I 'm sorry all of this is not in order.............I'm writing as all this comes back to me.
My first room assignment was room 33 in the 129 building....It was and old building, built around the turn of the century,...The society owned it but it had worldly people in to.......I'm not sure why but maybe there was a law that provented them from being kicked out or something. It was a 2 bedroom, 1 bath apartment (about 1000 sq. ft.) There were 7 of us in there, all new boys ( less then one year there). There was 2 guys in each of the bedrooms and 3 guys in the living room. I got the back bedroom with some righteous spanish kid from Texas (forgot his name) The bedroom was about 10x10, there were 2 beds, 2 desks and 2 dressers in there. It was so small............you had to go out side to change your mind, LOL. Lots cockroaches.........we would have roach races......we would catch these roachs, put them in glass jar, draw a circle on the kitchen floor, put the glass jar in the middle and let them go.............the first rouch that got to the circle.....WON!.........the prize was getting squashed.
There was a 5 inch hole in our bathroom floor, next to the toilet............You could look down and see some guy sitting there on the can..........so one day when this guy was sitting on his toilet, we got a glass of water and then flashed our toitet, (which he could hear) and through the water down the hole on this "brothers"head.......You should have seen the look on his face.
Work is over at 5:40, so on Thursdays (my meeting night) we had to run home, change and jump on a subway train, about an hour ride (no time to eat) to make it on time to the ministry school. My congergation, Inwood, was about 80% black and spanish..........God I love the Black KHs.......they are the nicest people you would ever meet. The best hall I have ever been in! You had to be down to earth and be able to "shuck and jive" with them..........They (like most people) hated "uppeede" people. I was lucky, there were only six bethelities in my hall. Two tight ass company men, Daryl Christianson and Larry Fisher both elders and 4 new boys, me, Densis Miller, Dave Poroit, and Mike Adams who I later heard had a break down at the farm. I heard he tried to kill himself.........I wonder why?
Anyway if we were lucky, the sisters (at the hall) would give you some food in a brown paper bag at the end of the meeting, to take home with you we would eat it on the train..........You would have to wait until someone else was ready to leave before you could go.The reason was at the time, we were suppose to travel in "pairs"........to prevent getting "mugged" and just about everone who was at bethel (in 4 years) got mugged at least once. They told us to have at least couple of bucks on us at all times. The reason was if you did got mugged and you didn't have any money on you, they (the muggers) would beat the shit out of you ..........thinking you had it hidden on you somewhere and you just didn't want to give it up. You, just don't want to piss off those crack heads!.............. it was hard at times to have even 2 bucks on you........One friend of mine ended up in the hospital after they took a lead pipe to his head. The reason he was a "white boy" in Harlem with no money..........
You would see the strangest stuff on the subway.......You would be there eating your brown bag dinner and all of a sudden, some tramp would be there and start, "jacking off" right in front of you..........Or the door open and some 400 lb. black guy would get on the train wearing a pink "tu tu"..........and you know he wasn't doing to a costume party..............THE LAST THING you would ever do, is stare at them. Don Broux (xbethel & XCO)......happened to catch a guy's eyes for 2 SECONDS as the train was stopping. The guy jumped up, went over to Don and slugged him in the nose.....and said "WHAT THE F....K ARE YOU LOOKING AT?" It was Don's last week at bethel he got married 4 days later with a broken nose. Another friend of mine was just sitting on the train and this black guy walks up to him, with his 3 year old kid and points to my friend and says "DO YOU SEE THIS BOY?...........pointing to my friend, "THIS IS A WHITETY!.......YOU HATE WHITETY!........YOU KILL WHITETY!..........then just walked off. Those fun New Yorkers..................
On one of those hot summer nights.......... when we got no dinner, from the sisters, after the meeting. I got off the subway, clothes drenched with sweat. Walked back to the 129, got to my room and just started crying for no reason......I went to the kitchen open the refrigerator door to see a bottle of "cold duck" I had bought a week earlier........grabbed it and drank the whole thing in 3 mins.......The room started spin, I laid down on my bed and after a few mins. through up on me and the bed I just laid there crying......"Are you O.K."...my roommate asked.........."I'm sick" I said.......and I was....sick of heart.
I thought It was really true............"they really didn't give a shit about us"