Tonite I was watching the film The Hustler. The all-time best film centering around the game of pool ( pocket billiards). The movie puts you in a world of seediness, gambling, hustling, sleeziness, and the psychology involved in this hustling world of a game of skill. Anyway, if you haven't seen this film, see it. Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason amazing.
So this inspired me to add a post to my blog. I haven't written in ages. For all I know I already wrote about this stuff.
When we reached 15 years old we started to go to Murray's pool room. You had to be 16 years old to get in. I am not sure if that was a law or not. We all had phoney proof to get in. Usually a whited out birth certificate copy. Murray's aka Biltmore Billiards was located above the Biltmore movie theatre. That was on New Lots Ave. and Wyona St. in East New York. The proprietor was Murray "Bilty" Finkelstein. His son Moe, was the football coach of Thomas Jefferson High School. Football champs in NYC many times.
My memory fails me as to what the business hours of Murray's were. But if you got there a half hour before the opening, you could carry the big block of ice upstairs. Yes, he had an icebox. That kept sodas cold. Refrigerators were available. Actually right across the street from Bressner's. But Murray was old school, and old, and he had an ice box. If you were lucky enough to carry the ice upstairs, you got a half-hour free time on the pool table. The cost back then was 80 cents an hour.
The tables were all lined up in a row, close to each other. They were also close on one end to the wooden wall. Up front where Murray sat, were two billiard tables. The better players loved billiards. No pockets 3 balls, tough game. I think at this pool room, the best players were Giff who made the most difficult shots imaginable. Dave the Rave who played amazingly good position. So who was the better player? Hard to say. Shotsy was also great, as was Mel the Window-washer, and Manny ( who I still see every once in awhile). Manny collects pool tables and can run 60 balls.
You could hear the sound of balls clacking. It was a sound I loved. That mixed with the scoring beads banging into each other. It was an old style pool room. It had old tables and no score keeping thing on the tables. We used wood beads on a wire, with a big bead indicating every 5th bead. The beads was used to score straight pool. All that background sound was joined in by people shouting out " Time on Bilty" or "Time off Bilty". There were lots of hustlers trying to get you into a game of rotation or 8 balls. We liked to play rotation when there were 4 of us. the person who sunk the 1 ball and the person who sunk the 5 ball were a team. The first team to get 60 points wins ( add up numbers on the balls)... 5.8.10. and 15 balls were money balls. If you sunk those you got paid for those plus if you win the game.
The tables were in good shape, all green felt, none of this crazy colored felt. Playboy Billiards downtown Brooklyn near Nevins St and Flatbush, had modern tables with colored felt and score keepers on the table. They also also allowed women to play. Murray's, didn't allow women in the pool room.They claimed it was because they only had one toilet, a Men's room. Although, I remember at one point two or three women were allowed in. Leona, Susan with the Mustang and one other. Not exactly the girls you would bring home to mama. But I liked them. They didn't play pool they just hung out.
Giff was a Murrays celebrity, not just because he was a great pool player, but he was very wild, and pretty hilarious. Crazy Lazer was another celebrity, a lot older than we were, he was famous because he did 20 years in Dannamura prison for murder or something. He was small and didn't look dangerous but his eyes had a cold, murderous look. Quite often, some New Lots Boys would play pool there. I forget who, but Joey Jet, Arnie Mandel, Sandy "sick"Schmidt, Jimmy BigHead, others played there and fights would happen. One time this glue sniffing Larry aka Dobey Dolan, got in a fight with a guy outside. He had a good move, he threw his jacket over the guys head and started pounding him. While in the pool room, a good weapon, if need be was the butt end of a pool cue. Super hard wood.
Another celeb was Izzy Knish. Izzy was older, and was a bit mentally challenged. He was harmless and a nice guy. He kind of humiliated himself all the time, to be liked by the guys. Out on Wyona Street Izzy would do a soft shoe shuffle and sing Moon Over Miami. And everyone would throw quarters at his feet. And Izzy would say, "how about more quarters for Izzy".
Murrays was where we hangout when we cut out of school. I played pool mostly with Moony, Jackie, Fuzzy, and Fish or Fatsy. But it varied a lot, depending on who was around,,,,I was a mediocre pool player,,, I think the most balls I ever ran was like 8 but I told people 14.
