"Mom I don't feel so good."
"What's a matter?"
"My belly hurts."
"How bad?
"Oh, I'm going to be sick."
OK, go back the bed."
Mom and me had a deal. If I kept my marks up she'd let me play hooky from St. Stephen's a few times each year. But we couldn't tell my brother.
After Rory went to school, I'd crawl into the living room and put the TV on and watch the Sandy Becker show. When Mom got comfortable with the idea of me being home, I'd loosen up and hang out in the kitchen with her for awhile before bringing all my possessions onto the fire escape.
The fire escape was my terrace, my Spaldeen, shoe boxes full of crap, magazines, baseball cards and plastic soldiers all came out with me. I'd stay on the fire escape till lunch then go back out for the rest of the afternoon. I'd sit on the metal stairs and dream that the backyard was a forest and I was watching all the action. Mom let me play music on Dad's Victrola right inside the window, we'd trade songs for a few hours. Mario Lanza, Madame Butterfly, Sinatra, Four Seasons. Dad would have killed us.
"What's a matter?"
"My belly hurts."
"How bad?
"Oh, I'm going to be sick."
OK, go back the bed."
Mom and me had a deal. If I kept my marks up she'd let me play hooky from St. Stephen's a few times each year. But we couldn't tell my brother.
After Rory went to school, I'd crawl into the living room and put the TV on and watch the Sandy Becker show. When Mom got comfortable with the idea of me being home, I'd loosen up and hang out in the kitchen with her for awhile before bringing all my possessions onto the fire escape.
The fire escape was my terrace, my Spaldeen, shoe boxes full of crap, magazines, baseball cards and plastic soldiers all came out with me. I'd stay on the fire escape till lunch then go back out for the rest of the afternoon. I'd sit on the metal stairs and dream that the backyard was a forest and I was watching all the action. Mom let me play music on Dad's Victrola right inside the window, we'd trade songs for a few hours. Mario Lanza, Madame Butterfly, Sinatra, Four Seasons. Dad would have killed us.
Do you like old New York City photos and stories? Then check out my 1960s memoir,"I Hate the Dallas Cowboys - tales of a scrappy New York boyhood."Available at Logos Book Store and online at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.
The book has 110 Amazon five star reviews out of 110 total reviews posted. We're pitching a perfect game. My old world echoes TV's "The Wonder Years" ~ just add taverns, subways and Checker cabs.
You can also purchase my photography portfolio, "River to River - New York Scenes From a Bicycle" on Amazon.
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