Tony's Pizzeria and Dad

Sometimes my memories are so cloudy that the title of the story does the memory justice. In this case when trying to look through the fog, my memory is blocked by a giant piece of New York pepperoni pizza.

When I was a little kid, I remember getting in the car with my father because he would have some errands to run. Dad drove a bright yellow comet and I always thought he must have been cool because he had this cool car. He had an 8-track player and he used to let me pick from the pile of 8-tracks he had lying around the passenger side of the car. I never knew what I was picking and at this time, was too young to even read the titles. I looked at the pictures and probably picked the prettiest one. Although, if you remember, 8-tracks had those labels that got faded in the sun, or wrinkled if you spilled something on them, so I remember most of them being a mystery to even my father. I'm sure the tape didn't do well in the sun either, so I wonder if they ever melted to his dashboard in the summer. No matter which 8-track I chose, it was a cool band, singing a cool song in Dad's cool car. We would cruise through the city's main drags with the windows down and the volume up.

We would go get our hair cut or stop to see a friend of his. Dad always had someone to say hello to wherever we were. When on Broadway in Kingston, it is almost impossible to not stop at Tony's Pizzeria. I remember Dad stopping in to have a beer and he would always order me a piece of pizza. It was an understated place with a neon sign. Definitely an established bar and restaurant, it felt like you could know everyone there. The pizza was the quintessential New York pizza slice. So big that you had to fold it in half to eat it. I remember wanting to cut the slice (like Mom would do for me at home) but Dad taught me to try and fold it in half. He would fold it for me and place it in my hands to show me. There is nothing like the big triangle slice of pizza with its cheese melting out the middle. I first learned to eat pizza the proper way with my Dad at Tony's.

Years later, when we moved to Connecticut and Ohio, we would check out the local pizza places. Usually terrified after just seeing the pizza, we would miss our New York slices. If the pizza is is round but still cut into squares, it cannot compete. It is automatically disqualified. I never understood why someone would take a round pie and cut it into squares. I'm not sure where their logic came into play. Perhaps we are too picky with our pizza or maybe we are onto something. I think either way, if you are standing in New York and you are holding a giant, triangular piece of pizza, the feeling is overwhelming and it will always beat the other state's pizza. This is how I felt, eating a slice with my Dad, at Tony's.