The Courage It Takes to Make People Laugh!
DISCLAIMER:My words are an inexact science (like I really needed to tell you that) and much of what I have to say is being brought forth free of any remotely humble display; an exposition, or if you will, an exposé of this guy’s years of gathering, things, feelings, and perhaps people as well.Whatever the reason for being quick on the draw, somewhere along each individual’s journey comes a time when quizzicality falls by the way side. In other words, who gives a s-—t? (Charming use of verbiage, don’t you think? Can’t help it, I’ve been influenced by Stephen King.)
A century ago, as a little boy (it seems that long ago) attending P.S. 64 – not the least bit private of schools in Brownsville Brooklyn, New York – I abruptly discovered the process of labeling or being labeled. If you made the kids laugh you, of course, had to be the class clown.
NOTE: Nobody was ever able to pin much on Abe Reles. Fat, pomaded, and bejeweled little Abe ran the loan shark rackets in Brownsville and East Brooklyn, New York and he’d been crippling people for years. Everybody knew this. He led a charmed life – you’d pinch him and he’d just laugh at you and, sure enough, he’d walk out of court for lack of evidence.
“Some detective will put a bullet in you,” a livid judge promised him once.
“I’ll take my chances with any cop,” Abe sneered back.
By the end of the 1930s, Abe had been arrested 42 times but was still running Brownsville and East New York.
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Little da Harv is seen here with P.S. 233’s 6th grade class. He is in the top row, far left. |
i sure hope you realize that your courage to make people laugh and your recollections is helping so many of your readers recollect their own childhood memories at this same age break… appreciate the stimulus to do so… rog