Around 1939 or '40 there was this lovely, ample-bosomed blonde girl who was my older brother's girlfriend. Her name was Natalie. She lived across the little side street on which we played stickball. The room that held my piano, my studio, if you will, faced her windows. We were up on the fifth floor, and Natalie was across the street on the second floor. There were a number of times in the summer when Ray, my brother, threw open the window, sat on the sill with his leg up, and Natalie would be like Juliet, except she was below, not above, at her window. The two would gaze and gesture to one another. It was quite a distance from the fifth floor to the second floor across the street, and, you know, with kids in between playing stickball, it wasn't quite the situation where they could converse. So they developed a kind of sign language.
One afternoon, Ray must've been in the throes of some great wave of passion. He sat me down, literally grabbed me by the arm, and put me on the piano bench. He knew that I could play the piano version of Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet. He pointed to the music and said, "Play!" Then he went and sat on the sill while I played as loudly as I could, with the appropriate feeling. I played this love music while my brother sat on the sill making these great swooping gestures as if he were sending the music out the window down across the street to Natalie's window. I was twelve or thirteen and Ray was close to eighteen at the time. I felt like Cyrano de Bergerac. A musical Cyrano de Bergerac.
—Leon Fleisher, in Just Kids from the Bronx by Arlene Alda (ed.)
Vintage Puerto Rico Coquí 3-D Sterling Silver Open Disk Charm Pendant by M&M
This adorable, petite sterling silver charm pendant that captures the essence of Puerto Rico’s national symbol, El Coquí! Native to La Isla Del Encanto, the delightfully timid coqui frog makes a distinct, rhythmic sound from which it gets its name. From sunset to sunrise, the melodic mating song of coquí puertorriqueño, “ko-kee, ko-kee,” enlivens the evening and lulls the listener to sweet sleep. This wonderful, small circular-shaped open disk charm pendant has a raised, 3-dimensional coqui and will be a very fashionable statement of pride on your favorite charm bracelet or chain!
Popular Puerto Rican expression: “Soy de aquí como el coquí.” (“I’m as Puerto Rican as the coqui.”)