Growing up in NYC is most definitely some next shit, but you know what? I wouldnt trade it for the world. The things I have seen growing up, you couldnt write a script any crazier then the what I have seen. From a early Year in life I have witnessed more then I should have. I have seen death, luck, disaster, love, hope and so much more. These are the moments that have shaped me. I can remember growing up on 137th & Riverside in the late 80's. Man was that shit gully as fuck. The building I lived in had to be the one where all the crackheads got high in the lobby. At least the apartment was huge. Insanely big. Now this was an ill place to live. One day on the uptown side of B'way by the train station, we were all sitting. It was me & bunch of friends. We were all meeting up there to go downtown that night. While we were all waiting for one more person to show up, we all seen some crazy shit happen. On the other side of B'way was a man closing his store for the night and a crack coming running by and jigged money in the neck with a screw driver. Why it happen, I dont know, but the dude was on the ground shaking. At least E.M.S. showed up quick. When I lived on 78th & W.E.A. I would hang out at the Soldiers & Sailors monument. This was in the late 80's as well. Some times I would break night there and sleep up on the landing . One night I was there with a friend Mikey. He had wanted to run away and so he did, why? I dont know, but we wound up there that night and we hung out with the older crowd that was drinking and getting high. I bumped into this dude Hang 10 that I had known from the neighborhood. We started to walk the streets and bug out then he was dieing for a coffee at 3:30 am Hang 10 decides HEY! Lets go to my job and I can get some coffee there. Well his job was being the Mngr of a tutti fruitti ice cream place. So he unlocks the store and we go in the store. I wound up eating all the ice cream I ever wanted and sleeping in the basement . I froze my ass off. That Was some real random shit to have happen. I can remember making a magic dollar. Yup that shit really was magic until people caught on. What it was, was a dollar bill w/ a tail on it that was about 2 ft long made out of clear packing tape. Now what you did with it was use it in vending machines. Then you would pull ya dollar back out get what you wanted plus the change. It was the best. Dam growing up, there was a code you could use so you can make free pay phone calls. You would punch in the code and then you would get the flashing dial tone and you was good son! Washington Square was dope back in the days and the whole village in the 90's now that was a crazy seen. You had the dude jumping 7 or 8 trash cans from one sk8board to another in the park. Fuck'n Unique's was the shit. I would always die to go there so I could write my name on the wall. Silly, but it was the case. St. Marks back then was just straight squatter city and the REAL punks who rocked the for real deal Mohawks. It was ill then. I use to love Walmen Rink when it re-opened in the late 80's. That was a blast, I remember my mother giving me money to by ice skates and after I took the train down there and got to the entrance of the park, I turned around and went back uptown to the U.W.S. to only spend that money on spray paint. I got my ass beat over that one, but there was this girl at the ice skating rink that I was so into. She was a real pretty Dominican girl named Vanessa and she actually liked me as well. With my luck it just didnt work out, but I got to kiss her and ice skate with her for about a month. Just long enough to have a nice memory. Man is NYC the best place ever! The Old New York that is. On the week ends my friends and I would go downtown to Wall st. and skate all day with out really seeing any people. It used to be dead, just nothing but kids skating all over the place. In my younger days we would take cabs places and just straight up do the Larry on'em. Sometimes we would take a cab all the way uptown to get trees and take the cab back downtown and then be out or stick like 2 dollar bills crumpled ur in the change spot and be out. I sure as hell miss being a kid in NYC back then. Making pea shooters and running around lacing people up with McDonald straws & popcorn kernels. We would spray about 100 at once out the mouth piece through the straw. Dam we were bad kids. Oh well, it has giving me xtra tough skin and a better perspective on how to look at things.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Take A Look Through My Eyes
Growing up in NYC is most definitely some next shit, but you know what? I wouldnt trade it for the world. The things I have seen growing up, you couldnt write a script any crazier then the what I have seen. From a early Year in life I have witnessed more then I should have. I have seen death, luck, disaster, love, hope and so much more. These are the moments that have shaped me. I can remember growing up on 137th & Riverside in the late 80's. Man was that shit gully as fuck. The building I lived in had to be the one where all the crackheads got high in the lobby. At least the apartment was huge. Insanely big. Now this was an ill place to live. One day on the uptown side of B'way by the train station, we were all sitting. It was me & bunch of friends. We were all meeting up there to go downtown that night. While we were all waiting for one more person to show up, we all seen some crazy shit happen. On the other side of B'way was a man closing his store for the night and a crack coming running by and jigged money in the neck with a screw driver. Why it happen, I dont know, but the dude was on the ground shaking. At least E.M.S. showed up quick. When I lived on 78th & W.E.A. I would hang out at the Soldiers & Sailors monument. This was in the late 80's as well. Some times I would break night there and sleep up on the landing . One night I was there with a friend Mikey. He had wanted to run away and so he did, why? I dont know, but we wound up there that night and we hung out with the older crowd that was drinking and getting high. I bumped into this dude Hang 10 that I had known from the neighborhood. We started to walk the streets and bug out then he was dieing for a coffee at 3:30 am Hang 10 decides HEY! Lets go to my job and I can get some coffee there. Well his job was being the Mngr of a tutti fruitti ice cream place. So he unlocks the store and we go in the store. I wound up eating all the ice cream I ever wanted and sleeping in the basement . I froze my ass off. That Was some real random shit to have happen. I can