The Sidewalks of New York<\/p>\n
\u201cHey Jerry, get your mother off the field, we\u2019re playing a game!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCut it out Joey, Don\u2019t talk about my mother like that. Did I ever say anything about your mother?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMom, would you please get off the field, we\u2019re playing a game. I\u2019ll have the milk and cookies after the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mom left preaching her usual sermon.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe game. The game. All day long you play the game. If you did your homework like Walter does, instead of punching a ball in the street I wouldn\u2019t have to see a teacher every week.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a warm June afternoon. The boys retired to their headquarters, their meeting place, their dugout for ball games, a parked car\u2019s running board. Eddie broke the silence.<\/p>\n
\u201cI heard that Bill Dickey can tell where a foul pop-up is going to go once it leaves the batter\u2019s bat.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou heard. You heard. You\u2019re always hearing things Eddie. The FBI could use you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo Marty. He\u2019s too stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n
The running board\u2019s hard rubber embossed strips began to squeeze into Eddie\u2019s rear.<\/p>\n
Eddie stood up rubbing his rear end.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s sit on to the curb near the fire hydrant, my ass is killing me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marty wasn\u2019t happy with this suggestion.<\/p>\n
\u201cDogs piss on the hydrant. I\u2019m staying.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHoly shit! Wow! Look up in the sky! Wha\u2019, \u2026 What is that thing?\u201d trembled Marty as he edged closer to Eddie.<\/p>\n
\u201cGet offa\u2019 me dummy. How should I know?\u201d<\/p>\n
The boys squeezed closer together. Shoulders pressed against shoulders, knees coupled with trembling knees, their mouths were agape. They were stunned. The bright summer sky was eclipsed by the sinister appearance of a huge oval object. Seabnry Place was blanketed under a giant shadow. It was an airship that seemed to be suspended by strings like a marionette.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy wasn\u2019t it moving like the airplanes that pass by every day? I don\u2019t like this. I\u2019m gettin\u2019 outta\u2019 here,\u201d shouted Joey.<\/p>\n
Jerry, although startled was as anxious as the rest. He had seen the Hindreberg <\/em>in the newsreels, but who expected it to hang over Seabury Place? On its rudder was a black swastika in a circular white field and encased in a red square. This assured Jerry it was the Hindenberg.<\/em><\/p>\n Could it have come here all the way from Germany? Were there Nazis inside? What would they do to us after they land? Where is it going to land?<\/em><\/p>\n Eddie, shaken with fright sputtered,<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m going upstairs.\u201d<\/p>\n Marty, who was just as anxious as Joey, put on an air of bravado,<\/p>\n \u201cOh, scardy-cat is going upstairs to his mommy.\u201d<\/p>\n With that, Joey said he too was going upstairs to ask his mother if she knew anything about the Hindenburg<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cHow would she know?\u201d asked Joey. \u201cYou don\u2019t buy a newspaper.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t buy one either,\u201d replied Eddie. \u201cMr. Suslow gives it to my father after he finishes it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh yeah. I\u2019ll bet he doesn\u2019t know that the Hindenburg<\/em> flew over Seabury Place today.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen he comes home, I\u2019ll ask him.\u201d<\/p>\n The running board summit was adjourned. Rapidly beating hearts and wobbly legs stumbled for home.<\/p>\n Jerry opened the door to his apartment to find his mom stuffing a chicken skin\u2019s neck to make derma.<\/p>\n \u201cMom, did you see the Hindenberg<\/em> fly over Seabury Place this afternoon?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow can I see anything when our kitchen window shows me Mrs. Koletsky\u2019s kitchen? Wait until Pa or Izzy come home.\u201d<\/p>\n Izzy was Pa\u2019s bachelor brother. He moved into the apartment and became a barnacle for zero dollars a month, food and laundry included.<\/p>\n Pa soon dragged himself into the apartment and Izzy soon followed. Jerry ran to tell him about the Hindenburg<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat? A swastika?\u201d he said. \u201cNazis? How could it be?\u201d<\/p>\n He approached Jerry\u2019s brother, \u201cHarold, did you see it?