Curly's pool room was closer to Jefferson High School. They had a boxing ring in the back, and amateur boxers would fight and people would bet. Curly's had a mostly Hispanic clientele. But we liked to play there. It was 10 cents cheaper an hour than Murray's, only 70 cents an hour. They had two Snooker tables. These were longer than regular pool tables and the balls were smaller. 9 ball was a popular game at curly's. More room between tables. At Murray;s you had to take one of the short cues if you were on one side of the table because a regular size cue would hit the wall. Curly's also had the beads, and the hanging lights over the tables. When you left Curly's your hands would be filthy, as the felt was rarely cleaned. My friend Fuzzy liked the convenience of Curly's, since he worked at Fortunoff's. Fortunoff became a famous department store in Westbury and on 57th street in Manhattan, but Maxy Fortunoff started with pushcarts on Livonia Ave. Later moved into stores. He had about 7 stores, all next to each other, House wares, Healthcare, Bedding, etc After years a suspicious fire happened and the insurance help build the giant Westbury Dept store. He hired a guy as VP who was in a gang called the Monks and then in New Lots Boys. He saw potential in him.
Curly's was actually in Brownsville as it was on Livonia and Alabama. the far Pennsylvania Ave stop on the New Lots train #2 or 7 or something ,,, we called it the IRT 7th ave. Murray's was closer to the Van Siclen Ave stop, but it wasn't that far from Pennsylvania Ave.
Joe's pool room was on New Lots Ave. and a lot of tough guys , wise guys, hung out there.
Sometimes we would play at Marions on Eastern Parkway near Nostrand, or go into the city and play at Julian's on 14th street, or Ames. We also played near Kings Highway, a pool room with an Italian name ( can't think of it). Later on I knew people from Queens played at Golden Cue. Lots of great pool players there. My friend Tom the Sailor hustled there.
The movie brought back great memories of great times, at the pool room. Over the movie theatre that became a Church. We used to see two movies, and 5 cartoons every Saturday. Walk in to the movie that was halfway over, sit past the end and see it up to the part where we came in. People yelling at the screen. Folding popcorn boxes and throwing them into the projector light at the screen. The theaters were super dark then, so when you opened the door in daytime to let your friends in for free, the light was blinding. The matrons and ushers were mean, and had flashlights, and if you smoked in other than the last 10 rows, they would throw you out. After the movie we would go to Nino's for a great slice of pizza or a veal cutlet sandwich. Nino's was a great place. When we were younger we would stop at Judy's Sweet Shoppe for candy to bring into the theatre, since it was cheaper. Sandy would buy chicken corn aka candy corn, I would get the chocolate babies or jelly beans. The good old days.
Tuesday, November 27, 2018
Saturday, January 13, 2018
Doo Wop talk
Nothing like the sound of harmony. I think it was Billy Joel who made the song Lookin' for an echo.
Well that's what we did a lot. It was pretty easy in the projects to find an echo. You just went into the hallway and started singing. Until of course someone reported you to the Housing Police and then they'd chase you away.
Hitting Harmony or Chimin' off , you'd say " hit a note" Baaaa, that was me much of the time. I was mostly a baritone. Although with Al and the Candlelights I was officially the base.
That was me, Fuzzy, Mass, Lil Wick and Big Wick. Our demo record was My Girl ( the flip side of Babalu's wedding day). I had a great base part. A cross between the 4 disks bass and the Marcells.
I one of the best groups I sang with , We were the Escapades, me, Mass, and Woody, Moony on the lead. So many mixes of people that sang together.
A memorable night was singing baratone with Elk hitting 2nd tenor, Woody hitting 1st, Moony was bass and Wendy sang lead. Wendy sang lead for The Holidays. We sang When We Get Married by the Dreamlovers at Elk's house. It sounded amazing. Elk erased the tape. I think he was jealous of Wendy's lead.
Elk always sang lead when we did 40's songs like Chattanooga Choo Choo. Anyway, we had another group called Johnny and The Pumps. Me Johnny, Rigget, Moony, and Woody. We even had a manager Frank. Somehow he was hooked up with the Emotions. It was a funny group. Rigget had a heavy Brooklyn accent,,, when we sang Sunday Kind of Love he would say True instead of Through. " I'm true with my old love I loved her true and true" it was pretty hilarious.
Me and Chupper could hit harmony wthout chiming off. We knew each others notes. Me Stanley Chupper and Wein sang at Geno's kids wedding,,,, In the bathroom. Sounded good.
Songs we sang were Fine Little Girl, This is My love, Closer you Are, Mexico, Please say you want me, Sunday kind of love,
Wine Wine Wine, Roaches, some songs by the Tymes. So many good tunes.
We often would just sing background. Bom Bo Bom Shoobee doo wah, Doo wop dit dee,
We all could recognize a song by the first note. I could picture Moony, always snapping his fingers and moving in time with the beat. Singing was amazing if everyone hit the right notes.
