And Don’t Come Back!

On my walk today I began thinking of when I was young and what I remember. I’m living on Mulberry Street and maybe 8 years old!

Welcome to my universe, where I spent most of my time in the street watching people and playing. One day as I was playing with a friend hitting a ball back-and-forth, I noticed that a black Van with darkened windows on the side panels, was parked in front of our famous café. It just wasn’t a café, it was a hang-out where all the men on our  street would go to play cards, or to talk, laugh with  jokes to enjoy life.

The van seemed to be just parked there with no particular reason directly in front of the Cafe, and it had some junky things on roof like it was going someplace, and it just sat there!

Well, while watching and playing, we had get to out of the way of a truck coming down the street and it parked directly behind the van. Then another truck came down and pulled in front of the van and then backed up to its bumper. Then both trucks started blowing their horns and the one in the back of the van, drove forward and the one in the front drove back-and-forth, back-and-forth, as the van got pushed back-and-forth being crushed, not bad, but enough to make the van pull out around the truck and drive away. Just as all the men came out of the café and they were yelling and laughing and having such a good time, one man stood out as a very special man! A man that would come over to me everyday put his arm around me and put his mouth next to my ear, and say “Give your mother a kiss for me.”

He really was a special man,and his name was Uncle Pete, and everybody knew who he was, as he was the leader protecting our “Street” and The people from outside our street called him, The mafia leader, but to us he was a wonderful,gentle, man who protected us all!! Uncle Pete

Are you wondering why he would come and tell me To kiss my mother? Well, he and my father from the time they went to kindergarten until they went to high school they were best friends, just like my grandfather who came here in 1894 and worked with a man in the Famous Fulton Fish Market and my grandfather was able to do things and earn a lot of money, selling fish on a pushcart. His friend became the most dangerous man as it was he who started the Mafia!

We who lived on the street knew they protected us. They worried about us because at that time we were considered black, and not wanted, and that’s the reason why Mulberry Street was where all the Italians who immigrated here wound up. This is a true story as I remember it 82 years ago! I, who am I ? well, I’m Sal, “The One and Only”