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t see it. I was in the apartment doing my homework.\u201d<\/p>\n Izzy joined in,<\/p>\n \u201cWhat Hindenburg<\/em>? Wasn\u2019t he a German general? What was he doing here in the Bronx?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes,\u201d Pa said sarcastically. \u201cHe came here to draft you for the German army.\u201d<\/p>\n After dinner the family gathered around their small, Gothic Emerson table radio. It was Thursday, May 6, 1938. An excited Gabriel Heatter delivered a special report. The Hindenburg<\/em> drifted slowly over New York City. At 7:45 PM, upon approaching its mooring at Lakehurst, New Jersey, it exploded killing 35 of the 97 people aboard. A member of the ground crew was also killed.<\/p>\n The excitement wore off in a couple of days and the boys returned to their street.<\/p>\n They were ten-years-olds. They haven\u2019t as yet graduated from punchball to stickball. But that\u2019s OK, the field is smaller and the cops didn\u2019t grab the sticks.<\/p>\n What did ten-year-olds do after school? The smarter ones did their homework. Fun was the name of the boy\u2019s game.<\/p>\n Jerry, the unelected leader of the group suggested,<\/p>\n \u201cHow about roasting some mickies tonight? I\u2019ll meet you after supper and we\u2019ll go to Jennings Street Market. Me and Joey will get the potatoes, Eddie and Marty will get the wooden boxes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGreat idea. But what if we get caught?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGet caught? How many times did we get caught, Marty? Boy, are you a fink.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not afraid, I just think the mickies are dirty when we take them out of the fire.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEddie, did you ever get sick from a mickie?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo, and they\u2019re really good.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n After dinner the boys met outside Nick the shoemaker\u2019s store. Together they walked the three blocks to Jennings Street Market. Jerry lifted the nailed-down canvas cover of Miller\u2019s stand.<\/p>\n \u201cUh-oh, watch it Jerry, that man on the corner. He looks like a detective.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDetective my ass. That\u2019s Mr. Feingold, my neighbor from the second floor.\u201d<\/p>\n Eddie slipped his hand under the cover and removed four potatoes. He joined Jerry for their three-block walk to the corner of Seabury Place. In the distance they could see Joey and Marty struggling with four wooden fruit boxes.<\/p>\n The boxes were stacked. To be used for kindling, Marty was about to crush a Jewish newspaper.<\/p>\n \u201cStop!\u201d said Eddie. \u201d You can\u2019t burn that. It\u2019s a sin to burn a Jewish newspaper!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWho said so?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy grandfather, and he should know. He goes to shul (synagogue) every Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy father doesn\u2019t go to shul added Jerry, so I\u2019ll burn it.\u201d<\/p>\n When the wooden boxes began a slow burn, Eddie threw in the four potatoes.<\/p>\n \u201cThey only become mickies when their skins are a crusty black,\u201d advised Jerry.<\/p>\n Now a mass of flames danced above the potatoes. The boxes were in a glowing blaze, and then began to collapse.<\/p>\n \u201cHey guys, shouted Jerry. \u201cIt\u2019s Hitler\u2019s house!\u201d<\/p>\n A roar of \u201cYay!\u201d bounced off the bedroom windowpanes of Seabury Place.<\/p>\n In about ten minutes, an anxious Marty asked,<\/p>\n \u201cAre the mickies ready, Jerry?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, but how do we get them out of the fire?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI brought a fork.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOK, but don\u2019t burn your hands.\u201d<\/p>\n With the mickies wrapped in the remaining newspaper, the four sat on the curb dining on their stolen dessert.<\/p>\n \u201cEddie, what are you doing this Saturday? We\u2019re going to Brighton Beach.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBrighton Beach? It\u2019s so far. By the time you get there, you\u2019re ready to go home. The last time I went there I was sunburned so bad, my mom took me to Bronx Hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo, where are you going this Saturday, Joey?<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m going with my brother to Crotona Park pool.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNah, my father says people piss in the water there.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo, don\u2019t you think people piss in the ocean at Brighton Beach?