8:00 AM, Tuesday, Summer, East Harlem, 1958
sitting on the stoop eating Devil Dogs
washed down with a Coke (in the seven oz. glass bottle)
waitin' for the guys to come down so we could walk
the four blocks to Jefferson Park for a softball game
we would play the Aces from 120th street
for the grand sum of a quarter a man
we were the Bisons from 119th
no batting gloves, wrist or elbow pad
no fancy bats or gloves
if we had two old wooden bats it was a lot
we'd chip in and buy a $2.00 Clincher
and we'd be good to go for a few games
finished my breakfast and went to call for the guys
I was always the first one up
the first one downstairs just raring to go
after we rustled up a full team
we were off to the park in the New York City sun
to play some ball on the glass-strewn
pebbled concrete field
one thing about living in New York City
you learned to do things in miniature
'cause space was at a premium
for example any ball hit over the fence was an out
except to dead center between the two white stripes
painted on the fence and that was a double
we had no water and just played for hours
in the sizzling summer heat to no great detriment
the game usually ended in an argument
over a call (there were no umpires)
it was invariably started by the team that was losing
who didn't want to up their quarters and would
go to any lengths to keep that two-bit piece which
incidentally could get you a hot dog and two orange drinks at the Greek's hot dog stand
stationed right outside the park
I could just hear him asking:
'you want mustaonions or mustalone?'
which translated means:
'you want mustard and onions or mustard alone'
he'd also ask if you wanted 'vagina juice'
which was the watered-down orange drink
he sold for a nickel a cup from a big barrel
a buck would get you six dogs and two drinks
and he did make the best onions in town
afterward we'd walk back in the early afternoon
to choose up for a stickball or stoopball game
until our moms called us upstairs for dinner
I'd sometimes have my mom throw me down
a sandwich from our fifth-floor tenement window
'cause I was in the middle of a game
we didn't have much but, man we had everything
after dinner we'd hang out on Pleasant Avenue
eating Italian ices or sausage sandwiches
listening to doo-wop music from the jukebox
which was outside on the street
under the watchful eye of our grandmothers
who sat perched on their pillows
by their open windows
the amber lights of the old-time lampposts
set the tone for a lovely time
in a lovely place, New York in the summer
the world has changed a lot since then
but what I wouldn't give to hear
just one more time
the Greek ask in his broken English
'you want mustaonions or mustalone?'
charlie giardino 8/5/13