"Want a bite?"
I looked at his purple gums plastered with coconuts flakes, felt my stomach roll, and declined Gully's offer. We stood in between the subway cars as the train pulled out of the Bliss Street station of the #7 line in Sunnyside where it never rained (a lie). We always stood in between cars on our way into Grand Central to catch the # 6 local downtown to LaSalle Academy. When the train curved, I had one leg on the platform of one car and my other leg on the second car. I'd be pulled apart then brought back together.
Gully's morning breakfast: Hostess Sno Balls and Nehi Grape Soda. Inside the cake was chocolate wood shavings. With his rotten teeth, purple gums plastered with feathers he looked like Sasquatch. I was sure he ate the combo to make sure no one would ask him to share. I was also sure that my odds of making new friends in Sunnyside were dim. My heart remained in Yorkville. But that first year of high school, September 1968 to June 1969, I rode the rails with these guys.
The subway is a large part of our life in New York City, Tonight @ 9pm on the Yorkville radio show at this Centanni link: http://www.centannibroadcasting.com/
My guest is Heidi Kole, the author of "The Subway Diaries." http://www.thesubwaydiaries.com/
Read a terrific review below, go to her link above, Heidi & I are going to have a great show. And I will read a Thanksgiving story, "Over the River, and Through the Potatoes," being published tomorrow.
"Heidi leads you on a guided tour through a subterranean world peopled by creative artists and sidewalk visionaries. Down winding tunnels and across gritty subway platforms, through her writing, both gritty and raw, she introduces you to an unforgettable
cast of characters, not the least of whom is Heidi herself..”
~ Pete Kennedy; guitarist, songwriter, and producer of The Kennedys
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Don't Sleep in the Subway!
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