Quite often, when we were like 15, we would want some wine. We would call it Singing Juice. We would pay this older guy Chan a quarter and he would buy us some Areba or Thunderbird for like 90 Cents. That stuff got you messed up, but you could hit some high notes.
There are other stories about drinking too much wine, and it didn't go over too well with my parents.
We used to hit harmony up at Curly's with these guys Fosta and Domenech , They were on an album produced by Al Brown. They were Johnny and the Moonlights. One night we went to see them and the Caravelles at this Church in Bushwick. It was pretty scary. Me , Moony, Jackie, Woody, were the only white guys in the place,,,, The Caravelles sang some Smoky Robinson songs. They were amazing. The lead singer was Speedo from the Impalas. They made Sorry, I ran all the way home,,,,, I thought I'd have to run all the way home... It was an exciting night,,,and we made it out of there without getting in any trouble.
Anyway, Doo Wop is so awesome,,,I know it's kind of dead, but things are coming back. Hipsters are wearing tight pants that are above the ankles. Reminiscent of the early 60s.
So Goodnite Sweet Heart, well it's Time to go ,,,,,,,,,,
Well that's what we did a lot. It was pretty easy in the projects to find an echo. You just went into the hallway and started singing. Until of course someone reported you to the Housing Police and then they'd chase you away.
Hitting Harmony or Chimin' off , you'd say " hit a note" Baaaa, that was me much of the time. I was mostly a baritone. Although with Al and the Candlelights I was officially the base.
That was me, Fuzzy, Mass, Lil Wick and Big Wick. Our demo record was My Girl ( the flip side of Babalu's wedding day). I had a great base part. A cross between the 4 disks bass and the Marcells.
I one of the best groups I sang with , We were the Escapades, me, Mass, and Woody, Moony on the lead. So many mixes of people that sang together.
A memorable night was singing baratone with Elk hitting 2nd tenor, Woody hitting 1st, Moony was bass and Wendy sang lead. Wendy sang lead for The Holidays. We sang When We Get Married by the Dreamlovers at Elk's house. It sounded amazing. Elk erased the tape. I think he was jealous of Wendy's lead.
Elk always sang lead when we did 40's songs like Chattanooga Choo Choo. Anyway, we had another group called Johnny and The Pumps. Me Johnny, Rigget, Moony, and Woody. We even had a manager Frank. Somehow he was hooked up with the Emotions. It was a funny group. Rigget had a heavy Brooklyn accent,,, when we sang Sunday Kind of Love he would say True instead of Through. " I'm true with my old love I loved her true and true" it was pretty hilarious.
Me and Chupper could hit harmony wthout chiming off. We knew each others notes. Me Stanley Chupper and Wein sang at Geno's kids wedding,,,, In the bathroom. Sounded good.
Songs we sang were Fine Little Girl, This is My love, Closer you Are, Mexico, Please say you want me, Sunday kind of love,
Wine Wine Wine, Roaches, some songs by the Tymes. So many good tunes.
We often would just sing background. Bom Bo Bom Shoobee doo wah, Doo wop dit dee,
We all could recognize a song by the first note. I could picture Moony, always snapping his fingers and moving in time with the beat. Singing was amazing if everyone hit the right notes.
Quite often, when we were like 15, we would want some wine. We would call it Singing Juice. We would pay this older guy Chan a quarter and he would buy us some Areba or Thunderbird for like 90 Cents. That stuff got you messed up, but you could hit some high notes.
There are other stories about drinking too much wine, and it didn't go over too well with my parents.
We used to hit harmony up at Curly's with these guys Fosta and Domenech , They were on an album produced by Al Brown. They were Johnny and the Moonlights. One night we went to see them and the Caravelles at this Church in Bushwick. It was pretty scary. Me , Moony, Jackie, Woody, were the only white guys in the place,,,, The Caravelles sang some Smoky Robinson songs. They were amazing. The lead singer was Speedo from the Impalas. They made Sorry, I ran all the way home,,,,, I thought I'd have to run all the way home... It was an exciting night,,,and we made it out of there without getting in any trouble.
Anyway, Doo Wop is so awesome,,,I know it's kind of dead, but things are coming back. Hipsters are wearing tight pants that are above the ankles. Reminiscent of the early 60s.
So Goodnite Sweet Heart, well it's Time to go ,,,,,,,,,,
Friday, January 6, 2017
Skelly and Jeans in ENY
it's been so long, I have no idea what i'm gonna write about. Probably something I already wrote , but who cares.
We used to play Skelly, or in the Bronx they called it Skully. I guess the both names make sense, since there were skulls or skeleton heads in the center of the chalk drawn court.
