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Wild but true Stories from America and around the World Chapter 2

Bill Honer

Chapter 2

!969: Watching the Moon Landing with Mobsters

In 1969, Maureen and I were living in Forest Hills Queens. It was the night of the Moon

landing; we decided that we needed to see this historic event on a larger television than

the small one sitting in our living room. We found a lounge on Queens Boulevard thathad a good television set and very few patrons.

The room was dim, with a beige satin dropped ceiling. The seats were oversized whiteleatherette and were very comfortable with their huge cushions. Sinatra was singing

Theres a Small Hotel on the juke box. Other than the two men seated at the bar, the

place was empty. I ordered two Schaefers, our New York brew of choice.

I tried to be discreet in observing the two men, who were wearing black suits and whiteshirts with the top button open. The large hands, heavy eyebrow ridges, and long

sideburns indicated likely ties to the mob. One said, Hey Mizzooch. I bet you five bucksyou cant name the seven dwarfs!

The other gangster looked at his colleague carefully to make certain that he wasnt

bull-shitting him. He wasnt. Joey! he yelled to the bartender. Did you hear what Salsaid? I get five bucks for naming the seven dwarfs. Okay, you animal. Listen good

Dopey, Grumpy, Sleepy; he proceeded to name them all. Sal opened his wallet to

withdraw a five dollar bill, saying I didnt think you were that smart, go figure.Meanwhile, Maureen and I sat quietly sipping our Schaefers. It was likely their only

civic duty was a monthly visit to the office of their respective parole agents. Rather than

making us nervous, their presence had the opposite effect. We felt safe and secure; noone would be robbing or fighting in a connected establishment. In the early seventies,there were three streets in the Bronx Fox, Simpson, and Tiffany which were known

to be very rough. Police statistics revealed that a person living on those streets had a one

in eighteen chance of becoming a homicide victim, not even a twenty-to-one shot!

On the other hand, persons living where the Mafia did, in the Bensonhurst section of

Brooklyn, had a one in twelve hundred chance of becoming a crime victim. Maureen andI continued to talk softly, although it was more fun to overhear the mobsters

conversation.

Hey, Sal, my cousin said to me that he thought he seen you working at a store on WestThirty-seventh Street. I told him he gotta stop eating those mushrooms. said Grizzooch,

as he gave those present his best Cro-Magnon smile.

Sal laughed Working? Ya gotta be kidding me. I aint worked since that time in thefifties when Louie got us that job painting one of the bridges. I think we lasted three days.

This friend of Lous comes over with an Irish guy and says that Mike here is our crew

chief and that if we got any questions, all we gotta do is ask Mike. So me being a smartass, I say to him, Listen, Mike, do you think Ericco can get that pig hes riding home

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first in the sixth at Aqueduct? So the Mick just looks at me with a hard stare and says,

This is a bridge, not the track, so get to work.

I look surprised and says, You mean this aint the track? I musta taken a wrongturn and Im in the wrong place. Thanks for telling me.

You shouldda seen the look on the Irishmans face when I walked off. He started

yelling Where you going?I yelled back, Im going to the Big A, where the fuck do you think Im going?

Even the bartender laughed at that one.

The evening passed quickly and pleasantly, with a few more mobsters arriving. The juke

box appeared to be dedicated exclusively to Frank Sinatra. Then the bartender raised the

television volume as the first astronaut from the earth was stepping onto the surface of

the moon. Even the two gangsters appeared awed at this historic moment.Hey Mizzooch! Look at this. said Sal.

Sal, you see something like this and then you wonder how they can tap a phone?

said Mizzooch. Such was the relevance of the moon landing to the Mafia.