Growing Up

Going to PS 123 was a strange experience. I didn't get along
with the teacher I would have for the years I was there. I don't
want to mention her name because this would give her some sort
of fame. She definitely doesn't deserve it. She was a sadist.
I received all D's and U's from her. I probably deserved them
because of the dislike I had for her.
I was supposed to go to another teacher at PS 123 but instead
my Mom took me out of the school and I went to PS 74 where I began
the sixth grade not the fifth grade. I'm not sure how this
happened.
I loved going to PS 74.The teacher's were really nice. Of course
there is always one bad apple in the bunch and I did have one
there but avoided him like the plague. I won't mention his name
either. The man was very heavy and out of shape,yet he thought of
himself as a jock. He wasn't.
After graduation I went to Bushwick High School and I wasn't
academically inclined.
After half of the term I transferred to East New York Vocational
High( The Annex). My school average was very high and I had
a run in with school tough's ala “The Blackboard Jungle”
again I transferred to GWVHS downtown Brooklyn.
At sixteen I found I didn't care for the courses at the high school
and decided I would drop out and go to work.
This may seem concise and it is but rememberI was influenced
reading comic books of all types,listening to music of all types,
riding the subways of New York and visiting the many neighborhood's.
My voyages were on the Staten Island Ferry which was FREE and
train fare was ten cent's.
Riding trolley car's was a great experience,fishing in Canarsie,
crabbing at Broad Channel,trips to Coney Island and riding in the
first car with the front window open to view all that was going
by.Riding my bike all over Brooklyn and seeing all there was to see.
I considered this part of my education a big part of it.
Not to forget the many television show's I went to in Manhattan.
I would wait outside and receive free ticket's to them.
Movies on 42nd St were numerous and inexpensive.They weren't
X-rated when I was a kid,this came much later on.
There was a theater on 42nd St called the Laff and they showed
cartoon's and comedy film's all day long non-stop.