A community tribute will be held for TD's Rye Smoke Shop at the Rye Free Reading Room at 6pm on Saturday, March 19th. The Smoke shop is scheduled to close after a long battle with the building owner.
(PHOTO: The Smoke Shop during the 2010 Rye Little League Parade. Rye is losing one of the two traditions in the photo.)
LoHud.com columnist Phil Reisman printed a "eulogy" to the Smoke Shop this past week:
"For decades townies of all ages and backgrounds have passed through T.D.’s ancient doors — the blue-collar plumbers, the electricians and roofers, the mail carriers and traffic cops, the bank tellers and train commuters, the hedge fund managers, the beautiful women in tennis whites and the legions of retired and semi-retired members of Rye’s well-heeled gentry.
For 46 years, the D’Onofrio family lived on a steady stream of loose change and crumpled bills plunked down in trade for Twizzlers, lottery tickets, cigarettes, magazines and Macanudo cigars…
Joe Torre, the former Yankees manager, is a loyal customer at T.D.’s, who routinely buys a newspaper and then goes for coffee at Starbucks.
One time, he forgot his wallet. Don’t worry about it, Peggy D’Onofrio told him. She even lent Torre money so he could buy coffee.
Torre returned on a Saturday morning when the store was filled.
“The deadbeat is back!” he announced, handing Peggy a bag that contained a $20 bill and three autographed baseballs."
Read the entire "eulogy".
(PHOTO: The Save TD's Rye Smoke Shop. The last entry was in 2014.)
