5 Questions to get to know Frank!

Who inspires you?

People. By that I mean people usually much older than me – LOL – because they have lived a life of experiences that have been challenging, rewarding, educational and valuable. I’ve come to realize that everyone experiences challenges and that somehow, we manage to rise to the occasion way more often than not. For over a dozen years I was a junior high school teacher and am now a NYS real estate instructor. Then, like now, my students share personal experiences with me that enhance my view of the world around me. Every day is a new opportunity to teach or learn. I recently taught my son how to snake a wire through finished walls in our home and you could see the light bulb going off in his head as we planned our work. What’s valuable? Something my dad told me about his definition of ‘being wealthy’ so many years ago; “It’s about having the time to do what you want at your pace.” I was perplexed hearing that back then but with the recent and sudden increase in free, personal time during this pandemic, I have been able to read more and spend greater periods of uninterrupted time contemplating why I am personally thankful for the family I have around me and for the many people  I have met in life. It is the ingenuity and perseverance I see in so many people that keeps me hopeful that our best days are ahead.

What was the best concert you ever attended?

Many who know me are already well aware of my passion for the music of the Grateful Dead. Their concerts are truly ‘happenings,’ beginning with the parking lot convergence of people from near and far and the shows themselves being mini-journeys where you musically travel with 20-40,000 other people over a magical shared moment in time. But recently, another band took the stage and delivered for me, a ‘best concert’ – the Rolling Stones.

Metlife Stadium was packed to overflowing with a crowd that was overwhelmingly grey-headed but also included smatterings of very young people too. I was standing next to 2 and sometimes 3 generations of a family all sharing the moment. From the first guitar chords of “Start it up” which opened the two-and-a-half-hour non-stop set, the musicians energetically played through a catalog of greatest hits spanning 60+ years! Mick Jagger has a stage presence unlike anyone I’ve seen before and while seated at the far end of the huge football field, I felt as if he was singing directly to me. (No, nothing altered my reality!) The rhythm and sound of the ‘Stones was something I am glad to have experienced first-hand…they are in a league of their own.

What’s the last book you read?

Credit my oldest son, Max, for getting me into mystery novels and who-dunnits. His room is literally (See what I did there?) a full library of books that you just cannot put down. Take a quick look at my postings @AuctioneerFrank on Twitter to see collage snapshots of the titles. The current read is, “Last Girl Gone.” It is intriguing and addicting like the other stories, but sadly it will be finished in only 2-3 days. Happily though, I only have to go up to his room to disappear into another reading adventure.

What are you passionate about?

My daily work in the tax foreclosure realm has really impacted my thinking about housing and the need for affordable accommodations. Over the years and while driving back home from hours away locations, I’ve had time to think deeply about how to help the homeless and people of very meager means. I became very excited to learn about ‘net zero’ energy housing a few years ago and began taking classes designing such homes after attending a trade show in Boston. I soon learned that it is much easier, and way more affordable, to create a smaller space to heat, cool and light than it is for creating a larger structure. While that seems obvious, what I learned next was that a development of such homes was not practical, especially if you were attempting to keep the sales price to only $99,000 – including the land. (We’re talking about 450 square foot homes permanently attached to a slab in case you were wondering.) While looking to design a self-sustaining mono-structure for one person at about 48 square feet addressing the immediate needs for the homeless, I began to learn about the challenges like getting municipal approval and community acceptance of such designs. I’m not easily deterred though. With more time to contemplate plans and work-arounds, my best intentions might just get to rise from the ground and begin addressing the needs of so many people.

Who would you most like to swap places with for a day?

Any Formula 1 driver. I’ve always been thrilled by speed. From my youngest days I raced motorcyles in European style ‘enduro’ events – and even managed to trophy a few times. These endurance events tested me as a rider and my Austrian built PUCH. I was a determined racer and rode daily, nearly all year around on Snake Hill in New Windsor. I had dreams of attending UCLA because they had a motocross team but that didn’t work out. Honestly, I just was not fast enough.

My uncle in New Jersey, who is an Engineer, always talked with me about the technical details of motor racing. Car racing was new to me and I was fascinated with learning about the intricacies of individual team’s successes. Over many years I developed a passion for F1 and am one of the diehards who wake up at 3AM to watch a race from Japan or some other far-away place in the world. My uncle still shares with me links to very technical engineering stuff that he understands fully and with his help, I try to grasp. I have attended one F1 race – Montreal. But I can still feel the goosebumps on my arms when I first saw a car flying towards me at 200 mph then slowing for the hair-pin turn. Seeing vapor trails flowing off the blurr of a rear aero wing (which helped plant the car on the ground) then having the car suddenly slow to fifteen miles an hour in the blink of an eye, only to complete the turn and re-accelerate to over 180 MPH…was a heart racing stimulus that is with me to this day. Oh, the sheer fun and thrill of being able to experience that from the driver’s seat. Just one lap. That’s all I’m asking for. Please.

If you could visit anywhere in the world you’ve never been, where would you go?

The Space Station. Growing up as an elementary school kid in the 1960’s, I vividly recall our classroom teacher wheeling into tour classroom a black and white television on a high stand so we could all watch live space history unfold. I recall a NASA scientist visiting our school and giving a presentation to the assembly where he demonstrated a contraption that was so sensitive it could count grains of sand. We were all amazed when he poured a small glass of sand into the machine and the numbers whirred to some unbelievable count well over 100,000. While following @NASA on Twitter, I came across a link they put out for ‘spotting the station.’ Once you download the easy to navigate app, you can learn about the fly-over time for your location and where to look in the sky. It works! I was up in Lewis County when I successfully used it for the first time at around 4 in the afternoon. Sure enough, and as listed, the tiny spec of a shiny silver object appeared high above me in the sky and quickly transversed the bright blue ceiling above the earth. I felt such pride in our human accomplishment at that moment and recognized all the smart people it took for that simple, few minutes event to happen for me. Amazing.

What is your favorite family tradition?

A tradition in our home is enjoying dinner together daily. I grew up in a family who owned a night club that featured tablecloth dining and later at night, live music like the Four Seasons, Chubby Checker, Tom Jones and many countless more. (My dad and uncle were pretty successful in the music scene of the Hudson Valley during the 1960’s with the Trade Winds in New Windsor and the Buccaneer in Poughkeepsie.) We ate together as family in the restaurant before it opened and some of my favorite times were during the massive family events for Thanksgiving or Easter where we would have 50-60 relatives visiting from the tri-state area join us.

My wife comes from a large Italian family who farmed fruits and vegetable and were therefor also food-centric, so naturally, we get along swell. When our boys were born, we knew that dining together would be a daily ritual that would become part of our family fabric. How has it worked out? Our boys are both in their 20’s now and we still enjoy dinner as a foursome. We’re cooking together during this pandemic and trying recipes we never seemed to have time for before like bagels or hand-rolled sushi rolls from scratch. Everyone has their turn at the stove during the week, or if you are not cooking you are responsible to find tomorrow’s recipe for something to try next. Somehow though, dad seems to get the short straw all too often and ends up washing the dishes.