CHAPTER 30 - The Hardware Store

CHAPTER 30 - The Hardware Store - Yorkville (Revised/Edited Jan. 23, 2015)

Growing up in the '40s - ' WHERE ARE THEY NOW '

Inspired by a TRUE LIFE STORY with a tweak of comedy

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There were so many friends that I had back on 88th street in Yorkville - the German Town of Manhattan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yorkville,_Manhattan

There was Ralph Dunning, Neil Wortman, Mike Sweeney, MaryEllen Sweeney (sister), Clearey, Joey (Bozo), and my first girl friend Sylvia Schneider, the list goes on and on but these were my closest friends....again I repeat the title above....." Where are they now...? "

Ralph Dunning had told me that his Dad who was a boxer in his younger days had once boxed Max Schmeling and actual knocked him down.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Schmeling There was also the time on one cold winters day that I can recall Ralph and his mom had lent me a sweater to wear in order to remove the harsh wintery cold from my body.....Ralph was a little older than me and I remember us going to see a movie on 86th street and it was he that gave me the confidence to keep the fee to enter the movie house, in my pocket rather than hold it in my hand....That was all part of growing up.....He later in life would get married and also move to Astoria, Queens where I would visit with him and his new wife.....I can also remember him coming home to Astoria with my Dad on my Dad's Ice Truck as Ralph had a job in Manhattan....

Neil Wortman would confide in me to the fact that his dad who had fought in World War ll had once killed a Russian soldier by stabbing him with his rifle bayonet and lifting him up off the ground....He also confided that his dad kept a leather strap hanging in the back of his bedroom door and would use it on him whenever he misbehaved.....Neil and I and some of the other neighborhood kids would draw American and German airplanes both in school with pencil on paper and in the street with chalk.....I recall that two of our favorite drawings would be of the American Lockheed Lightning P 38 and the Corsair...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vought_F4U_Corsair along with the German Stuka Diver.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junkers_Ju_87 Today I have both of these model aircrafts hanging up in my back yard gazebo.....

For photo's and History of World War ll Airplane wrecks click this link...... http://www.warhistoryonline.com/whotube-2/tube-ww2-aircraft-wrecks.html

Worst kamikaze attack in WW II (Okinawa) Best Naval footage ever shot by a Navy cameraman. The camera was in the gun turret under attack. (Email courtesy of Vito M.) HTTPS://www.dropbox.com/sh/4zkp7hvrgbcd7gd/D-qPNsG9ym#lh:null-Laffey%20Enhanced%20vo%203.wmv

Mike Sweeney who was my Irish buddy got hit by a car on First Ave just after the end of World War ll.....When the war had ended some of us guys would go on the roof tops of buildings with large amounts of newspapers, tear them up and than throw them off the roof....When walking through the streets we would be knee deep in newspapers both at the end of World War ll and later on at the surrender of Japan.....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrender_of_Japan

After the War, I can recall all the bargains up for sale of war surplus materials, such as Jeeps, amphibious vehicles, machine guns, sheep lined bomber jackets and all kinds of other surplus war materials.....I can recall going onto 89th street and some one had a 50 millimeter machine gun for sale while there was also a store on 1st ave where they were selling bomber jackets and other war surplus clothing at unbeatable prices....I asked my dad to buy me a bomber jacket but he said they would not fit me as I was only about 9 years old and today I know that he was probably right....I did buy one several years ago as I always wanted to own a bomber jacket....I believe it was a Christmas gift from my Wife Elizabeth...

Getting back to my friend Mike Sweeney who was walking with me along 1st Ave, I believe he had spotted some surplus item in the street and just turned and stepped onto the street without looking towards the on coming traffic....He was dragged under the tire of a car along 1st Ave but luckily was not killed...He came out of the accident with a broken leg and I would visit with him from time to time in his parents apartment.....This also gave me the opportunity to sign my name on his leg cast along with all the other friend names ....I remember him giving me one of his leather gloves on one of our visits as he was missing the other glove but in those days I welcomed it kindly.....

Cleary was a friend that was also not the best kind of friend.!!!......At Christmas time I always wanted a cowboy suit from my parents which I would receive each year....One day Cleary would steal the "cowboy hat" from me and I would later learn that he stuffed it into the exhaust pipe of a bus....When I got hold of him I taught him a lesson I'm sure he never forgot, while everyone was cheering me on too....