A big square was drawn on the Ground. I forget what you would call the ground, it wasn't a sidewalk. It was a wide path, paved with gravel. No cracks like sidewalks have. We would take chalk, everyone always had chalk available. Draw the big square and then 8 numbered boxes on the corners and sides.
in the middle was the 9 box , surrounded by 3 skeleton boxes. The idea was to shoot your checker into the 9 boxes in consecutive order. Then into all the skull boxes and then you shoot for killer onesy. Once you were a killer, you would try to hit the other players' checkers and they would be knocked out of the game.
You could always tell who was a skelly player , because they usually had holes in the knees of their jeans. Mothers kept busy sewing patches on jeans They even had iron on denim patches for lazy mothers who couldn't sew. My mom was a great sewer and had a Singer sewing machine.
Nowadays, they sell jeans with premade holes in the, we worked for our holy pants.
The checkers, they were soda bottle caps. They weren't like the new kind, they were like beer tops, the ones we use a bottle opener to get them off. However, you didn't want to use those caps because the opener would bend them. We would go to the coke machine where people would buy a bottle and open it right there. Those were called "smoothies". Some people had beer key openers and those made smoothies also. Now back in the day, bottle caps were lined with corks. An excellent checker was made by taking the cork out of one and doubling up another one , hence "double corker".
Triple corker was the most you could do. You would then stick thumb tacks in them , for color, design, weight and to hold the corks down. Do people still know what thumbtacks are?
My favorite checkers were crayon or wax checkers. We we would melt different color crayons into the caps. THey looked the coolest. Finally there were clay checkers. Clay was a household item back then, we took clay and filled the checker. It was heavy and could blast someone far. Or if someone was ready to blast you , you could switch checkers, put the clay side down, now you were pretty hard to move if hit.
It was a great game, and I fondly remember my ripped knee Wrangler jeans. Btw, wranglers were the best. they faded just right. Lee was popular but stayed dark blue, kinda sucked. Then there were no name brands, those weren't cool at all.
Oh yeah, we wore black leather belts, maybe 2/12 inches wide, with square brass buckles. They called them Garrison belts. Some of us used to try to sharpen the corners of the buckle, in case of a belt fight, you could do more harm. If you were "cool" you wore the buckle on the side, never right in front. Sometimes we would hang rabbits feet from the loops, or some kind of puzzle.
Motorcycle jackets were in fashion, and they had a lot of zippers to hang rabits feet from.
To get even more fashionable, we would go over to Carl's Motorcycle Shop and buy studs. We would put studs on our jackets and belts. Star shaped studs were common and round pointed ones.
We wore cuffs on our jeans back then too.
Depending on what age group, styles changed. Around age 11 we would hang at Lou's stable, We wore cowboy boots there, with our Wranglers. We would walk the horses to cool them off and get free riding time. We'd have to shovel horseshit also. My favorite horse then was Blackie, that horse would move without even kicking it. The horse I felt bad for was Rosie Buckin'. The horse was more like a pony, and she hated to run. But she would buck. Sometimes some mean older guys would ride her and hit her with sticks or pipes to make her run.. That sucked. Ayrab was another slow one but a big reddish horse. We would ride them out into the lots, the weeds the swamps. Down to the beach along Jamaica Bay. It was a lot of fun.
So , i'll end here, for now and hopefully get back into the swing of bloggin' again.
We used to play Skelly, or in the Bronx they called it Skully. I guess the both names make sense, since there were skulls or skeleton heads in the center of the chalk drawn court.
A big square was drawn on the Ground. I forget what you would call the ground, it wasn't a sidewalk. It was a wide path, paved with gravel. No cracks like sidewalks have. We would take chalk, everyone always had chalk available. Draw the big square and then 8 numbered boxes on the corners and sides.
in the middle was the 9 box , surrounded by 3 skeleton boxes. The idea was to shoot your checker into the 9 boxes in consecutive order. Then into all the skull boxes and then you shoot for killer onesy. Once you were a killer, you would try to hit the other players' checkers and they would be knocked out of the game.
You could always tell who was a skelly player , because they usually had holes in the knees of their jeans. Mothers kept busy sewing patches on jeans They even had iron on denim patches for lazy mothers who couldn't sew. My mom was a great sewer and had a Singer sewing machine.
Nowadays, they sell jeans with premade holes in the, we worked for our holy pants.
The checkers, they were soda bottle caps. They weren't like the new kind, they were like beer tops, the ones we use a bottle opener to get them off. However, you didn't want to use those caps because the opener would bend them. We would go to the coke machine where people would buy a bottle and open it right there. Those were called "smoothies". Some people had beer key openers and those made smoothies also. Now back in the day, bottle caps were lined with corks. An excellent checker was made by taking the cork out of one and doubling up another one , hence "double corker".
