The Musician... see you among the stars

The family who lived next to my house on the left side moved. The house was sold later on to a Jewish family, the Weinstein’s. I noticed that they have a cute daughter named Judy. All the neighbors didn’t like the fact that Jewish people had moved into their Italian neighborhood. I told you that this block is very weird. However, this didn’t bother me a bit. I warmed up to the Weinstein’s immediately, and I quickly became a good friend with them, and I was responsible for making them feel welcome living next to me and on the block. Eventually, Judy and I began hanging-out with one another. Judy came into my house one day, and we were watching TV. Judy decided to sit on my lap and she began moving her ass back and forth on my dick. At first, I felt nothing, but then I began to realize that I was getting sexually aroused for the first time in my life. I did not know anything about sex or having a sexual feeling. I used to occasionally look at a Playboy magazine. I had at the time not realized what she was doing, but when I went to bed that night, I felt and thought of that sexual sensation for the first time. I was thinking about it in bed, and then I suddenly realized what she was trying to do. She was making a sexual advance, and I decided that I liked it. I remembered that every time I pushed her off my lap, she jumped back on it again. She had a wonderful sexy body. The next time that I’m with her, I will pay more attention, but this time I’m going to take advantage of the situation, because now I'm turned on. I did not see her the following day, but we did get together on the weekend on Friday night. I convinced her to take a stroll with me around the block and she agreed. I had my new Silvertone transistor radio that my brother just bought me, and I used it to listen to music every day. My favorite song was, Western Movies by The Olympics. For some reason, the radio station did not play it much, so I would listen to the radio all the time hoping to hear it come on. Judy and I went walking around the block with my radio on medium volume level. I was thinking how I could make a sexual move on her. I knew she liked me and I felt the same. I also knew she was hot, and that I could get more from her, like feel her shapely breasts. We were walking, and I was contemplating for the right moment. All of a sudden, I turned to her and instantly positioned her against the wall and kissed her continuously. She did not say anything so I fondled her breasts.

The next day I went to her house and she was with her little sister Ronda. Judy lured me downstairs to her basement with her little sister Ronda. It was then that I suggested that we play a special, made-up game of Hearts. I wanted to kiss Judy again, but her little sister was also there so I invented this game with my own rules. They didn’t know hher ow to play hearts so it was easy to make up the rules. I told them that if they were dealt a heart, then they had to kiss me. Judy agreed and her little sister went along unknowingly. I shuffled the cards and dealt them in a tricky way to give Judy most of the hearts. We were kissing like crazy. Occasionally, I had to kiss little sister, but when I did, it was very short. When I kissed Judy, it was very, very long kiss. We played the game for about 20 minutes.

That night in our backyard, which was an automobile driveway, which is in-between our houses and the BMT subway, I again cornered Judy. I pressed her against the wall and kissed her like I did the first night, but this time I rubbed my dick against her cunt. Again, she said nothing. This type of cat and mouse game continued for a few months, and without warning her family suddenly moved away. I guess that her family wanted to live in a Jewish section. I was very disappointed that they moved and that they didn’t tell anyone. Judy was the first girl who turned me on and made me think of sex, and how good it was kissing and fondling a girl. However, now that I know what boys and girls do, there are other girls on the block in which to engage, but I will never forget Judy Weinstein.

My new radio is a blast. I am now listening to music very heavily. My three sisters are dancing all the time. Every night I walk into the house my sisters and their friends are dancing. Every time I walked by to pass them, they would grab my arm and put me into the dance. They are dancing the Lindy like crazy. After awhile, I started to enjoy dancing. It was fun. They guided me and I just followed. Soon thereafter, I was getting extremely good. We had a dance contest in my school and I entered it and surprisingly I won first prize. My neighborhood church, Saint-Simon and Jude, began to have dances on Friday nights. It is nice. Everyone is coming closer together, and some of the kids from my school attended. It became a big thing, and everyone enjoyed it. New dances were popping up all the time like, The Stroll. At the church dance, at least twenty people were lined up on each side doing the Stroll. I developed my own style of The Stroll that caught the eye of everyone including the girls. Most of this music and dance craze comes from Dick Clark's American Bandstand. After months and months of dancing, I was beginning to teach my older sisters new steps. Many girls consistently wanted to dance with me. With all the new attention I was getting, I wanted to learn how to play the drums. I asked my parents if I could learn the drums and they said no. They said it was too loud, and that I should find another quieter instrument. I was very disappointed, because I would be very interested in playing the drums. I always thought that if you had a desire for something you would be good at it. Maybe some time in the future. I’ve been hearing a lot about people hanging out at a neighborhood place called M&M’s candy store and you can meet a lot of girls at the church dances.

