THE CAST OF CHARACTERS

One of the things about getting older is the memory storage bin you have, and how much fun it is to pick through it all.

In the Bushwick section of Brooklyn where I came from, there lived a great many characters, some were nice, some not so nice: all were colorful.

It seems the streets were a lot larger than they are to day, and the people loomed even larger. They made a statement in my mind, and all lived day to day.

There was John the vegetable store man. John was a cranky old man, gruff, large and mean. His store smelled and so did he. His saving grace was he was an easy target for 7 year olds. His store spilled out onto the sidewalk and his fruits and vegetables were always fresh. He often eyed me with suspicion since I was one of the little “Bastards” that stole his wooden basket covers and used them as shields in sword fights that we all played. He would swear at me in Italian as I ran by, causing him to give chase.

There was the “Crazy Lady” who lived down the street. She would walk down our end of the block, holding out her skirt and stopping from garbage can to garbage can, and look inside each! My older sister Tess (Much older) would say she was looking for her husband!

There was the couple that lived across the street from me on the top floor. They would sit all day long looking out their window. Usually these windows that faced the street were bedroom windows, so they got the name “the Lampshades”. Once, my friend Anthony and I staged a fight for their benefit, causing them to leave their windows to come downstairs and break it up. The problem was that when they left their ‘station’ we disappeared from the stage!

On the corner of the street stood a bar. The had three entrances, one on the east, and one on the south of the building, and one on the corner of the two sides, next door to Sloppy John’s vegetable store. We would load up our cap guns, run into the bar, guns blazing while the owner would pick up the same language the sloppy John used: “Get outta here ya little bastards!”

When we got home, not a word was ever mentioned. Mom and Dad had no idea their child exhibited such anti-social behavior, and if they ever knew, well, you would probably be not reading this now!