Re: The Other Side of the Track (424 Views)

Shortly after I started working for Len he moved to a shotgun flat on Perry st. I took the place he had been living in, which was basically an attic just off Washington Square, cause the $100 a month was about all I could afford at 20. Four story walk up, bathroom in the hall.

The way the Perry street place was set up the paper files (way pre computers for either of us) were in the middle room. One night I’m working there and Len comes past me taking his date to his room. He closes the door, but I can hear enough to hear them talking. Then…

He evidently thought the way to impress her was with that banjo and his singing. He starts playing and bellowing (term used advisedly) “John Henry was a baby, sitting on his papa’s knee”… No inhibitions whatsoever. And I had an instantaneous laughing fit.

At that time Len used to go into towering rages, and he was 6’5, and I was intimidated (which I got over, a few years later I threatened to punch his lights out). So I first locked myself in the bathroom, and when I could still hear him I left.