MaryEllen S. (Mikes Sister) and Cleary were sweet on each other and I can recall that they had some kind of adventure planned for the rest of us friends but would not tell us what it was....We followed them to a roof top and than later to the hand ball courts down in Carl Schurz Park.....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Schurz_Park When we reached the hand ball courts they performed their adventure in front of us guys but I, till this day have kept it a secret and will do so till the end of time.....She would later in life, about 10 years later, apologize for her actions when she realized what she had done at such a very young age and she really, in my mind, became a beautiful young lady in body and soul....

One day when I went sleigh riding in the evening in Carl Schurz Park under my older sister's care, I met a girl named Sylvia Schneider that was wearing a jacket with a fur lined hood so I was unable to see her face...It was my first experience with puppy love and I never forgot her...Later during the summer months I met her again in the park and even though I had not seen her face I knew it was her from her German accent.....I would wait patiently in the park for her to come home from school and when I did see her and she approached me I would foolishly run away....

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There were many stores that I can recall on 1st Ave between 88th and 87th street that included a bar on the corner of 88th street that is still there today.....I can recall seeing my first TV in that bar as I peeked through their doorway and I will always remember the painting in their window of General Custer's slaughter with a soldier being scalped right in the front/ middle of the picture...

A butcher store further on down where my dad would sometimes leave me in the butchers care-taking, who would always call me Mickey Mouse due to my name being Nick and I can recall his cat that was constantly fed meat scraps and had to weigh at least 30 Ibs......I can also recall the saw dust on the floor so as to keep the place clean of butcher meat blood...

I can recall the vegetable store at the middle of this block of stores and also a Hardware Store which is where my friend Bozo would come into this story.....But first I can recall my Dad hanging out, on a slow ice sale day, in the Vegetable store and that he once explained to me that marriage was a gamble in life, as we all know now as we pass through many of lifes gambles and crossroads.....My Dad also had a little wine cellar in the apartment building on 1st Avenue off of 88th street.....I can recall that someone had climbed over the wall leading into this little compartment wine cellar, turned on the spicket in the wine barrel and sucked up some of the wine from the opened spicket using a straw....Naturally most of the wine ended up on the floor but my dad calmly added additional material to the top of the wall to end this wise guys intrusion of his unwanted wine tasting......My dad also had wine barrels with fomenting wine in them in the cellar on 87th Street just across the street from St Joseph's Church where I made my communion...As I was a few years older than most of the other students I received the highest religious test mark and was awarded a medallion that I wore around my neck....

My friend Bozo had gained a job at 'The Hardware Store' and did all kinds of errands for the stores owner such as stocking the shelves, sweeping up and delivery's....The owner allowed him to stay in the back in another room of the store where the stock was kept and where my friend Bozo had had completely to himself .....Bozo told me of this situation and said I could visit with him whenever I liked, so one day I did go into that stockroom and brought in my home made scooter along.....We decided that we would paint the scooter and we did but at about 8 years old we weren't that good at it.....When the boss smelt the oil based paint he came into the back room and I'm sorry to say that Bozo was fired and we were than both kicked out of the store.....

.........So I repeat, one more time, once, "Where are they now.....? ".....

In 1947 at age 12, this would also be the year that I would read about the " Collyer Brothers " strange story in the daily newspaper while I was visiting Mom and Pops candy store located on 88th Street.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collyer_brothers

And one other final memory was the many happy 'football weddings' we had been to in the ballrooms above the numerous German Movie Theaters on 86th Street.....For a five dollar family gift in an envelope (La Boste) there was always all kinds of sandwiches that were thrown at us which also included a live band for dancing (and there would always be some one that would like to sing Italian songs to the captive audience), soda, beer and wine depending on ones age.....All this and a free German Movie with German Languish down stairs in the theater for us youngsters whenever we got tired of the wedding and felt mischievous....Wow.!!!....You just couldn't beat those days.....

"Back to the future"....Yesterday on January 1, 2015 while driving back from Staten Islands Town of Tottenville on Arthur Kill Road a huge Buck Deer with antlers crossed the road right in front of us and we pulled our car over to the spot where he went into the woods......He slowly turned his head to look at us and than continued to walk further into the woods. Elizabeth tried to take a picture of this gorgeous Buck but by the time she got her phone/camera out, the deer had gone too far into the shadows....What a way to start the New Year though......Happy New Year guys, one more time, once.....

December 28, 2014........Nick