Triple corker was the most you could do. You would then stick thumb tacks in them , for color, design, weight and to hold the corks down. Do people still know what thumbtacks are?
My favorite checkers were crayon or wax checkers. We we would melt different color crayons into the caps. THey looked the coolest. Finally there were clay checkers. Clay was a household item back then, we took clay and filled the checker. It was heavy and could blast someone far. Or if someone was ready to blast you , you could switch checkers, put the clay side down, now you were pretty hard to move if hit.
It was a great game, and I fondly remember my ripped knee Wrangler jeans. Btw, wranglers were the best. they faded just right. Lee was popular but stayed dark blue, kinda sucked. Then there were no name brands, those weren't cool at all.
Oh yeah, we wore black leather belts, maybe 2/12 inches wide, with square brass buckles. They called them Garrison belts. Some of us used to try to sharpen the corners of the buckle, in case of a belt fight, you could do more harm. If you were "cool" you wore the buckle on the side, never right in front. Sometimes we would hang rabbits feet from the loops, or some kind of puzzle.
Motorcycle jackets were in fashion, and they had a lot of zippers to hang rabits feet from.
To get even more fashionable, we would go over to Carl's Motorcycle Shop and buy studs. We would put studs on our jackets and belts. Star shaped studs were common and round pointed ones.
We wore cuffs on our jeans back then too.
Depending on what age group, styles changed. Around age 11 we would hang at Lou's stable, We wore cowboy boots there, with our Wranglers. We would walk the horses to cool them off and get free riding time. We'd have to shovel horseshit also. My favorite horse then was Blackie, that horse would move without even kicking it. The horse I felt bad for was Rosie Buckin'. The horse was more like a pony, and she hated to run. But she would buck. Sometimes some mean older guys would ride her and hit her with sticks or pipes to make her run.. That sucked. Ayrab was another slow one but a big reddish horse. We would ride them out into the lots, the weeds the swamps. Down to the beach along Jamaica Bay. It was a lot of fun.
So , i'll end here, for now and hopefully get back into the swing of bloggin' again.
Thursday, May 7, 2015
New Film out The Seven Five ( 75th precinct)
I have to see this film about the 75th precinct in ENY. About corrupt cops there. The 75th precinct moved their station house from Miller Ave in the 70s.. The reason was because the neighborhood was too bad, even for the cops.
http://nypost.com/2015/05/06/corrupt-cop-doc-the-seven-five-is-a-must-see/
http://nypost.com/2015/05/06/corrupt-cop-doc-the-seven-five-is-a-must-see/
Monday, January 12, 2015
Pot Smoking in East New York
Back in the 50's in East New York there was a marijuana bust. Most people didn't even know what that stuff was. Some guy was growing pot back in the woods behind the Projects. We called the woods Sherwood Forest. There were quanset huts or we called them Barracks, that went from East New York to Canarsie. There were goats, and farms. Starrett City now is where Sherwood Forest once was. So they burnt the guys pot field. Years later when we knew what pot was we would be amazed that this stuff was growing in our neighborhood. Around 1963 or 1964 pot started in East New York. It didn't really start but it became popular amongst "cool" people, so to speak. There was one known ex-junkie in the neighborhood. He was a graduate of Synonon, the heroin rehab center. Perhaps the only in the US ( maybe). I don't want to divulge names on that, but he was famous for starting people smoking pot. His name started with a D, that 's all i'm saying. So this pot smoking started before Hippies started. What was funny , it was "tough guys" that were smoking the stuff. Not all of them. It started a division between the ones that did and the ones that didn't. In those days they didn't sell rolling papers.
