back, and the rooms are connected, meaning you need to walk through rooms to get to other rooms - there is no hallway.

In that apartment, the kitchen was in the back part of it. It had a bathroom, and everything was ancient-style. I remember the bathroom toilet had an elevated water tank with a pull chain to flush. Once, that tank actually came crashing down after a pull.

Mom loved plants. She had a very green thumb, and in the kitchen, she had a few plants on the windowsill.

On this day, Dad found this sunny view and captured it forever in this beautiful oil painting of The Kitchen Window.

I have so many memories of that time, even though I was very young.

Barrio Bongos
One beautiful memory is of hearing bongo drums on summer nights. With the windows open living in the Barrio, we could hear bongo drums playing almost nightly in the nearby railroad tunnels. Over and over, they played, and to this day, I have that memory playing in my heart - so clear. ❤️

Through My Father's Eyes

And here is a song that I wrote that memorializes those Bongo memories. - "My Latin Lover" is in fact that memory. The album cover shows our building and actual apartment location along with the tunnel where the bongos were played, and this painting is also included.

Song: "BARRIO BONGOS"

Artist: JTAR