Growing Up 2
I’ve smoked cigarettes since I was eleven years old. My brother taught me and the kids in the neighborhood thought it was cool and I guess that reinforced me. I once figured that I've smoked enough cigarettes, that If placed end to end, they would make a cigarette nearly twenty miles long. quite a habit.
My first and only hero was Beethoven. My sweatshirts had his face on the front.
The sixties were better than the seventies. The whisky tasted sweeter, the days were warmer, the hopes were higher, and the girls were prettier.
The fifties were better than the sixties. There wasn’t a need for whisky, or girls, or warm days, and the only hopes were for Christmas.
The forties were better than the fifties. Everything was new.
A doctor was a customer of mine and he would never pay for his paper. I would vibrate his door every Saturday and ask for the money, and he would tell me that he was busy. The world is full of rotten sonsabitches.
My mother took me to a picture show when I was very young. I got sick and threw up on the people that were sitting In front of us.
Denny Gilmore lived across the street. He built model airplanes and flew them in our front yard. His baseball glove reminded me of a spaceship, and I would never play with him.
Will Rogers Jr. had an early morning TV show. I listened to his voice. It was melodious and had little curves on the ends.
I didn't like Howdy Doody because he wasn't real, and near Christmas the lights on the tree would reflect on the screen.
My brother would hold me out of the second floor window by my heels. He taught me well. Sometimes he would drop me. He threw a knife at me once. I bled.