Meanwhile, there are many new groups, and many new hit songs playing on the radio. Songs, which remained in your memory forever. I didn’t realize it at the time, but it was the birth of the new songwriters, Leiber and Stoller. Their songs are so memorable that they are creating a musical revolution.

M&M’s Candy Store is located on Avenue S and McDonald Avenue in my Brooklyn neighborhood. I met a different group of kids while dancing at the church, and they all hung-out at M&M’s Candy Store. McDonald Avenue is the home of the elevated “F” train. From Coney Island to Church Avenue in Brooklyn, the “F” train is elevated then it becomes a subway underground.

M&M’s had a great sounding jukebox with all the hit 45’s I enjoyed including, In The Still Of The Night, Little Darling by the Diamonds, and of course, Western Movies. I made it a point to go there every night after having dinner with my family. This was where all the boys and girls hung-out that I met at the church dance. M&M’s became so crowded that it attracted the cops who passed repeatedly. After a few months of all these kids hanging out at M&M’s, it started to become a click-gang mentality. Since M&M’s was the place to be, it also would attract many outsiders from different neighborhoods. Probably, because of the many girls who frequent the place.

One of the people that started to hang out with us was Freddie Fry. He was a big fat guy about 300 pounds. He was not from our neighborhood. He was from Eighth Avenue. He was trying to break into our crowd and was bragging about many bullshit things to the girls that hung out with us. After awhile, the girls began complaining to us about his excessive bullshit. He was very aggressive and refused to leave the girls alone. So one night, some of the guys went for a walk with him and gave him a mild beating. Freddie Fry then spread around rumors that he was connected with other gangs, and that he was going to come to M&M’s for retaliation. He threatened to come down with three or four gangs to kick the Asses out of all the guys hanging out at M&M’s. The word got out that Freddie Fry was coming with the gangs, and everyone from miles around showed up at M&M’s to lend support. Freddie Fry never showed up, but the cops did. I knew there was going to be trouble so I took my time eating dinner. I didn’t know what was going to happen, but I knew it was going to be big. When I arrived close to M&M’s, about a half a block away, I noticed about ten police cars and everyone at M&M’s was lined up against the wall. I decided to avoid this by returning back home. The next day, the police closed down M&M’s Candy Store.

My Cousin Joey‘s family moved into the basement apartment in my uncle’s house across the street. There was this big garage located behind the house. We had nothing to do after school so we used the garage to hangout in. We engaged in some crazy activity, which was mostly instigated by my Cousin Joey. For instance, we would give each other strangle holds we learned from watching Wrestling on T.V. until we almost passed out. However, most of the time, we listened and sang to the music on the radio. Leiber and Stoller are still pumping-out the hits. My Cousin Joey found this old acoustic guitar. He brought the guitar into the garage and began strumming on it not knowing any cords. With his body movements and improvisation it was amazing, but he sounded great. I was so impressed that it inspired me. I picked up the guitar and I began mimicking as he did. Joey had a knack of strumming. We would all listen to him strum for hours about nothing. He would be singing out the hit songs while never knowing a single chord. Again, it inspired me so much that I wanted a guitar also.

