Actually, my shoe size is 11 but I don’t wear shoes, I ‘ve been wearing Chuck Taylors all of my life.
Why did I dream of owning Chuck Taylors? Well because when I was 12 years old, I had listened to advertisements on the radio of famous people who would excitedly tell about them, and how they could fly when they wore them! How they could do things that most people couldn’t do, because they stayed on your feet and you moved beautifully and you could stop on a dime!! So that’s why I wanted them so bad, as I was always very fast and bouncing! One day when I was taking my mother shopping, we were in a famous Department Store in the Bronx called Alexander’s. Well as we browsed through the store, we came to the mens and boys shoe department and as we passed, there was one wall that had many different brands of sneakers, but 1/2 of them were Chuck Taylors, all black and white that were beautiful!! So I turned to my mother and I said to her “Mom, please, please, can you buy me those Chuck Taylor sneakers? She looked at me and said: “You have four pairs of shoes that your brother can no longer wear, and you are now able to wear them. You now have to wear them, as we should not waste them, and we have to save money. I said please, please buy me those Chuck Taylor shoes, please! She looked at me and she saw that I really really want to them. So She says if I buy you those sneakers do you promise to do anything, anything, I ask you to do? I said of course I will do anything you ask me to do!! So we sat down. The man came over with a shiny metal thing, and put it under my foot to find my size. He then got up, went to that area of Chuck Taylors and brought back two pairs, He immediately took my shoe off and began putting on the Chuck Taylor’s. When he slid them on and tightened the laces, I felt that I was going to fly. He put the second pair on. I knew I was going to fly. I turned to my mother, and thanked her so much and said I will be happy to do anything you want because these Chuck Taylors will make me fly and do them!
Well, did I “walk” into it, cause my Mom was a “SNEEKER” and began giving me big jobs!! Yes, the first thing she had me do was to build stairs from the kitchen to the backyard. So I planned it, and slowly figured out how to start and I said mom we have to go to the Sears Roebuck and buy what we needed and Sure enough, we went and I started buying the kind of wood we needed. It took me maybe two months to finish that project but I was so proud of how it came out! The stairs first went straight out from the kitchen then turned right and straight down to the ground below. I had to make a door frame, then put in the door, and I then proceeded to make outside the door, a platform to go out and so now we were outside. We can go in and out in and out. My mother said to me I want you now to plant a tree. It was about 50 feet away from the door that I had just built, so again we went to the store and we bought a Tulip tree. I said Ma, is this tree going to produce golden coins, and do we get to spend them, and she laughed and said no you’ll only see that it’s a beautiful tree. The leaves were very special, they were big and wide and the shape was beautiful. The tree was planted down about 20 feet, and was 5 foot tall and I knew now I had to wait for my next job, so my mother looked at me and says I’m gonna ask Ludovigo to come here and build a patio for us and you must be his helper. Well he did come with the truck and in the truck was what were these 18″ x 18″, 2 inches thick flat squares weighing 15 lbs. They were actually his invention of a patio tile it was made so that there were wavy colors of green throughout it. As we began to place each tile in place, I couldn’t believe how beautiful they was coming out! We went all the way to our next-door neighbors property, then proceeded to go at right angles in the other direction to go down to a place where we now have dirt so that the platform would be one foot above it. The next thing was we again turned right until eventually we came back to go to another corner, back to where we started and we had a patio. The problem was the patio was 14 or 15 inches higher than our driveway so we had to make a step and to go 7 inches down the end of the patio then it was done. It was beautiful so now the rest of the yard was just dirt and really where my mother was planting tomatoes and vegetables but now the patio was so beautiful and we knew we had to do something with it. So it became a place where we all went to, ate lunch and dinner, and then after a while neighbors came and it became a place that was a fun place. The best part was my father took over and did all the cooking offering drinks and happiness. So LUdovigo tells my mother who he loved very much as she was his third or fourth cousin. She refused to marry him years before she married my Dad. So he just became a man who just did whatever she wanted. So he said to her one day as we were finishing, don’t you think you need a garage in the other corner there so that we can make a smooth driveway from the street down to the garage wouldn’t that be great? So again we made plans. He said we will use concrete blocks for three walls as it will be 10 feet high inside and it will have a 2 foot wall on top so that you could actually stay on the roof and use it for sunbathing. So we planned it all out and made it as well. ????? was the name of Ludovico’s product. He had it copyrighted and protected and that would be his business. Please understand that I am sitting here nearly 91 years old remembering exactly how I build a garage.
