The Boys Recall Street Hockey<\/p>\n
The boys were at their usual table in the diner. Customer’s tables edged closer to hear the loud, humorous, heated exchanges between the men seated nearby.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe notches on that hockey puck were like blades. Once it went into my shin and nearly found bone.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFootball was worse. We had no helmets or shoulder pads.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t you remember that cement wall Max was crushed into when he was tackled in the Crotona Park P.S.A.L. field? He was a bloody mess.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI only remember that game because Sonny was running through our line as if we weren\u2019t there. Then I tackled him. He went up in the air and came down on his head. That ended the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHey waitress, we have a hero here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis hero and none of you ordered. Are you going to sit here and keep my tipping customers from ordering?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSausage and eggs over for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll have scrambled eggs with a bagel.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMake mine yogurt with apples and flaxseed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYogurt? Flaxseed? What are you? A nursing mother?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t be a wise guy. Let\u2019s get back to the street hockey.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe clamps that held my skates tore the soles off my shoes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s no surprise. You wore those cardboard Thom McAn shoes. The cheapest money can buy. With my G.O. discount book, I bought stylish Adler shoes. They were never torn apart.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBig deal. What about the shirts you wore to school? The sleeves hung down to your fly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were my brother\u2019s shirts, but they weren\u2019t torn apart.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat kind of roller skates did you have?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI had what most of us had, Union Hardware roller skates.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201dThe wheels on those skates boxed after a few games. I had solid-wheeled Chicago Racers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHey guys. We have a big shot here with long sleeves and skates with solid wheels.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll bet you borrowed a skate key to tighten your skates because you were too cheap to buy a 2 cents skate key.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo what? I was always ready for a game. I hate to admit it, but you were the best.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy do you hate to admit it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause it\u2019s you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHate it or not, no one could keep up with me. I was the best.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI just said that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow did we make that hockey puck?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe took the square ends of a wooden Breakstones\u2019 cream cheese box and nailed them together. It was their notched ends that shredded our shins.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd what about the goals? There were always arguments as to whether the puck went over the sewer lid.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJerry\u2019s father made us a pair of very nice goals. No more sewer lids, no more arguments.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you remember the day a howling wind sent the goals three blocks down to Jennings Street Market then smashed them against a fruit stand?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAll that was left was the fabric.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat about the hockey sticks? Where did we get them?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a store on Bathgate Avenue that sold them for a quarter.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA quarter? You wouldn\u2019t spend a quarter for a hockey stick. You wouldn\u2019t even spend two cents for a skate key. Did you make your hockey stick from an orange box?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, we have a big shot here with Chicago Racers and his own hockey stick. You still had long sleeves.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m ready to go home.\u201d<\/p>\n
What\u2019s the matter? Did the yogurt give you heartburn?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo. You did.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Boys Recall Street Hockey The boys were at their usual table in the diner. Customer’s tables edged closer to hear the loud, humorous, heated exchanges between the men seated nearby. \u201cThe notches on that hockey puck were like blades. Once it went into my shin and nearly found bone.\u201d \u201cFootball was worse. We had… Continue reading The Boys Recall Street Hockey<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3538"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3569,"href":"http:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3538\/revisions\/3569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}