A Tale of Two Oranges<\/p>\n
The Bronx August 1946<\/p>\n
The bright August sunlight awoke two hibernating regulars in Pop\u2019s poolroom at the corner of Boston Rd. and Southern Blvd. Their greenish-yellow complexions announced that they hadn\u2019t had a gulp of fresh air in months.<\/p>\n
They removed a topcoat from a nearby pool table then sped down a long flight of stairs. Was the nicotine-charged air in the poolroom capable of generating such energy? Daylight revealed it was Willy the Weasel and Jake the Snake. What were they up to? What was their mission?<\/p>\n
Willy led Jake to Jennings Street Market where Willy liberated two oranges from Miller\u2019s fruit stand then joined Jake. They headed towards Charlotte St. then on to Seabury Pl. A right turn on E. 172 brought them to our command post, our hangout, the candy store.<\/p>\n
Without a salutation Willy dropped the gauntlet.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy rich uncle\u2019s cashmere topcoat says that no one in this candy store can throw an orange further than my man Jake.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho says so?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis brand-new cashmere topcoat says so. It challenges anyone here to a duel of distance. My man Jake and I claim there’s no one standing here who can throw an orange further than Jake.”<\/p>\n
What were 16 year-olds going to do with a ratty topcoat? It was summer. The only thing we could think about clothing was shedding it.<\/p>\n
Monty, smelling a fast buck ran across the street and up to his apartment. He came down with two of his older brothers\u2019 pre-war suits to up the ante.<\/p>\n
This challenge to our athletic ability could not be dismissed.\u00a0We emptied our pockets and came up with twelve-dollars.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat, for a cashmere topcoat and two suits? I can\u2019t believe it!\u201d<\/p>\n
Sol, who was behind the candy store counter would not miss this event. He removed three-dollars from the till to make it fifteen-dollars.<\/p>\n
Knowing Williy\u2019s financial antics in the past, Sol demanded that the money be left for the winner at the candy store.<\/p>\n
The boys huddled together to determine who would throw the orange. They agreed that I had the strongest throwing arm, so the onus fell upon on me.<\/p>\n
Since no one had ever seen Jake play ball and we knew that the stagnant poolroom was his athletic field, we decided that it was going to be a laugher.<\/p>\n
Willie draped the topcoat and two suits over the newspaper stand outside the candy store.<\/p>\n
The boys crowded around the sides of the sewer lid in the middle of the street. This was the throwing point. A coin toss indicated that I was to go first.<\/p>\n
With the orange squeezed tightly in my left hand, I ran towards the sewer and released it.<\/p>\n
The orange sailed down E. 172 St., past Minford Pl., and then hit a second-floor fire escape on the building to the left. It splattered onto the vertical cast iron railings. Surely, it would have gone further had it not hit the fire escape.<\/p>\n
Now, it was Jakes turn. He ran towards the sewer, released the orange and to everyone\u2019s surprise, it soared through the air and landed just past the intersection on Minford Pl.<\/p>\n
The anticipated argument followed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fire escape didn\u2019t move. The orange on the fire escape is way ahead of Jake\u2019s orange.<\/p>\n
To which Willy replied,<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fire escape doesn\u2019t count, it\u2019s not in the street.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the squabbling was going on, Willy left dashed up the hill to the newsstand. He grabbed his cashmere, while Monty, trailing behind him took the suits.<\/p>\n
Willy declined a tiebreaker.<\/p>\n
From Seabury Pl.: A Bronx Memoir <\/em>by Daniel Wolfe<\/p>\n danielwolfebooks@aol.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A Tale of Two Oranges The Bronx August 1946 The bright August sunlight awoke two hibernating regulars in Pop\u2019s poolroom at the corner of Boston Rd. and Southern Blvd. Their greenish-yellow complexions announced that they hadn\u2019t had a gulp of fresh air in months. They removed a topcoat from a nearby pool table then sped… Continue reading Two Oranges<\/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-3186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3186"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3788,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3186\/revisions\/3788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}