You had to buy a bag of tobacco and it came with rolling papers inside. There were two brands that had papers. Bugler was one, that you settled for if you couldn't get the main brand. The main brand was Top. It took no time to figure out that Top spelled Pot backwards. Bambu and EZ Wide and Rizla didn't come for years later. The joints people rolled were like toothpicks. People would buy nickel bags ( $5), I think it got 20 of those skinny joints. It also had seeds in it. Since it was a new thing people would smoke in the streets, in parents houses, anywhere and non-smokers wouldn't have any idea what was going on. Yes, they heard a lot of giggles. Some scoundrels would rip off people and sell them lipton tea or oregano and tell them it was pot. Remember this was early on, and people were new to it. By late 1964-65 we were moving from DooWop to the Beatles and Bob Dylan. The best pot that you either could get or heard about was Panama Red, Acapulco Gold. There was Black Pot, and Chiba Chiba that was supposedly from Africa. There was a Black guy named Kelly, that had pot named after him "Kelly Red". People would call pot Tea ( because it looked or smelled like tea burning), or Boo. The Rolling Stones mention the word Boo in their song 19th Nervous Breakdown."when you were in school and you had that boo it really messed your mind,,,", many songs had hidden meanings about pot. Tambourine Man by Dylan was a favorite. Puff the Magic Dragon was another. It was days of censorship. The Rolling Stones were on Ed Sullivan show and had to change the words in a song "Let's spend a night together" to Let's spend some time together" ,,, It was hard to mention pot in the songs. It wasn't until a couple of years later, like 1967 when Beatles and Joe Cocker did " I get high with a little help from my friends"... Yeah yeah I know pot smoking was going on in Harlem. In the 40's and 50's, ,it didn't all start in East New York in the 60's. But it became popular then. Then California hippie migration started. People learned to roll huge "Cali joints" They stopped putting "roaches" in cigarettes after emptying out the tobacco, and created "roach clips" I knew a guy Davey who started a business making soapstone carved roach holders. Great carvings. I carved a few too . i still have one or two i think carved into heads. What's interesting is the early days of pot, brought people together , like a clan or family. You would say " are you a head". It was like a clandestine group. Of course then by 1967, the world went wild with drugs in general. East New York was loaded with junkies and pill heads. People you knew who were great athletes would be found in alleys dead. The gangs fights between Black and Whites kind of ended when the junkies started. What happened was the Blacks and Whites started to do heroin together. It was probably one of the only good things heroin did , was bring people together ...Of course eventually they would rob each other and kill each other or themselves. Bad stuff. Anyway, there was also the other crowd that did LSD, and those that did Speed, which the motto Speed Kills was very popular. As it really did kill people. So, anyway, by 1965 ( going back) Hashish started to be known. It was much stronger than pot. They had many kinds. Red Lebanese, Black Pakistan Slabs, Red Afghani, and the best was Black Nepalese with white mold on it, also their Nepalese temple balls. Some guys in college smuggled a lot of Kif, back from Morocco stashed in a VW van. These days, and i don't indulge, just for the record. Pot is much stronger than back in the day. Its hard to imagine that it is stronger than nepalese hash, and I still have my doubts. But it became more sophisticated. And now its' not the "cool" people who smoke the stuff. It's the people who were called the "straight" people, the suit people, doctors, soldiers, murderers, artists, all sorts.
So there ya go, what was once a cult thing is now mainstream, and is legal in so many states. As the world turns . I guess my generation is finally running the world. it was bound to happen. And Its a good thing. I'm not advocating pot, but if cigarettes and alcohol are legal, why shouldn't pot be.
It keeps a lot of people happy.
You had to buy a bag of tobacco and it came with rolling papers inside. There were two brands that had papers. Bugler was one, that you settled for if you couldn't get the main brand. The main brand was Top. It took no time to figure out that Top spelled Pot backwards. Bambu and EZ Wide and Rizla didn't come for years later. The joints people rolled were like toothpicks. People would buy nickel bags ( $5), I think it got 20 of those skinny joints. It also had seeds in it. Since it was a new thing people would smoke in the streets, in parents houses, anywhere and non-smokers wouldn't have any idea what was going on. Yes, they heard a lot of giggles. Some scoundrels would rip off people and sell them lipton tea or oregano and tell them it was pot. Remember this was early on, and people were new to it. By late 1964-65 we were moving from DooWop to the Beatles and Bob Dylan. The best pot that you either could get or heard about was Panama Red, Acapulco Gold. There was Black Pot, and Chiba Chiba that was supposedly from Africa. There was a Black guy named Kelly, that had pot named after him "Kelly Red". People would call pot Tea ( because it looked or smelled like tea burning), or Boo. The Rolling Stones mention the word Boo in their song 19th Nervous Breakdown."when you were in school and you had that boo it really messed your mind,,,", many songs had hidden meanings about pot. Tambourine Man by Dylan was a favorite. Puff the Magic Dragon was another. It was days of censorship. The Rolling Stones were on Ed Sullivan show and had to change the words in a song "Let's spend a night together" to Let's spend