The first 18 years of my life were lived in this apartment building on 141st and Willis Ave in the South Bronx. My Irish immigrant parents lived here. I was brought home from the hospital to our third floor railroad flat apartment. My father was a butcher in a meat plant and my mother was a domestic and a factory worker. Both have them never finished grammar school. My father died in this apartment when I was four years old. My widowed mom raised my brother and me here on two checks. She received a Veteran's check for my father's service in WWII and a Social Security check.
I lived here when John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. I lived here when Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1964. I lived here during the big blackout of 1965 and the race riots of 1964 and 1968. I lived here during the days of the Black Panthers and the Black Muslims. I lived here during the heroin epidemic that swept New York in the 60's. I lived here when they coined the term urban decay to describe my neighborhood in the South Bronx.I lived here during the beginning of "White Flight" and was one of the few remaining white families in the neighborhood. I lived here when the Bronx was burning during the arson epidemic. My neighborhood the Mott Haven section of the South Bronx was one of the poorest neighborhoods in the country at the time and still is today.
I lived here and dropped out of high school at the age of 15 years old. I survived a gun aimed at my head at age fifteen when I was working at a neighborhood grocery store. To the rest of the country and the world it was "Fort Apache - The Bronx" or a symbol of the worst of urban decay in America. Yet to me it was my neighborhood where I had lots of great friends and a fun childhood.
I moved out when I was eighteen to the Northwest Bronx. My mother remained in the same building for a few more years until 1976 when I was able to convince her to move to the North Bronx. The building was burned in an arson fire sometime after she moved out but before it was demolished I was lucky to have a friend take a picture of the building.
The picture above is on my wall as a reminder of where I came from. It's been a long and interesting journey from the South Bronx to today. I went from the Bronx to Hollywood and to Ireland. I walked through my parents childhood homes and my life has come full circle. I've often wondered how I got here from there and have begun to explore it in my blog but also in a memoir that I am writing entitled "Black Irish - Not Your Average White Boy".
I will continue to share moments from my journey in the future....
