The Essential Harv: Two Dozen Facts About Harvey Mayes (1944–1993)

My first boyfriend died before the Google Age, so there’s not a lot about him online. Today would have been his 75th birthday, so I’m celebrating with a list of things the world should know about him.

1. Harvey Steven Mayes was born in Brooklyn on June 7, 1944, raised in the Bronx, the eldest of two children (he had a sister, Sara).
2. His formidable mother was named Bertha, and she had an equally daunting sister named Mildred, known publicly as Aunt Mil, privately as Aunt Dread.

Bert (r.) and Lil Harv with Mildred Gold, a neighbor

3. He did well in high school at Bronx Science — unsurprising because he was both book smart and street smart. I doubt he was a troublemaker but as an adult he was stubborn and he sure did like to be right all the time, so I imagine him as one of those know-it-all students who challenged the teachers. A lot.

’40s Fashion: Catskills Edition

4. Grad school went on for years and years and years. I’m a little hazy on what degrees were earned but I have a bound manuscript of his master’s…