The Boys Visit The Old Neighborhood<\/p>\n
The boys moved to Westchester County after they came of age and married in the Bronx.<\/p>\n
“Let’s go and see what our old neighborhood looks like after all these years.”<\/p>\n
\u201cWho\u2019s driving?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought you said you were.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo. I\u2019m low on gas.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were always low on gas. Even when we lived there sixty years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAlways low on gas? You didn\u2019t even have a car when we lived there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t need a car. The Boston Road trolley took me to the Morrisania library.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh. The library. An intellectual. That\u2019s why I never saw you at our stickball games.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cStickball? Where did it get you? Braking on top of a speeding freight car.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd where did the library get you? Standing in front of a tub with corrosive chemicals slithering down your throat..\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAt least it got me a car.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, but low on gas.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCome on you guys, stop the the combat. I can\u2019t wait to see what happened to our neighborhood. Come on, get in.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s with this car? No air-conditioning? I started sweating as soon as I sat down.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou want to get out and walk home?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll stay, but I\u2019ll have to open a window.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe window on your side doesn\u2019t work. I\u2019ll open my window.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYour window is nowhere near me. My t-shirt is soaked with sweat.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHey, you guys, are we going to the neighborhood or do you want to stay here and attack each other?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe started it with his nasty, \u201clow on gas.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cClose the door and both of you shut up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s this? The Dover Theater is a Pentecostal church?\u201d It was one of the first air-conditioned theaters in the Bronx, Cool as a Pool<\/em> they advertised.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, Cool as a Pool, but this car is as hot as grill.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnother word out of you and I\u2019ll shove you out and into this dangerous neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGo another block, opposite Hermann Ridder.”<\/p>\n \u201cWhat is this? Where are the tenements? Only the New House has remained.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow did my 1540 tenement shrink into a ranch house?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBoy, are you stupid. Didn\u2019t you read how President Carter came here and said this area must be demolished?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHey! Speaking of read, remember when Peanzy\u2019s father was reading the dictionary and we would ask him what letter he was up to?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe bought the candy store and sold it to Refugee Jack.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh, remember, the ditty I wrote, \u201cRefugee Jack, The Sex Maniac\u201d<\/p>\n Refugee Jack’s\u00a0A sex maniac \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0There’s no such thing as a piece of dreck \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0To Jack, Jack the sex maniac.<\/p>\n “Stop! Your voice is getting me nautious.”<\/p>\n \u201cWhat went on in there could have sold out performances on Broadway.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat a cast. Fat Anne and Flat Anne, Strictly, Gravel Gertie, The Creep, The Rail, Trench Feet, The Bandit, Gums, The Mask, The Nose.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYeah. I could see Cecil B. DeMille lining them up for another \u201cspectacular\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019d have to improvise. They\u2019re so senile now that they’d never remember their lines.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what would make it a \u201cspectacular\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t take this anymore. This isn’t the \u00a0Bronx that we knew. Drive down a few blocks to see where the Czar of Jennings Street,\u00a0Jake the Pickleman once fired insults at the speed of a burp gun<\/p>\n .\u201cHe was killed.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow do you know?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf you bought a newspaper and read it, you too would know.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sick of the insults. We\u2019re going home.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Boys Visit The Old Neighborhood The boys moved to Westchester County after they came of age and married in the Bronx. “Let’s go and see what our old neighborhood looks like after all these years.” \u201cWho\u2019s driving?\u201d \u201cI thought you said you were.\u201d \u201cNo. I\u2019m low on gas.\u201d \u201cYou were always low on gas.… Continue reading The Boys Visit The Old Neighborhood<\/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-3517","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\/3517","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=3517"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4116,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3517\/revisions\/4116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}