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.

Billy and Frank

Billy Nishizaka was one of my closest friends when we were growing up in Coney Island, Brooklyn, N. Y. As I recall we met at Mark Twain JHS when we were 12 or 13 years old.

We had many things in common and became fast friends instantly. We both loved to draw and play stickball. Billy's father owned Skeeball alleys on the boardwalk. When I was 15, Billy asked me if I wanted to work for his father in the family Skeeball business for the summer months and I said I would, so for the next couple of years until I graduated High School I did.

The Skeeball Alleys were a great place to work and also a great place to pick up girls. Either Billy or I would open the alleys at 10AM each day and there would be a fairly steady flow of players on Saturday and Sunday from the time we opened as the people used to come early to the beach and then wander around to the various food stands and amusements. Billy and I would be equipped with an apron to hold bills, coupons and various other necessities, including a slug soldered on to a wire stick which we could use in place of nickels so we could start the machines if they didn't work properly.I also used the slug thing to give free games to cute girls when no one was watching me.

Billy and I used to play each other when it was a quiet weekday. Billy always used to win but I was also very good after a while. On our lunch breaks we would go over to Nathan's for a hot dog and a soda or Shatzkin's for one of their famous fruit filled knishes. Yum. Billy also used to invite me to his house for an occasional dinner which his mother would prepare. A giant bowl of noodles filled with seafood. Shrimp, scallops, clams whitefish and the like would be put in the middle of a large dining room table and Billy's brothers and sisters, Billy his parents and me would dig in. Yum.When I wasn't eating there my other good friend Greg would invite to his house where his mother would prepare a Greek feast for Greg, his two sisters, his father and me. Wonderful Greek food and amazing company. Fantastic desserts as Greg's dad was a chocolatierre.

This sounds great, but even more so, considering I was very poor, living in a small apartment with my little brother being supported by only my mother who was out of work half the time. Boy was I lucky to have such friends. Sometimes things work out.

Back to the skeeball alleys. One beautiful summer day, a Tuesday I believe, it was dead. We hadn't seen a customer all morning so Billy says to me, "why don't we close up for a couple of hours, leave a note on the door that we'll be opening at 3, and go around the corner and play some stickball. Billy's older brother Jimmy used to come around and check the receipts and stuff so I said " What if Jimmy stops by while we're playing stickball? We'll be in a lot of trouble." So Billy says "Don't worry about it. He never stops by this early and we won't be that long." So I say"OK. you're the boss." and off we went. When we got back, guess who was there waiting for us. Jimmy. Boy did Billy get a tongue lashing. Suffice it to say, we never had any afternoon stickball games again.

Then one day, a group of girls stopped by the alleys and started to flirt with me. One of them was so beautiful I think I fell in love that minute. When they left, I took my break and followed her home and finally she gave me her name and number. Her name was Eunice and six years later on July 10th 1960, 50 years ago, we were married until she passed away 8 years ago.

That was some of the summer of my youth.

Frank Verdi - 8-6-10

HUMPBACKS

One hot and steamy mid-July day Eunice and I went on a whale watching cruise.It was something we had done many times before and always in the Atlantic Ocean in the whale feeding grounds off the tip of Provincetown, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. But this day was a day like no other.

As we left the harbor, the ocean breeze and occasional splashes of seawater was very invigorating and what one would expect doing a steady speed, cutting through the waves. It did not take long before we started to spot signs of whales at a distance and I then noticed Dolphins keeping pace with us and darting in and out of our wake. It appeared as if they were having a great time. We then started to slow down and the lookout shouted over the loudspeaker to look to our left. We would see the spouts of 2 or 3 humpback whales and the captain was going to try to get a closer look.

Then the spouts were gone, but the captain felt this would be a good spot to stop and sit and wait. So we did.As we sat, the air seemed to get thicker and change slowly, ever so slowly, in color. From a sparkling blue sea, it became a hazy orange to almost a reddish color and very, very still. Dead calm. Not a ripple. It seemed as though we were encased in a huge bubble and only the ship and the passengers were inside. Nothing else. Quiet

All of a sudden without any warning, a whale breached and crashed back into the ocean. Then another and another and then there were more and more and more. Magnificent Humpback whales. One after another they came. Breaching and crashing back into the ocean. Some with calves and some without, but all breaching. I had seen whales before and even fondled them, but I had never seen anything like this. I was not afraid. To the contrary, I felt it was one of the most wonderful and humbling experiences of my life. After a while they slowly began to stop and eventually some swam away and some relaxed a little and then disappeared.

I will not preach or judge others, but I will say this. We live in a world surrounded by living beings all very different from us and each other but all marvelous in their own right. Why do we kill them for any reason? I will say no more as this is a personal thing. As for this story, I had to share the experience. As I said when I started, this was a day like no other. A day like this I may never see again. But then again, you never know.

Frank Verdi - 8-5-2010