I guess I am feeling nostalgic these days. We were driving down the road and the wife spies a yard sale that we whizzed by, so we had to turn around and go check it out for crystal stemware. We get out and as usual we fall into conversation with the people running it.
Turns out that they were originally from Brooklyn and had in-laws that came from my old neighborhood, and they knew some of the old spots. Court Pastry. Esposito's pork store. G & G. Sam's restaurant.
I had a checkered history with Sam's. My Mom had her bridal shower there in 1956. The owner's kids grew up with me on Tompkins Place which is a very obscure street in Brooklyn. Wouldn't you know it these people at the yard sale relatives grew up there too! They knew the owners. Especially Louie who took over the joint and runs it to this day.
Now Louie and I got in a beef in around 1989 or so. Actually it wasn't me but my best friend Vito who did and in loyalty I didn't go there for about twenty years. But one day I took a stupid pizza tour and the bus ended up there. Louie was standing out there with his arms folded and goes "So you live around the fucking corner, and you had to come here on a bus." I go "look you strunz I can turn around and take these people to the House of Pizza for a better pie if you want." "No no let's let be gones be be gones or some shit like that there." So we did. For a while.
We went for dinner a couple of times. Louie was famous for throwing people out of the place if he didn't like their face. He hated the liberals that had infested the neighborhood and delighted in torturing them. They came for the authentic cuisine and Brooklyn attitude. Until it was turned against them but waddayagonnado?
Of course, we go in another stupid beef over something, and I stopped going. But I did see where he rented out the place to the FBI show as a location. Imagine seeing this place show up on TV? He must have been hurting for money. I mean he owns the building but who knows.
Still and all I enjoyed going down memory lane with the people at the yard sale.
4 comments:
I can dig it. Funny how things take you back.
On a more personal note, I would guess you and I have about 10 years separating us. Kind of explains some of the Taw Jackson / Lomax nature of our relationship.
The best part of walking down memory lane with someone else is that the more disturbing parts of what was going on back then tend to get glossed over, left out or at best treated with dismissive humor. Who wants to muddle around in awkwardness and discomfort?
In reality, what kind of character, what kind of temperament does someone reveal who deals in hate, delights in torture and is famous for throwing customers out due to his dislike of their face? Sounds like a bully to my ears, with "another stupid beef" as another tell. However, the place is still there and listed online as viable,"a vestiage of old-world Brooklyn, surviving since 1930 amid changes".
Louie is an angry guy. He always was ever since 1963 when his brother was born who was his father's favorite. The other guy got to go to college and Louie had to run the restaurant. So he has lived in a pissed off state since then.
I can cut him some slack for a while but eventually we get into it.
The last time was when I brought some friends who were picky Jews. He didn't like that. I found them endlessly amusing but he didn't get the joke.
Still, I understand his resentment and disappointment. It's very relatable and if his pizza was better, I would put up with it. But it ain't that good.
In Brooklyn everybody is a bully. At least old school Brooklyn.
That's you default condition.
You either bully or you get bullied.
You have to stand up for yourself.
Hence the beefs.
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