Every time that I was riding home with my family in the car, and we passed Ave T on West 8th Street, I noticed what appeared to be a possible recording studio. It is a side-street storefront. I decided that I was going to check-it-out. I went over to the storefront one afternoon and walked in. Sure enough, it is a recording studio. As I entered into a dark studio room there were two men listening to music in the console room, which is located in the rear of the storefront. I stood there silently. The two men had not noticed me. Finally, one of the men asked me to come to the console room. I entered the room and they asked me to listen to the music and tell them which song I liked. I automatically felt very comfortable and sat down on a chair to listen. They played about four songs on tape. Then they asked me for my opinion. I told them that I liked the song, Finger Poppin Time. They agreed with me and began to introduce themselves. One guy introduced himself as a record executive and the other guy, who looked like Elmer Fudd from the Bugs Bunny cartoon, introduced himself as the owner of the studio, Mario Rossi. They are both very nice people. I told Mario that it is very strange having a recording studio in this neighborhood. Mario told me that he lived around the corner and that this is his hobby. I became very impressed. I hung out with them for a while and told them about my interest in music. They both said that I had a good ear for music. Mario told me that I was welcome anytime here. I thanked them both and returned home very impressed with that experience. A few months later, the song, Finger Poppin Time became a hit.

My birthday would be arriving soon so I began working on my family to get me a guitar for my birthday. I assured them everyday that a guitar was all I wanted. There was not a day that went by where I did not mention it to them. Finally my birthday had arrived and I was so excited that I was waiting for my entire family to individually arrive home. My father worked, my mother worked, my sisters and brother went to school, and I was home at 3pm. It was now 7pm on my birthday. We were all at the dinner table, and no one mentioned anything about my birthday. I was waiting for someone to say something like, “Oh, today it’s Junior's birthday,” but know mentioned a word about it. They were eating dinner as if there was nothing special about the day. So finally I said, “Today is my birthday!” My sister Jeanette said “O’ yeah. That’s right. We forgot all about it.” My sister looked at my mother and said, “Today is October 1st?” I became so pissed that I jumped from the dinner table and stormed out of the house. I ran across the street where my Cousin Joey was hanging out and Joey asked if they got me the guitar. I said, “No, they didn’t even remember my birthday.” I started crying a little. Then I heard my name being called out, Junior ...Junior... I looked across the street at the front door of my house and an arm exited out with a beautiful Stella guitar attached to it. I freaked. My family had me going way beyond the line. It was not funny. However, I was so happy that I ran across the street grabbed it and ran back to my Cousin and began to strum away. I could not strum like my Cousin, but I tried very hard. My Cousin, by this time had learned a few chords and proceeded to show me some chords. He especially showed me how to play the song Finger Popping Time.

The next day, my Cousin Joey and I were jamming together, somewhat. We both did not know how to play much, but we tried very hard. We were trying to play the song, “Finger Popping Time.” With our great enthusiasm, it was beginning to sound pretty good together. Anyway, we were having a great time. Mikie, who lives across the street, began hanging out with us. Then a couple of days later something would happen that would change our lives forever. My Cousin Joey’s Cousin Jackie showed up at the garage with an electric guitar and amp. He came into the garage and opened the guitar case. As soon as he opened the case, I stared, and my eyes lit up as if I seen an Angel. The guitar looked like some instrument from outer space. Cousin Joey introduced Jackie to Mickie and I saying, “Guys, I want you to meet my Cousin Jackie.” Jackie pulled out his Gretsch guitar, plugged it in to the portable Fender amp, and began to play. We were all in ore. I have never heard such a sound. Jackie was playing, “Walk Don’t Run,” by The Ventures perfectly. He used the tremolo arm on the guitar, although I did not know at the time what a tremolo arm was. It was a tiny, long metal bar that stuck-out from the guitar bridge. When he pulled up or pushed down on it, it would make the strings bend with a twang. As we watched Jackie play songs of The Ventures, (which were very difficult indeed) we were all wishing that we could play just like that, as well as having a guitar like his. Then nicely, Jackie allowed each of us to try holding the guitar, and it was amazing. It made our acoustic guitars seem like toys. Then Jackie patiently showed us how to play, “Walk Don’t Run,” and how to use the tremolo arm. Wow! Then Jackie began teaching us how to play the chords to, “Walk Don’t Run” so that we may someday accompany him while Jackie played the lead part. My Cousin Joey and I practiced for weeks together. Finally, Jackie returned to the garage, and we had a great jam. Now I had to work on my parents for my next birthday to get me an electric guitar and an amp. Jackie appearance into the garage with his Gretsch Guitar and amp inspired me into the world of music.