"PREPARING FOR GRAMMAR SCHOOL"

When I was four years old, I was the King of East 46th Street. Maybe it was the fact that I had an older brother who was tough or that my old man was a cop but I was pretty tough myself, back in those days. If any of the other kids tried to bully me around, I'd make quick mince-meat of them in two seconds flat. That made me, "The Boss".
We had a cool group of kids who lived in the neighborhood. There was Joey, two brothers named Howie & Jeff, Peter Paul and his cousin, Peter John, two girls named Lois and the local doctor's son, Joel. This made up the core group of our gang. We all had bicycles and would ride them in the big lot on E. 46th, which was just around the corner from my house on Foster Avenue. There were these big mounds of dirt left over from a previous excavation of some kind and to us, these were our "mountains". There was a dirt trail that ran around the perimeter of these hilly mounds and we would ride our bikes around to the back and then down this giant hill, going as fast as we could. The only way to stop before careening out into the street was to crash into one of the mounds in the middle of the lot. Luckily, the dirt was soft and we never got hurt. Sometimes one of the kids would miss the mound and would go flying out into the street before being able to stop. There weren't too many cars coming down the block back then so chances were that we wouldn't get run over. People drove a lot slower back then, too.
When we got tired of our bikes, we'd organize street games like ring-a-levio, Johnny May I Cross Your River, hide and go seek, which we always referred to as "hingo" seek. In fact, I never knew it's official title was hide and go seek until I was much older. We played stick ball in the other lot we called "Pebble Field" which was across the street from the other lot, our favorite one.
One day, to our sheer horror, we all met by the lot for what we thought would be another great mountain-biking episode, only to discover that a bunch of mean-looking men driving bulldozers had flattened out our entire mountain range! To our credit, me and Joey, who was a pretty big kid even at four years old, went up to one of the men and asked what they thought they were doing. Well, there were four houses being built on the site, he explained, much to our dismay. We told him that this was the place where we rode our bikes every day and now it was ruined. He couldn't help it, he said. The houses were going to be built and there was nothing he could do about it.
"Look on the bright side," he said. "Maybe there'll be some new kids moving in and you'll make new friends." There weren't any new kids who moved in those houses and we always hated those houses because they were the newer ones made of brick with the high stoops and we just didn't like them. They were too "modern" looking. When we were about nine or ten a girl, believe it or not named, Lois (this made three girls named Lois on the same block) did move into one of them and she used to let us "feel her up" so maybe it wasn't so tragic, after all. To this day, I cringe whenever I see new construction of any kind going up.
It was about this time, right before summer that my older brother and sister, Bobby and Lizzy told me that when I turned five I would have to go to school, just like they did. I remember my reply to them as if it were yesterday. "Oh, No," I said. "I'm not going to school! I'm having too much fun playing with my friends!"
"Yes, you are," they taunted. "Everbody has to go to school when they turn five."
Oh, no. This could become a real problem. I wasn't so sure about school. It seemed like some sort of prison that all the older kids in the neighborhood had to be stuck in all day long. My fifth bithday was just around the corner at the end of June. Come September, it was off to kindergarden for this kid. Plus, those nuns at Little Flower were SCARY LOOKING!
Although I spent most of that summer giving my mother all kinds of reasons why I thought I shouldn't have to go to school
it didn't do any good. "You're going!" was all she said. Case closed.
I think it was some time in August of that year that she said to me, "Go down to Miss Farley's house and introduce yourself to her." (Miss Farley was the kindergarten teacher who also lived on Foster Avenue).
"I can't do that, Ma," I said.
"Sure you can. Why can't you? Just go down there and knock on her door. When she answeres, tell her who you are and that you'll be in her kindergarten class in September."
"I can't. I'm too scared."
"What are you scared of? There's nothing to be scared of. Just go down there and do it." There was no talking her out of it.
"Okay." Oh, my God, what do I do, now? I can't go down there and knock on some stranger's door. Is my mother nuts?
I'M ONLY FIVE YEARS OLD! I don't know this lady. What am I gonna say to her? She'll think I'M crazy, coming down there and knocking on her door and bothering her.
I think it took me a good half hour to walk the one short block to Miss Farley's house and summon up the courage to knock on her door. Even though my feet felt like lead and were glued to the sidewalk, I finally found myself standing in front of her door, shaking like a leaf. Well, here goes, I remember telling myself. I walked up the stoop, took a deep breath and rang the bell (I was too scared to knock). A moment later, this beautiful young woman answered the door and stood there looking down at me.
"M'mmmmiss Farley?" I stammered.
"Yes." she answered.
"hi,missfarley,mynameisbillyandIlivedowntheblockanI'mgonnabeinyourclassthisyear!" Whew. I got it out.
"Oh, how SWEET!" she said. "Come on in, Billy. I'm so glad you came down and introduced yourself. Would you care for a soda?"
"Sure. My mother sent me." She brought me inside her house, sat me down on the sofa, gave me an ice-cold bottle of coke and asked me all about myself. We talked for about fifteen minutes and I finally relaxed and thought, this wasn't so bad. She even gave me a coke!
Well, you know what? I was A STAR the entire time I was in kindergarten! I mean, I was her favorite. I could do no wrong. Miss Farley told all the other kids how she met me and how it was the nicest thing for me to do. I got the lead in the kindergarten play (Pony Boy). I got to sing the lead song. I even got the girl - Betty! (She later became a nun but we were boyfriend and girlfriend for the entire year we were in kindergarten). Even the other kids treated me like a star. I guess when you're the teacher's pet, they have no choice.
When I think about it today, I realize that incident was my first experience with POLITICS! Boy, my mother was pretty smart, after all. Until next time, this is Richie D., The Kid From FLATBUSH, wishing you good memories and lots of happiness.