some time together" ,,, It was hard to mention pot in the songs. It wasn't until a couple of years later, like 1967 when Beatles and Joe Cocker did " I get high with a little help from my friends"... Yeah yeah I know pot smoking was going on in Harlem. In the 40's and 50's, ,it didn't all start in East New York in the 60's. But it became popular then. Then California hippie migration started. People learned to roll huge "Cali joints" They stopped putting "roaches" in cigarettes after emptying out the tobacco, and created "roach clips" I knew a guy Davey who started a business making soapstone carved roach holders. Great carvings. I carved a few too . i still have one or two i think carved into heads. What's interesting is the early days of pot, brought people together , like a clan or family. You would say " are you a head". It was like a clandestine group. Of course then by 1967, the world went wild with drugs in general. East New York was loaded with junkies and pill heads. People you knew who were great athletes would be found in alleys dead. The gangs fights between Black and Whites kind of ended when the junkies started. What happened was the Blacks and Whites started to do heroin together. It was probably one of the only good things heroin did , was bring people together ...Of course eventually they would rob each other and kill each other or themselves. Bad stuff. Anyway, there was also the other crowd that did LSD, and those that did Speed, which the motto Speed Kills was very popular. As it really did kill people. So, anyway, by 1965 ( going back) Hashish started to be known. It was much stronger than pot. They had many kinds. Red Lebanese, Black Pakistan Slabs, Red Afghani, and the best was Black Nepalese with white mold on it, also their Nepalese temple balls. Some guys in college smuggled a lot of Kif, back from Morocco stashed in a VW van. These days, and i don't indulge, just for the record. Pot is much stronger than back in the day. Its hard to imagine that it is stronger than nepalese hash, and I still have my doubts. But it became more sophisticated. And now its' not the "cool" people who smoke the stuff. It's the people who were called the "straight" people, the suit people, doctors, soldiers, murderers, artists, all sorts.
So there ya go, what was once a cult thing is now mainstream, and is legal in so many states. As the world turns . I guess my generation is finally running the world. it was bound to happen. And Its a good thing. I'm not advocating pot, but if cigarettes and alcohol are legal, why shouldn't pot be.
It keeps a lot of people happy.
Monday, December 22, 2014
College Days
It was a crazy day at Stony Brook University, in G dorm. I had just bought a new Czechoslovakian Motorcycle, a Jawa. It was a big engine, but the frame was big , so you felt like you were riding a heavy duty bike. A few of us had bikes, and we rode thru the woods and along the railroad tracks and ended up inside of Nuclear Power Plant property. Trespassers I think they shoot them.
Well we were certainly trespassers. Riding thru these woods i hit a few trees and knocked by foot pedal off, but it didn't serve much of a purpose anyway. We were amazed that we fell upon such a hidden secret area. It was not more than 10 minutes that all sorts of government vehicles pulled up and made us get off the bikes, line up against the fence and question us. I guess we kind of looked Russian. And at that time, Russians could have been spies. Eventually they let us go with a warning. Meanwhile my bike didn't even have license plates on it. But managed to get away with that violation.
So we ride back to the college. Oh , I forgot to mention our bikes were loud. We took the baffles out of the muffler , and my friends Ducati had what they call a megaphone, making it growl even louder. We started riding around campus . Our dorm room was on the 2nd floor. We thought it would be cool to ride through the dorm halls with 4 loud bikes. So we did. It was surely loud. It was hilarious, scaring people just getting out of the shower , walking down the hall with a towel around them and a roaring motorcycle shoots by them. In the safety of their dorm. The guy in charge of the floor, the RA, chased us back outside. He was a good guy , so no worry there. Then it happened , a glorified Barney Fife or Wyatt Earp campus cop pulled us over , out in front of the dorms. He swaggered up to us with his leather jacket and boots., hands on his hips, sunglasses. You get the idea. Then he gives me the weirdest traffic ticket. It said " No License, No insurance, No muffler, No NOTHING!". Now that's a bizarre ticket.
Other bike antics were riding with 6 of us on one bike. pretty nuts. Or the time me and Marshall were riding to FIT( College in NYC), after we flunked out of Stoney Brook. There we were going down Flatbush Ave. They had just passed helmut laws , and we didn't have real helmets. we were wearing football helmets. We looked kind of funny. As we are riding, a big tractor trailer was crossing the intersection. We had recently seen Abbott and Costello ride under a truck with their motorcycle in some old movie. They were fine afterwards. So I look back at him, he was behind me, He looks at me. We both knew I was thinking of going under the truck. He taps me and says NO! So I listen, figuring he was a smart guy. And we stopped. We see under the trailer there is a bunch of metal stuff that would have stopped us. We would have been dead.
Then back in East New York, I'm riding the bike, me and my friends had bikes and we were doing that Marlon Brando circle thing. Just going round and round in little circles. Well, wouldn't ya know it, my bike slid out from under me, and got stuck under a car. Talk about embarrassing. And how the heck do you explain to anyone that your motorcycle is stuck under a car.