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCrotona pool is like a bathtub compared to the ocean.\u201d<\/p>\n Games continued on the asphalt street of Seabury Place. Punchball was pass\u00e9. The boys graduated to stickball. A mop stick was a poor excuse for a broomstick for stickball. But who had a corn-fibered broom? Abe saw a broom tilted on a second floor fire escape.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s Mrs. Stein\u2019s broom,\u201d said Marty.<\/p>\n \u201cShe doesn\u2019t need it, we do,\u201d replied Abe.<\/p>\n \u201cHow do you know she doesn\u2019t need it?\u201d asked Joey.<\/p>\n \u201cI was in her apartment yesterday telling her she had a phone call at the candy store. Her floors dirtied my sneakers.\u201d<\/p>\n It was agreed that we needed the broom more than Mrs. Stein, but who was going to climb the fire escape?<\/p>\n \u201cAbe, when you\u2019re in the playground, you climb like a monkey. You get it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHey! It\u2019s in front of the building. Everyone could see me. I\u2019m not going.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThen we\u2019ll have to use a mop stick.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe we could ask the big-fellas if they could loan us a stick?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t see any of the big-fellas.\u201d<\/p>\n The boys retired to Mrs. Baretz\u2019s bench outside her candy store on Boston Road considering their next event.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s put a penny on the Boston Road trolley track and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOK Jerry, put your penny on the trolley track and we\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt isn\u2019t worth it to me. I could buy a Hooten square of chocolate for the penny.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThen shut up about putting a penny on the track.\u201d<\/p>\n June was coming to a close. No more math tests, spelling tests, fountain pens and inkblots.<\/p>\n In spite of Jerry\u2019s mom, games continued on the sidewalks and gutters of New York.<\/p>\n Fifth grade began with thin spellers, thick math books and a thicker reader. Mr. Klein distributed mending tissue (precursor to Scotch Tape) to students who received books with torn pages. Blank paper was at a premium at this time spelling tests were written on sheets of paper that were cut in half.<\/p>\n World War II was about to take place in Europe. It was 1938, the Great Depression was still depressing the population. Great Britain and France agreed to Germany\u2019s demands. Germany seized the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia, and then they occupied Austria. The United States remained neutral but Congress increased expenditures for the Army and the Navy.<\/p>\n In spite of President Roosevelt\u2019s calming Fireside Chats, the population was anxious. Public schools in New York city issued plastic ID tags to the students. Mr. Strauss, Jerry\u2019s and Eddie\u2019s 6th<\/sup> grade teacher gave then permission to collect paper for the defense effort. They left school after the morning session and went door to door in the neighborhood collecting newspapers and magazines.<\/p>\n \u201cHey Jerry, what the heck have newspapers got to do with the defense effort?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know, but it gets us out of school in the afternoons. So don\u2019t ask questions.\u201d<\/p>\n When Jerry and Eddie filled up a cardboard box, they carried it back to school near the end of the session.<\/p>\n September 1939 was the final term for the boys at P.S. 61. It was also the final term for the Polish population. Nazi Germany invaded Poland on September 1. Everyone in the neighborhood was apprehensive about the families they had left in Eastern Europe.<\/p>\n All of these political events played a minor role for the eleven-year boys. They were on the trail to a new adventure. That path ended at Hermann Ridder Junior High School.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Sidewalks of New York \u201cHey Jerry, get your mother off the field, we\u2019re playing a game!\u201d \u201cCut it out Joey, Don\u2019t talk about my mother like that. Did I ever say anything about your mother?\u201d \u201cMom, would you please get off the field, we\u2019re playing a game. I\u2019ll have the milk and cookies after… Continue reading The Sidewalks of New York<\/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-3764","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\/3764","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=3764"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3768,"href":"http:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3764\/revisions\/3768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}