The Late, Great Dottie's!

Yesterday yet another old Brooklyn building collapsed. We have had lots of rain lately and I am sure that was the final nail in their coffins but there is much more to this story. At least, to me, personally.

Back in my younger days the building you see above held a bar called the Romanian Gardens. It was owned by an eastern European woman named Dotty. So…everyone just called it Dotties. It was a real time neighborhood hangout. When I moved here 29 years ago I was a rock drummer and spent a lot of time in bars. Back then I didn’t swig booze at Dottie’s, but spent my time at other places. If I was in the neighborhood that night though, I tipped my cups at a bar called the Alibi club. It wasn’t until the mid eighties that Dottie’s became more of a hangout. There was a bartender there named Gene and HE was sometimes well into his cups too. It got kind of wild but it was fun. AS the the decade wore on I began my marathon running career I drank a lot less. Sometimes though I visited Dottie’s on weekends or Fridays evenings and had a VERY good time. At least that’s the way I remember it now. Sigh. Who knows what I have forgotten.

At that time I was working a couple of jobs. I was a bartender (no NOT  at Dottie’s) at a place called the Pinta Di Blue. I also did construction work for my landlord. He and his son owned 3o buildings, so one morning Charlie (that was my landlord’s name) called and said they needed me to work that morning. I met them down the street at an empty building that at one time housed a bar (yes ANOTHER bar) nicknamed the red awning. It turned out Charlie had recently bought the property but a problem had been discovered. The first floor wall was buckling outwards! Funny enough the wall faced directly into the empty lot next door to Dottie’s. If you take another look at the pic on the top of this page you will see the collapsed building (which was Dottie’s) an empty lot (this has always been there) and the building next door with the white wall and the red awning in front. At one time the red awning bar stood there.

Anyway, we got there and began shoring up the beams in the basement. Then we moved to the first floor and continued shoring those. Now, Charlie didn’t use guys that were expensive. He used neighborhood guys, that, should we say tended to use and drink various substances that weren’t meant for use on construction sites. One in particular (I think his name was John) usually carried a few of those airplane sized bottles of Rum or Scotch. He had another fellow hammering away on the basement wall with en electric jackhammer. Charlies son told John it was a bad idea since the wall above was already very unstable. John’s response?

“It’s ok. Don’t worry about it Charlie.”

Not too long after (yes you guessed it) the first floor wall section feel outwards into the empty lot. Actually it WASN’T so empty because Dottie had a van parked in there. Right next to the red awning building. I still remember very well what happened next. Charles (Charlie’s son) and I, were standing outside looking up at the wall. By that time cracks were forming throughout the wall. Charles said…

“Oh, F%#*&, it’s going to come down. Oh F@$!.

Cracks began forming faster. All the way to the top. BTW the building was 4 stories high. Of course right about then the wall collapsed straight down. SMASH! It pancaked the van and filled the yard with brick and debris. The woman in the building next door came running out yelling about her place. The red awning building had separated slightly from the building on the opposite side. Guess she was freaking out about her building falling over too and I frankly didn’t blame her. One whole side of the building was gone but the rest stayed up! Engineers were called emergency shoring began.

Eventually it was torn down and a new building (the one you see in the pic above) was put up in it’s place. Well…..fast forward 22 years to yesterday.

This morning someone asked me if I had seen the collapsed building.

“What collapsed building?”  I asked.

The one where the bar is. Next to the small grocery store. I thought to myself could it be the same place? I went down there to see for myself and lo and behold. It wasn’t the same place it was where Dottie’s used to be. Dotties , by the way, had long since disappeared and some loungey type place called the Vesper had sprung up in it’s place. I had stopped going there years ago anyway. As I looked at it I had to wonder about the empty lot in between the 2 buildings. Seems that the buildings on either side needed some kind of support and never got it. The Dottie’s building just suddenly collapsed yesterday. Granted there has been a lot of rain lately and I later found out that there was an old, large crack in the side of the building that was supposedly being fixed, but to suddenly collapse like that?

It made me think about people’s health and fitness. Time and again I have watched people that thought they were in ok shape. Healthy etc, suddenly begin falling apart like a house of cards. I am sure you have known someone like this. Why does it happen? Same reason the 2 buildings came down. No support. No exercise OR the totally WRONG exercise. Bad nutrition. Nothing done to relieve stress. No flexibility/mobility exercises. Weak as a 12 year old child OR so musclebound that they can’t move. Human beings (that’s you and me) need lots of support to get by. Fitness wise we need strength, stamina, flexibility, mobility, balance, agility, strong internal organs, and good breathing to live vital lives. Nutrition wise well…..I won’t argue the point but most people have absolutely no idea of what constitutes good nutrition. The kind that will support their muscles, organs, brain, hormones. You know…the fuel that drives the fitness engine. If most people were buildings the inspector would slap all kinds of violations on them. Eventually the building would collapse, and it will collapse WAY before it should.

What to do? Start by following along with the Fusion Fitness TV episodes. Keep tuning in. We are scheduling so much good stuff that it is like gold sitting right on your computer. All you have to do is use it and you will stand taller, sturdier, healthier, and hopefully longer. Take another look at that wreck of a building if you need any encouragement. Best of luck.

Best,

Robert