Meet the Regulars: People of Brooklyn and the Places They Love by Fischer Joshua D

Author:Fischer, Joshua D. [Fischer, Joshua D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2016-05-23T16:00:00+00:00

(Photos by Calli Higgins)

A Retired Captain of the Fire Department Becomes the Captain of a Shuffleboard Team

Tim McKinney walks into the Royal Palms Shuffleboard Club like he owns the place. He says hello to Tamara, an employee walking the expansive 17,000-square-foot space, and brings a giant smile to her face. A handful of times, he pauses our conversation to check in with shuffleboard teammates who flow in as league games are about to start. Tim knows this place, and this place knows Tim. When I asked owner Jonathan Schnapp for a good regular to interview, he instantly said Tim was my man. The sixty-seven-year-old retired captain at the New York Fire Department had his eye on the Royal Palms the moment he noticed Schnapp working on the venue because Tim has lived a few blocks away for thirty-five years. As soon as he learned it was to become a sprawling—and gorgeous—Palm Beach–style shuffleboard house, Tim was in; nevermind that he’d never played shuffleboard in his life.

And what a journey it’s been. The captain of the fire department became the captain of two different shuffleboard league teams: the VIPPs (Volunteers in Prospect Park—how Tim spends his time nowadays) and Second Place (a play on words: it’s a street name, not the position they’re jockeying for). Second Place just came in fourth place out of twenty teams. Not bad for a team of six casual friends rather than the intimidating teams of Brits or Mathematicians who know each other very well, Tim says, and play to win.

Originally from Castleton Corners on the North Shore of Staten Island, Tim joined up with the Army and served in Vietnam. “Shit, you’re eighteen years old and people are dropping mortars on you,” he says. “It’s in my suitcase, my baggage. In a positive sense. Yeah, I was in Vietnam and demonstrated against going into Iraq.” He goes on to explain, per capita, how his home borough paid the highest price: “Staten Island’s too eager to send their kids into war.” After the Army, Tim went to college on the GI Bill and graduated with a degree in meteorology, before enlisting with the FDNY and working every borough but the one he hails from.

When we start discussing his decades as a fireman, Tim requests that we don’t talk about 9/11. It seems that as a firefighter he’s seen and fought a lot of demons. Perhaps that’s why being a regular at the Royal Palms brings him so much joy. Maybe when he calls it a “Disneyland for grown-ups,” he also means it’s an escape. While he has a brother and sister he sees on Staten Island, he’s also here three to four times a week, and he says the teams are like family to him. As he sipped on a cranberry and soda (he quit drinking long ago; it no longer did anything for him, he said), we talked logistics versus tactics in shuffleboard and the Army, whether shuffleboard is an old man’s game, and all the friends and family the Royal Palms provides for him.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.