remember making a magic dollar. Yup that shit really was magic until people caught on. What it was, was a dollar bill w/ a tail on it that was about 2 ft long made out of clear packing tape. Now what you did with it was use it in vending machines. Then you would pull ya dollar back out get what you wanted plus the change. It was the best. Dam growing up, there was a code you could use so you can make free pay phone calls. You would punch in the code and then you would get the flashing dial tone and you was good son! Washington Square was dope back in the days and the whole village in the 90's now that was a crazy seen. You had the dude jumping 7 or 8 trash cans from one sk8board to another in the park. Fuck'n Unique's was the shit. I would always die to go there so I could write my name on the wall. Silly, but it was the case. St. Marks back then was just straight squatter city and the REAL punks who rocked the for real deal Mohawks. It was ill then. I use to love Walmen Rink when it re-opened in the late 80's. That was a blast, I remember my mother giving me money to by ice skates and after I took the train down there and got to the entrance of the park, I turned around and went back uptown to the U.W.S. to only spend that money on spray paint. I got my ass beat over that one, but there was this girl at the ice skating rink that I was so into. She was a real pretty Dominican girl named Vanessa and she actually liked me as well. With my luck it just didnt work out, but I got to kiss her and ice skate with her for about a month. Just long enough to have a nice memory. Man is NYC the best place ever! The Old New York that is. On the week ends my friends and I would go downtown to Wall st. and skate all day with out really seeing any people. It used to be dead, just nothing but kids skating all over the place. In my younger days we would take cabs places and just straight up do the Larry on'em. Sometimes we would take a cab all the way uptown to get trees and take the cab back downtown and then be out or stick like 2 dollar bills crumpled ur in the change spot and be out. I sure as hell miss being a kid in NYC back then. Making pea shooters and running around lacing people up with McDonald straws & popcorn kernels. We would spray about 100 at once out the mouth piece through the straw. Dam we were bad kids. Oh well, it has giving me xtra tough skin and a better perspective on how to look at things.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Trouble Maker For Life!
Good Ol New York! Dam, what happen?Well at least I have memories that are vivid & life long lasting. I can remember the 1st video game I played, It was Asteroids. That was a wrap after that. Around the corner from my house on 78th & B'way was a laundry place, it had self serve and then dry cleaning. In the dry cleaning store they had video games in there. They had Spy Hunter, Excite Bike, Dig Dug & Elevator Action. I spent all my time in there as a kid. Thats how I met my best friend Marc (R.I.P.). He had moved here from Germany and his moms would give him dough to play games while she went to work. She worked for a place called Harmony Theatre. You figure it out. Anyways me & Marc kicked it. The day I met him I flipped em off and he had no clue as to what that ment. I found it to be the most funniest shit ever. Us becoming friends was the beginning of going to hell in a hand basket on fire. Him & I got into a lot of trouble. One day a man was selling books on 77th and B'way. Back then it was a Love store that he was selling his books in front of. So Marc & I went up to the roof with a box of water balloons and did the unthinkable, we through the water balloons at the mans books. Then to make matters worst, we went down and looked at his books in person in front of him like we were gonna buy something laughing are ass' off. I dont know how we didnt get are ass beat then or for all the shit we pulled. Marc use to live in the Belclaire Hotel. The place was a shit whole half way. Half of it was residence & half hotel. The kind of people that stayed were hookers from the 20's on 10th and 11th ave. Dudes who sold crack and many other low lives mixed with good blue collar people. The place was set up like an S.R.O with shared bathrooms. The roof was the best thing about that place. In the winter it was snow balls and the summer it was water balloons. On New Years & the 4th, it was fire crackers. Dam, we were bad! I can remember being like 11 or 12 and going to Canal st. to buy fire works. Most of the shit we got was from me swiping shit from the old ladies that be out there. That shit was nutz. You know how it be out there now with people selling the fake bags on he corners and the fake Tiffany shit? Well thats how it was with the fire works, except they laid shit out on a blanket and scooped it all quick when the Boys would pass by. Its crazy how somethings are gone and other stuff has stayed. As I got older I got into more trouble, but it was always fun. Marc and I were out late past the time we should've been out and we came across these big industrial size laundry boxes of detergent . There were about 8 of them. Marc went to West Side super market just a few blocks away and took shopping cart. With these big ass boxes, we went to the fountain in Central Park by the rowboats and at night its shut down. At this point we empty all the boxes in there so in the morning when the turned it on, it made a shit load of bubbles suds. It also made the news. Man those were good times. Some other shit we did for fun was glue the pay phone receivers down so when you picked up, you couldnt. We used quick drying epoxy that work good. This one day we were out gluing phones, we glued this one phone that was on 74th and B'way off to the corner of Fair Way. The thing we didnt know was that the phone was gonna ring, just as I answered it, I glued it and some one asked for the Hindu at the news paper stand. I told Marc and he called him over and said PHONE! So I gave 'em the phone. It was a cool fall day so I guess when he took the phone he didnt notice the glue with all the hair on his face. We waited and then it happen, his left hand was stuck to the receiver with his face glue to the jack. We cracked up as he panicked. We took his candy while he watched. I know this was fucked up, but we didnt plan it that way. It just unfolded not in his favor that day. The list goes on and on. I look back now and try to imagine all of that. I cant believe how bad I was. Oh well! I didnt turn out bad at least as a person.
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