Chapter 9 - The Four Corners, Long Island, New York
Chapter 9 - The Four Corners, Long Island, New York
Aldo’s parents were very nice. His mother only spoke Italian, and his father spoke broken English. They had bought a house at the far-east side of Brooklyn. When they arrived in America they opened a food service business in the East Village in Manhattan called Jumbo Food Shop, and after a couple of years, they had bought their first house in America, which eventually became our new place to rehearse.
Aldo is a very determined guy. When I first met him, he did not know how to play the drums. In a short time he had learned and bought a new set of drums. He had also learned on his own, how to play the songs we knew. I was shocked that he progressed this far. With such enthusiasm, I not only affirmed his acceptance in the band, but I gave him the freedom to take part in any business matters evolving the band if he wanted. I had no interest in business. Aldo accepted and thus got us this weekend gig in Long Island. It was a club located in the Five Points area of Long Island. It was Friday night and we had just finished out second set when we noticed something was not quite right. It appeared that this was a young gang club. The girls were the only ones dancing, while the guys were standing around looking very tough and mean. We began to feel very uncomfortable. Usually in a nasty club no one ever picks on the band, because the band is their entertainment for the evening. However, we were a very handsome band. The girls all wanted to be with us, which was not good because the rough looking guys hanging out here are giving us terrible looks and vibes. The guys were eyeing us as though they wanted to kill us. The girls in this club were extremely sexy and attractive. On our breaks, we were very scared to venture outside the club. I had met a girl who wanted to be with me very badly. I told her that the tension in this club is growing worst by the hour. I told her that I would meet her somewhere else if we made it out of this place alive. She told me where to meet her and the band prayed while we played.
After the last song of the evening, we waited a long time for the gang members to take off and exit the club. We were waiting for them to get tired of waiting for us, and we finally made it out. The bad guys ventured off, and I met this girl Julie and a few of her wonderful friends. I hung out with Julie for a couple of hours; she hooked me up with her male friend Ira who put me up in his house to sleep so that Julie and I could spend time with one another. Ira and Julie lived in Hewlett, Long Island. Hewlett is a prominently Orthodox Jewish community. Very wealthy! Since Julie could not date anyone that was not Jewish according to her parents, she and Ira gave me the name, Charlie Weinstein.
The next morning when Ira and I awoke, Ira’s mother had breakfast waiting for us. I arrived downstairs to the kitchen and I was introduced to Ira’s mother surprisingly as Charlie Weinstein. Ira’s mother was very sweet and wonderful, and she prepared us a great breakfast, scrambled eggs on a roll with cream cheese and lox. Boy was that delicious! After breakfast, Ira and I met with Julie and we went strolling around Long Island. Ira became a wonderful friend and he and I would become very close. Julie was very sexy and hot looking, but above all, she too was a very wonderful person. I was blessed to have met these two people. I was very different than the typical Italian boy from Bensonhurst. I fit in with the Jewish crowd perfectly. After the weekend gig, I would spend the next six months hanging out with Ira and Julie. I slept over Ira’s house almost every weekend I was free from the band performing. Ira’s family would eventually learn that I wasn’t Jewish, but they did not care. They loved me very much and treated me as a member of the family. Everyone in Hewlett loved me very much, but my own family treated me like shit. I could never understand that.
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