Do you read or write poetry? Do you struggle with addiction? Are you interested in the history of New York City?

Then you are Geoff.

 

Mentioned in this episode:

Geoff’s books:  themcsorleypoems.net

Geoff’s son’s book: http://a.co/j7zv4Le - https://www.amazon.com/dp/0316231592

McSorley’s website: https://mcsorleysoldalehouse.nyc/

AA: http://www.aa.org/

Joseph Mitchell: Up In the Old Hotel - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/210783.Up_in_the_Old_Hotel

Photograph of Babe Ruth: Nat Fein - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nat_Fein

Music:

Billy Murray “The Streets of New York”

Hyden Quartet “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”

 

NOTES:

• 2:00 Join our FB community group! - https://www.facebook.com/groups/afaceprojectcommunity/
• 2:15 Info about Ask the Storyteller
• 3:00 Next Ask the Storyteller is Julia (episode #2). She will be LIVE Sunday May 7th, 7pm CST in A Face Project: Community group on Facebook
• 3:45 Natalie loses her voice
• 5:50 About McSorley’s Wonderful Saloon and Joseph Mitchell
• 9:45 Geoff’s story begins…”It’s the oldest operating bar in New York City…”
• 11:00 Geoff gets an apartment above McSorley’s
• 11:30 Grew up in an abusive household
• 12:20 Geoff’s mother falls ill
• 14:00 Geoff starts a writing program in NYC
• 15:00 Started working the bar 44 years ago
• 15:20 Recognizes he has a drinking problem
• 16:20 Starts to feel suicidal and attends his first AA meeting
• 18:30 Bar patrons try to get Geoff to drink after he was sober
• 19:00 You lose friends, but it becomes about surviving
• 20:15 “You don’t drink one day at a time.”
• 21:25 “It’s the little things that can really drive people to drink.”
• 22:11 The bar is where he is supposed to be
• 22:57 Everything in the bar is original
• 23:10 Nat Fein’s Babe Ruth photo inspires a poem in Geoff’s collection
• 23:40 Geoff reads from his book
• 25:50 All male bar until 1970
• 26:40 Light & dark ale are the only things on tap...still
• 27:30 Why is there sawdust on the floor?
• 28:10 Simple food and a free trip through time
• 28:25 “Be careful what you’re doing because you may end up doing it.”
• 29:00 If you think you have a drinking problem, ask for help
• 29:40 “There’s no shame in asking for help if you want to live.”
• 30:35 What the bar has taught Geoff…
• 31:05 If I drop dead tomorrow...
• 32:30 Get a free sample of our magazine - http://www.afaceproject.com/
• 34:45 Geoff reads another poem