He was good-looking he had the women and he was always working
Posted in General on 02. Aug, 2010
He was good-looking, he had the women, and he was always working on cars.The older guys hung out in the bar directly across from the candy store. When they had their dice and card games – especially the dice, because they used us to roll the dice – they paid us a buck as they won so we would make money. That’s how we learnt to gamble, throw dice, and play cards on the corner. The older guys used to buy beer for us in the stores when we were 15. If we said we wanted a case of beer, they’d say, “No, we’ll get you just a six-pack.” And naturally, we got a six-pack from this guy and a six-pack from that guy.MOSTLY, we used to save up money until Friday night because then there were dances in Prospect Park and we all needed a couple of cans of beer to get a little bit high, to go up there and talk to the girls and dance The bandstand would be up on 11th Street and 9th Avenue.
On one side of the park was South Brooklyn and on the other was the Jokers. We used to look at each other from across the field – 9th Street was theirs and 11th Street was ours, and nobody walked around unless they wanted to get their ass kicked. The guys would dance with the girls to see who danced the best. It was who dressed the best on Friday night, which guys were dancing, and who was making the most noise. At the end of the dance, a fight always managed to break out somewhere. Naturally, some of our girls liked their guys and some of our guys liked their girls It was like a contest.I liked a girl from south Brooklyn.
It was pretty dangerous because I used to have to take her home into their territory I had to act like I wasn’t afraid. I remember being terrorised, and them catching me a couple of times and my getting beat up And I remember going back and getting a couple of them. So when I walked Pat home, I’d be in the doorway on 8th Street and when I got out I’d say, “Naw, don’t worry, I’ll be all right.” And I couldn’t wait till I got from 9th Street to 10th Street to 11th Street to 12th Street. And as I walked those blocks into my territory, I felt myself breathing easier And as I turned around and I didn’t see nobody behind .. Whew! made it. It was such an intense thing to do, walk into the neighbourhood with the girl and then tell everybody, “Pat’s my girlfriend, she’s from South Brooklyn.”We were all Catholic school kids Some of us got thrown out, but it didn’t stop our families We still had to go to Mass on Sunday. And the statue with the Christ on the cross and the Blessed Mother, every time we passed that, no matter what, we would bless ourselves This was our church; this was our parish It was hard being in Catholic school when I was a kid The nuns were tough; the brothers were tough I didn’t like it at all They would hit you, and they didn’t teach you nothing.
They took you up in front of the class, and they’d punch you out. I got thrown out of Catholic school when I was 11 and grammar school when I was 15. I never learnt how to read or write till I got clean when I was 40 years old. So I always had this resentment about the teachers and the nuns. Like why didn’t they know? Why didn’t they help me? Why did they put me in the back of the class? I was a little wise-guy, which is the truth.
Since the day I walked into school, I wanted to walk out.But the church means a lot. My family were alcoholics, no education, very, very poor, and we used to get money from the church to eat I never thought anything of myself If you said something about me, I had to fight you. And there were many times that people said things about me that hurt my feelings, but I didn’t know how to do anything but either curse at you or fight.HELEN’S Candy Store on the corner of 17th Street was really like our home away from home Helen was like our mother. And nobody would bother Helen because of Bobby, her son, one of the bigger guys. (Later, he was shot seven times – dead.) Nobody ever disrespected her.All the information you wanted during the day was there.