WALKING CHARLIE

I was 13 years old and living in Coney Island, Brooklyn, N. Y. It was the summer of 1951 and my mother felt I would be better off working and earning some money as things were tough.

We made a deal. She would find me a permanent summer job and we would split the money so that there would be enough for my kid brother, my mom andI, together with what she earned at the bekery where she worked, to make things a little more comfortable.

It sounded like a good idea as I already had two part-time jobs dlivering papers for the Brooklyn Eagle and delivering groceries for a local store. I could now give up one or both of these jobs.Unbeknownst to me my mom had already contracted me out to this big fat Italian guy named Ralph who owned a game concession called, of all things, Walking Charlie. My salary was $30.00 a week. It sounded good to me as I would be making more than the other two jobs combined. I was set for the summer, but little did I know that I had to work 7 days a week from 10AM until closing time with an hour off in between. Closing time was usually around midnite and 2AM on Fridays and Saturdays. I WAS JUST A LITTLE KID<>

Oh well, I had already accepted the job and quit the other 2 part-time jobs so I was stuck.

Walking Charlie consisted of two large turntables approximately 8' in diameter with 4 wooden men spaced evenly apart attached to each turntable. They each were dressed in old clothes and a hat that was snugly pulled down on top of their wooden heads. When I say snugly I mean snugly. The player then paid $1.00 for 6 baseballs and the object was to knock the hats off the dummies heads as they were spinning around. At least we didn't glue or nail the hats down so I guess it was fair.