Page 6 - Boca ViewPointe - May '22

Page 6, Viewpointe May 2022

Those Were The Days, My Friends…

By William A. Gralnick another empty bench, squeaking away. “THERE”S ONE were still one car families, and because we left from
HERE TOO!” It was not much of a stretch to believe school, we had to carry our guns to school along with our
I grew up on the NYC that there could be mice around us. Thankful everyone books, leave them in our lockers, walk them to the subway
subways. They took me was that he didn’t say rat. The subway stations were station. Then we exited the station, onto the street, and
on dates, to work from dirty; sometimes you could see the rats and mice feeding walked to “Tech.” From Midwood to Tech, on the subway,
Flatbush, Brooklyn to sumptuously on the manna dropped on the tracks by those sat between five and seven teenagers holding rifles. True
East New York Brooklyn, waiting for their train. They had enough of what they were they were in carry cases, but they were unmistakable. You
and to the Long Island Railroad to see my steady eating and just tossed it into the home of the third rail. could not hide a long gun in a violin case like you saw
girlfriend. There were always odd things going on. I Emboldened by this and people beginning to react, Bob Tommy guns hidden in the gangster movies.
remember well the blind man and his red accordion, ratcheted up the search by choosing a bench upon which True it was the Cold War. True we had “Take Cover!”
donation cup attached, managing to walk. play, and was seated an elderly woman. “Excuse me ma’am. I think drills and dove under our classroom seats. But there had
negotiate the doors and platforms that connected the cars. there’s a mouse under your seat.” She screamed, bolted been no 911. There was no such thing as a Homeland
There were the occasional drunks panhandling. Women from her seat, and fled to the next car. G-d takes care of Security Department and international terrorism until the
got felt up, children threw up, old people fell down when drunks and children, it is said. No one alerted the Transit Munich Olympics and certainly no such thing as domestic
they didn’t have a good grip on the pole and the train went Police. We pulled this stunt several times with resulting terrorism except maybe in the twisted mind of “commie-
screeching around a curve. People were pick-pocketed. glee and success. hunting” Senator Joe McCarthy from Wisconsin. And
An occasional gang fight happened under the sidewalks. The city did have its panics. There was the Son of there were no shooters with smoke bombs and 9mm
Every-so-often there would be a signal malfunction that Sam, He didn’t kill anyone on subways, but who knew he Glocks with extended magazines. The only extended
caused one train to run into another. wouldn’t until he was caught. There was George Metesky, magazines we had were special issues of Life, Look, or
When a car was empty enough, kids would fool the Mad Bomber, who planted pipe bombs, instead of the Saturday Evening Post.
around, kids like me. My friend had discovered in a mice, under subway car benches and blew people’s legs Yes, friends, those were the days.
Cracker Jacks box, a delicacy to which I am still addicted, off. But life was stable enough so the following could
what was described as a bird whistle. It was a little half- happen and cause pretty much no reaction, something Columnist and author Bill Gralnick was born and
moon piece of something with frilled edges. You put it in that today would be unthinkable. raised in Brooklyn, NY. He is writing a three-part
the front of your mouth, fringe-forward, and according to I was captain of the Midwood HS riflery team. I don’t humorous memoir. The first is “The War of the Itchy
the instructions could imitate birds by blowing air over remember if we practiced weekly or bi-weekly. Whatever Balls and Other Tales from Brooklyn.” Just published
it. A likely story. The sound it did make was much more it was, it required taking the subway to a school, Brooklyn is the sequel, “George Washington Didn’t Sleep Here.”
mouse-like than bird-like. Therein lay the kennel of an Tech, which for some reason had a riflery range. Because Both are available on Amazon. You can find his writing
idea. We boarded the subway going somewhere, and the one couldn’t drive until age 18, because many families at https://www.williamgralnickauthor.com. 
kernel popped into a full-blown idea. Bob would start
making noises with it and say loudly, very loudly, to me,
“OMG, DID YOU HEAR THAT? THERE’S A MOUSE
UNDER ONE OF THOSE SEATS. Boca Pointe Community Association, Inc.
Now, playing his best Inspector Jacques Clouseau
imitation, he searched under our bench. Then he chose 6909 SW 18th St., Suite A120 A special Thank You to our monthly volunteer contributing writers
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William A. Gralnick
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