I now have to mention to you, my father, who would come and watch us with a scotch in his right hand, and in his left hand, a cigar that was called a Ginny sticker because it stunk, really stunk, and he would watch, but never help us work never once. Did he pick up a hammer or any tool? He just sat and watched when he got home from work, that’s all he could do. He was the best driver in the world and the best worker in the world. He had a trucking company of 12 trucks. He had a company selling lamb legs to people of the south at Easter time. He had a company that sold Christmas trees in the streets, he had a company sold fresh grapes to people who made wine! He had a company where we made wine, and sold for $5.00 a gallon. Why was he doing this? Just for the Idea of helping his friends all over. His family loved him and did whatever he wanted. He had four brothers and 3 sisters but he never once tried to help on the garage. He didn’t know how to use a hammer!!
Getting back to my mom and what she always asked of me. She asked me then that now that we have the patio and the grass don’t we need a garden. I said WHAT, she says, I now want you to make a garden. so the place where the driveway ended, there was a space of 12 x20 feet going to the house. I began to dig that up from where the driveway connected to the patio and all the way back up to the street. I then decided that there must be a railing closing in the new garden so the animals don’t get into it, and here again I used my own ideas. There were wooden boxes that were used to carry 5 gallons of water or 3 quarts of milk and they were made of wood no painting just a rough wood that you get a splinter if you put your hand on it so I went to Gelbart Grocery store and said to them can I please have the boxes that you used to deliver your milk and so they allowed me to take boxes! Next door to them was a candy store where all I and my friends would have a job. There allowed us to use their basement to play cards! So I asked the ladies if I could have the boxes and she said sure we have to get rid of it and burn them,so I will gladly give them to you. I went across the street to Yellen’s grocery store and asked for the same thing and they also agreed. I was now able to start with six of those boxes, and so now I planned to take the boxes apart and I did, I took all the nails out. I then made a bench that had two legs shaped like an upside down “V”and at the top it was flat and 4 inches, at the bottom, it was open 8 inches wide and that became the leg on one side. I did the same thing for the leg on the other side. I connected the two by having one board on the top edges, and now was a place to be able to cut the wood. With a saw I was able to now put a piece of wood on that was 4 foot tall 4 inches wide. I proceeded to mark off a point so that the top of the piece of wood that would become part of the fence that had a point, not a very sharp point. I then proceeded to cut more and more and more as the boxes became available. I kept cutting more and more so now when I had enough I asked my mother that I had to go buy two x four wooden beams. She asked why do you need to buy them? I said because I’m going to finish a beautiful fence to keep your garden safe and to keep our front yard safe. I drew what I was going to make and she couldn’t believe it. She took the drawing and saved it so while I was with making a fence, my mother called Ludovico and says, will it be nice to have a front porch but not just a front porch what are the enclosed porch that had a roof and a big window a window that would be 6′ x 6′? It’s so nice of you going home and planning how to make it. Meanwhile I was finishing the fence it was a big job so it was some thing that came out to be 30 feet on one side and 30 feet in the front and then a 10 foot piece going to the side of the house I knew eventually, I would have to make the fence go down in the back of the house. But that will come later oh, I forgot as I finished the pieces of wood that would make the fence. I painted them white two coats of white. So that when I began installing the fence as I finished it, it all became a beautiful white. There was a name for it. and I think it was called a “White Picket Fence”.
Well, when I finished that, who comes with his truck again, but Ludovico, he looks at me he smiles, he points and just tells me to come follow and the first thing he does is put a work table 6′ x 3′, 4 foot high and used it as a place to leave tools to leave the drawing and whatever else we need to be able to get to easily. So he lays the drawing on the table and we proceed to decide how to do it. Do What?? We’re making a “FRONT PORCH”
Again, to start, we need to make the base of the porch. We had a cement blocks, and so we built this low block wall from one side of the house,to where the door began to the other side about 20 feet. We made it 3 foot high and then put a plank on top and screwed it into the cement blocks. This would then become where we made each wooden wall panel with three walls 10 foot high! We decided that the ceiling of the porch would have a peek so that the rainwater would run off easily so we put a peak on and put the roof on that peak the walls on the outside wood planks and then covered with the special asbestos sheets so that the heat would be held in away from the outside and also they would keep the moisture out from coming through the walls siding that was on the house and we matched it so that the porch became finished with the wall in the front we made a beautiful 6’x8’ window that shined and you could walk from the inside you could walk up to the window and it would be 2 feet off the floor. That window became my place to learn how to draw, and paint, because for each season I would draw in full color what that season represented. Santa Claus’s face, that was fun to make and it was about 3 foot round covering a lot of the window. At Easter, maybe a BUNNY, or a COLORFUL EASTER EGG! All was fun all the time, so my Mom found a way for me to become a man of many talents, all because of …CHUCK TAYLOR SNEEKERS
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