We used to sit up nights and talk about our motorcycle "gang" taking over Rhode Island, we didn't think that would be too difficult. Then we thought Grande Mesa Colorado, population 9 would be an easier task. We never made it there. We had dreams of buying a penguin, and training him. We were kind of weird kids and thought the penguin could hang with us and tell us what to do and stuff. And he'd be smoking cigars , His name was Max. Ok, it would have been Max, if we actually bought him.
We went down to a store on Wall St. called Treflich's Exotic Animals. We walked in and a dozen apes were going wild, They were shaking their cages, just going bizerk. We asked the guy, where's the penguins. So he showed us the only one he had. He said he didn't get much calls for penguins. The penguin was a big Emperor Penguin. It looked pretty cool. The manager guy said to us, ' you have to wash him down twice a day and fee him fish". "Watch your fingers because he will snap them off." Then he gave us the price , $275. We thought that was a bit steep for a penguin. And where will we keep him. So we left the place penguin less, but it did seem like a good idea.
I still love Penguins.
Well we were certainly trespassers. Riding thru these woods i hit a few trees and knocked by foot pedal off, but it didn't serve much of a purpose anyway. We were amazed that we fell upon such a hidden secret area. It was not more than 10 minutes that all sorts of government vehicles pulled up and made us get off the bikes, line up against the fence and question us. I guess we kind of looked Russian. And at that time, Russians could have been spies. Eventually they let us go with a warning. Meanwhile my bike didn't even have license plates on it. But managed to get away with that violation.
So we ride back to the college. Oh , I forgot to mention our bikes were loud. We took the baffles out of the muffler , and my friends Ducati had what they call a megaphone, making it growl even louder. We started riding around campus . Our dorm room was on the 2nd floor. We thought it would be cool to ride through the dorm halls with 4 loud bikes. So we did. It was surely loud. It was hilarious, scaring people just getting out of the shower , walking down the hall with a towel around them and a roaring motorcycle shoots by them. In the safety of their dorm. The guy in charge of the floor, the RA, chased us back outside. He was a good guy , so no worry there. Then it happened , a glorified Barney Fife or Wyatt Earp campus cop pulled us over , out in front of the dorms. He swaggered up to us with his leather jacket and boots., hands on his hips, sunglasses. You get the idea. Then he gives me the weirdest traffic ticket. It said " No License, No insurance, No muffler, No NOTHING!". Now that's a bizarre ticket.
Other bike antics were riding with 6 of us on one bike. pretty nuts. Or the time me and Marshall were riding to FIT( College in NYC), after we flunked out of Stoney Brook. There we were going down Flatbush Ave. They had just passed helmut laws , and we didn't have real helmets. we were wearing football helmets. We looked kind of funny. As we are riding, a big tractor trailer was crossing the intersection. We had recently seen Abbott and Costello ride under a truck with their motorcycle in some old movie. They were fine afterwards. So I look back at him, he was behind me, He looks at me. We both knew I was thinking of going under the truck. He taps me and says NO! So I listen, figuring he was a smart guy. And we stopped. We see under the trailer there is a bunch of metal stuff that would have stopped us. We would have been dead.
Then back in East New York, I'm riding the bike, me and my friends had bikes and we were doing that Marlon Brando circle thing. Just going round and round in little circles. Well, wouldn't ya know it, my bike slid out from under me, and got stuck under a car. Talk about embarrassing. And how the heck do you explain to anyone that your motorcycle is stuck under a car.
We used to sit up nights and talk about our motorcycle "gang" taking over Rhode Island, we didn't think that would be too difficult. Then we thought Grande Mesa Colorado, population 9 would be an easier task. We never made it there. We had dreams of buying a penguin, and training him. We were kind of weird kids and thought the penguin could hang with us and tell us what to do and stuff. And he'd be smoking cigars , His name was Max. Ok, it would have been Max, if we actually bought him.
We went down to a store on Wall St. called Treflich's Exotic Animals. We walked in and a dozen apes were going wild, They were shaking their cages, just going bizerk. We asked the guy, where's the penguins. So he showed us the only one he had. He said he didn't get much calls for penguins. The penguin was a big Emperor Penguin. It looked pretty cool. The manager guy said to us, ' you have to wash him down twice a day and fee him fish". "Watch your fingers because he will snap them off." Then he gave us the price , $275. We thought that was a bit steep for a penguin. And where will we keep him. So we left the place penguin less, but it did seem like a good idea.
I still love Penguins.
Happy Holidays
A Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukah and Happy New Year to you All.
The weirdest Christmas tree I ever had was decorated with motor oil cans and matchbooks.
The weirdest Christmas tree I ever had was decorated with motor oil cans and matchbooks.
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