First Street is going to the dogs.
And cats.
But seriously, folks, a new business called Furrever Friends celebrated its grand opening Saturday, July 26, at the corner of First and Tulip streets. Owner Odean Dyer is anxious to meet your pets and improve their lives with healthy foods, cool accessories and professional groomings.
The new pet boutique — which Dyer operates along with his fiancé, Lana Grant — sells canned foods, dry foods, pet pastries and safety gear as well as pet sweaters, collars and toys in a kaleidoscope of colors and materials. They even offer Syracuse University items ranging from orange jackets to faux dog bones.
The shop’s rear room features a grooming studio outfitted with two stations where Fido or Calico can get a makeover and come out looking — and smelling —like a million. Once you’ve got ’em looking their best, your pets can be professionally photographed at the shop.
You and your best-loved beast can visit Odean and Lana at Furrever Friends on First Street, online at ffpets.com, or give them a jingle at 218-7368.
Chorus aces anthem
The Liverpool Community Chorus made a rare appearance at NBT Bank Stadium, singing the National Anthem prior to that night’s Chiefs game against the Pawtucket Red Sox.
Conducted by musical director John Miller that evening, the chorus performed a well-harmonized and sprightly version of “The Star Spangled Banner.” Bravo!
Griffin Field memories
Speaking of baseball, last Saturday morning at the GardenView Diner, Bruce Beacham and I discussed the first-place Syracuse Chiefs and their chances of making the International League playoffs. I told Beacham about the feature story I recently wrote for Plank Road Magazine about the Chiefs’ indefatigable groundskeeper, John Stewart, and Beacham told me about the guy who used to tend the diamond at Griffin Field.
“Joe Stein really cared about how good the field looked,” recalled Beacham, who played varsity baseball for Liverpool High School in the 1950s and ‘60s. “He was a good guy, and good groundskeeper, but he was strict.”
If Stein ever found anyone riding their bicycles on the field, there’d be hell to pay, that was for sure.
Beacham also fondly recalled County Parks Commissioner Dewey Keis, who lived in Liverpool and ran Onondaga Lake Park, including Griffin Field which also included a football field ringed by a cinder track.
“That track cut through center field,” Beacham recalled. “I’ll never forget the home run that Babe Sims hit way over that track.”
Last year, Beacham was inducted into the Liverpool High School Sports Hall of Fame.
Jay and Josh rock
Two of the Baldwinsville Theatre Guild’s best actors, Jay Burris and Josh Taylor, are currently playing major supporting roles in two different area musicals which seemingly celebrate lives of crime.
Burris plays the tax-dodging father of teenage grafter Frank Abnagale Jr. in “Catch Me If You Can” playing through Aug. 2 at CNY Playhouse in ShoppingTown DeWitt.
Taylor plays Clyde Barrow’s brother, Buck, in “Bonnie & Clyde,” which closed July 26 at the Mulroy Civic Center, down city. Josh dueted with Chip Weber as Clyde to sing “When I Drive” and “Raise a Little Hell,” two of the show’s best numbers.
“Bonnie & Clyde” was directed by Garret Heater who outdid himself by designing period-perfect Jazz Age costumes for his cast of 22. Heater’s also a proud alumnus of the B’ville Theatre Guild.
Catchy ‘Catch Me’
“Catch Me If You Can” is a far cry from your usual feel-good musical, but the venturesome CNY Playhouse dives right in, telling the story of Frank Abagnale Jr., a teenage grifter from downstate New York who successfully impersonated a teacher, a pilot, a doctor and a lawyer while living a life funded by check forgery in the 1960s.
Jay Burris turns in a riveting performance as Frank’s charming but failing father, a characterization completed by an incredibly realistic drunk scene. As father-and-son, Burris and Liam Fitzpatrick perform a rousing “The Pinstripes Are All They See” and a soft-shoe shuffle, “Butter Outta Cream.”
“Catch Me If You Can” continues at CNY Playhouse, at DeWitt’s ShoppingTown Mall, at 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, July 31 and Aug. 1 and; 885-8960; cnyplayhouse.com.
Remembering Hiroshima
All are invited down city to a solemn annual procession to remember the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Tuesday, Aug. 6. That date marks the 69th anniversary of the dropping of “The Little Boy” atom bomb which led to the end of World War II.
Accurate casualty figures from the Hiroshima bombing are impossible to determine, because many victims were cremated by the half-mile-wide firestorm, along with all record of their existence.
In partnership with the Syracuse Peace Council, Tuesday’s commemoration symbolizes both the horror of Hiroshima and the hope for nuclear abolition.
For information, call SPC at 472-5478 or see Amelia at 11:30 a.m. that morning at the City Hall Commons, off Hanover Square.
