Looking Forward to the Next Centennial

Here is a letter to Scarsdale10583 from Greenacres resident Richard Effman who had a blast at the Greenacres Centennial: Last Saturday night we had the distinct pleasure of attending the 100th birthday celebration of the Greenacres Association. It was held at the Scarsdale Country Club. Which, by the way, is located squarely in...Hartsdale. What's the deal with that?

Anyway, it was distinct because it was a first-of-its-kind event for Scarsdale, complete with its very own slide show supplying lots of Greenacres historical facts and factoids.

A pleasure because finally, I attended a birthday party for something older than me! Hooray!

Each attendee was asked to put their name, street name (meaning the Greenacres street they live on, not their gang moniker) and the number of years they have lived in Greenacres on a sticker to be displayed on the chest. Then to shmooze for a while amidst red and white wine (nothing harder), and then to choose a table. I was fortunate...I got seated at a table where the three other guys had less hair than I.

Ok, I'll admit it sounds a bit shallow, but it still felt good!

Greenacres has long been called the Upper West Side of Westchester. I'm pretty sure its a reference to the seemingly liberal and laid back nature of the hood, not the fact that we too are located across the river from Jersey.

The evening was crowded with people (surprising at $100 bucks a head...where is my vodka?) and citations and proclamations aplenty...from congress, from the state assembly, from the state senate, from the county, and of course from the village itself. They all came to praise us. And to subtly lobby for votes in the next election.

In fact, so many nice things were said about Greenacres...I thought it had died! (I guess I'm spending too much time at funerals lately).

And speaking of funerals, I couldn't help but think that there were thousands of original Greenacre-ians (help me, what do we call ourselves?) turning over in their graves because there are now Jews and African Americans living in the very homes that used to forbid Jews and African Americans in their deeds! It was enough to make one kfell.

And one did.

It could be me, but I had such a good time it made me look forward to the next centennial dinner.

I'll be sure to send you a calendar invite.

(Pictured at top: from left to right: Debbie Radov, Richard Effman, Joanne Wallenstein, Glenn Fishman, Shelley Effman, Mark Seiden, and Andrea Seiden)