brooklyn with danny and joe

Snow Adventures and Kissing Girls

January in Brooklyn came in with great celebration and ended with gray skies and sad days. After the New Years Eve parties there was not much to look forward to, and the days were shorter. There were some good things coming up, Agnes’ birthday and maybe a snowstorm. I remember coming home from school one day and saw that one snowflake on my jacket, “Hey guys, it’s snowing”. We did not get too excited because it snowed a lot in January, but if the snow started to stick then things would be looking good. Going to bed that night I looked out the window and saw white, on the cars and in the street. I looked up and said that snow prayer, “Hello God, please, please let it snow all night.” The next morning when I ran to the window, there was a sight to be seen; the cars were covered, the street was white, kids were already out throwing snowballs and there was wonderful laughter. I ran into my parent’s room and asked it I could go out and play, my dad said something like, “yea, yea just go”. I took that to mean I could go and play. I was having a great time “Bellywopping” with my sled when suddenly both of us were in the air. My father said, “Jesus H. Christ, what the hell are you doing?” and with that, back to the house we went. I explained what I thought he said; and with the luck of the Irish, was not sent to the cellar for cleaning detail.

Coming back to the house, the rest of the family was just getting up, it was only six in the morning, my mom looked at me and said “And you were where?” When breakfast was finished we all went out into the wonderland of the white snow, it was great. All the kids from the block were now coming out and some parents too; we had this big snowball fight and tried to build a fort in the middle of the battle. Bellywopping was taking your sled and running as fast as you could and throwing it in front of you, jumping on and riding as long as you could. Sometimes you hit concrete and the sled would stop and you would keep going, but not today, the snow was very deep.

One of our special sled rides was to go across the street, where the big stoops were, cover them with snow, and ride down the twenty steps all the way across the street. You had to watch out for cars and trucks but most of the time the streets were clear. We would be out in the snow all day, coming in for hot soupand to change our gloves, which always became frozen for some reason. When it started to snow again we could not believe our luck, our parents looked a little worried. This was Saturday and we had all weekend to play and have a great time. We built a big fort and hid inside throwing snowballs at the girls who would scream and run away, we started on a big snowman and looked for things to put on him. When we got up in the morning the big kids would have smashed the fort and knocked over the snowman, but we needed something to do tomorrow anyway.

Sunday morning was another day that the streets were still white, one of the sad things about the snow in New York is you have very little time before the snow turns to a slushy brown. This snowstorm was deep enough that we would have maybe a week where we could ride our sleds. There was a park in Brooklyn called Highland Park about a mile from our house, it had a great history, but what we were interested in was Snake Hill (Highland Blvd). We would pull our sleds along Bushwick Ave. and head for the Evergreen cemetery, which was our halfway point. The rest of the trip was fun and usually went by very fast. There was a low section of the wall around the cemetery and we would climb up and walk along the edge. The longer you walked the higher the wall, and at one point they put in an iron fence that caused us to walk on the outside of the fence very close to the edge for the last few hundred feet. The wall rose to about thirty feet and if you fell you were in deep trouble; even if you lived your mother would probably kill you for being up there. Once you came down from the wall, there was the park and Snake Hill was waiting for you.

The starting point for our run was near the reservoir at the top of the hill. There was a sidewalk running down the hill and that would keep you safe from the cars and trucks. The down side, if you ran into someone walking up the hill you had to go around or into the street. The biggest and scariest part of the run was when you came to the bottom of the hill. After traveling about a half mile, and going down a steep hill, stopping before you got to Jamaica Ave. was difficult. There were only two choices, (1) You dump the sled by turning it over, and (2) Going through a very busy street; we usually dumped.

This young girl really had me trapped, her family was the only one who owned a TV, and we would go up a few nights a week to watch Superman or Howdy Doody. We would sit on the floor and every time a commercial would come on she would turn around and kiss me, she would be blowing bubbles with her saliva one minute and the next minute kissing me on the cheek. The adults in the room thought this was cute, I thought is was gross. I bet I was the first person to hate commercials. The only thing I thought was more gross than being kissed by an after bubble was the women who would spit on their handkerchief’s and then wipe my face.Being a young Irish kid had many advantages, but having a face full of freckles was not one of them. Mom, my Aunts, and sometimes-even strangers would say, “Come over here and let me wipe your face.” then they would spit on something and rub my face,… what was that? I cannot for the life of me figure out what they were trying to do, sometimes it was as if they were trying to wipe away my freckles! “They are freckles, not dirt”, I would say. Do you think they would listen? No, they just had to do it; spit and wipe.

The first time I enjoyed kissing a girl was during one of my sister’s parties, I think it was her birthday party, maybe her 13th. Danny and I stayed around but kind of off to one side, because we were fours years younger than the kids who were invited. We had the normal things to eat like cake and ice cream, but the best part was “Spin the Bottle” and “Post Office.” I am not sure how we got into the game, but I was matched with one of Agnes’ friends and had to go into the dark bedroom to kiss her. I was too short so I pulled up a chair that brought me up close to her height. She didn’t look too happy about getting Agnes’s little brother to kiss, but I did my best imitation of an older boy. When I was kissing her someone walked through the bedroom, but I was too busy trying not to mess this kiss up. My friends wouldn’t tease me about kissing a thirteen year old. Later, I found out is was my Mom who walked through the bedroom and asked Agnes who the big kid was kissing her friend. The guys at our clubhouse loved this story, there was no more teasing me now!