New York City - Lower East Side -Part 1 (Short Story) - 7/4/2014 4:22:47 AM
enjoyed reading your informative narrative
I look forward to reading more of your work.
m
New York City - Lower East Side - Part 2 (Short Story) - 1/31/2014 7:49:51 AM
Reads like a jungle, all right. My experience in the bad part of town was certainly not that bad, although we did have a brush with the police when we were seven, picking up butts and smoking between buildings off an alley where we had a fire to light our cigarettes and it caught some sawdust smoldering and we couldn't put it out… The fire department did. The scare I got by being picked up by the police set me on the path of right after that. I took all the blame for our neighbor's son (a dentist and a hold out from when the neighborhood was better) and my brother, as the instigator.
There were always fights going on and there were a lot of switchblades and other knives, but I generally stayed out of fights by running or avoiding thugs because I was small, wiry and fast, but not strong. My mother had to re-sew many buttons onto my shirts on patches where previous buttons had pulled chunks of my shirt out with the buttons. I always got away from these big guys wanting to put a hurt on me. When I did fight, it was quick and punishing, but I would leave immediately and not kick anyone when they were down. That's the way my dad was, and that's probably where I got that behavior.
Ron
New York City - Lower East Side -Part 1 (Short Story) - 1/30/2014 7:14:39 AM
A gripping excerpt from your memoir. I saw the video for Wallace Park and it is wonderfully presented. Makes one want to read the book. I am a twin, too, and spent my elementary school years in a "bad" neighborhood, but nothing like Hells Kitchen. I would agree that experiences like that shape character and make us all much stronger.
It looks like your book has had a tremendous good start and potentially could be a movie.
Ron
