From: pez@manhattan.com (Gizmo) Subject: The Adventures Of Smacks Past (Part 41) The Flavor Of The Scene Date: 1996/11/26 newsgroups: alt.drugs.hard THE ADVENTURES OF SMACKS PAST (PART 41) The Flavor Of The Scene You had to be there. In New York, during the late 60's, early 70's. It was a heady time to be sure. There was such a confluence of forces at work. Most folks took little notice of what was happening. But some of us eat it up. The Bronx, circa 1968. Most folks only know of the Bronx as, "The South Bronx," home to Yankee Stadium, and a disgusting crime and drug infested slum, made up mostly of people on Welfare, Food Stamps and Medicaid. But "The Bronx," was a pretty interesting place back then. At that time it was certainly not a total slum. To be sure, there was a "South Bronx" section that had all the things that gave the entire borough a bad name, but it was a small area in relation to the entire borough. Most of "The Bronx," at the time was made up of blue collar workers and their rather colorfully ethnic and expanding families. Most of the area was populated with Italians, Irish, Polish, Jewish and German folks. The rest of the inner part of the Bronx, or South Bronx was Hispanic and Black. The area where I grew up was mostly Italian, Irish and Jewish. It was a classic "Archie Bunker" neighborhood. A lot of fun to grow up in actually. Tons of children on the streets where I lived, with all kind of wonderful childlike street games, like Stickball, Touch Football, Hide & Seek, etc. We all grew up in a neighborhood that was alive. On the one block where I lived a friend of mine said he counted over 100 children, ages 5 to 15 at the time. Street narcotics and Marijuana were around since the early 1900's, but they were rather limited to specific areas, were controlled directly by The Mafia, and were rarely seen in the types of neighborhoods like the one I grew up in. It wasn't until the mid sixties that drugs started to become a household name. It took the whole counter culture, 60's psychedelic movement to put the word, DRUGS on the lips of the parents and kids of these neighborhoods. But when it hit, it hit like a tornado. Within one year, the children of these blue collar "Archie Bunker," types were looking to score Pot, LSD, Pill, Hash, and eventually Heroin and Cocaine. You had to be there. You had to be there to know the flavor of this new ingredient. Many of the kids I grew up with were starting to drink alcohol. "Wet heads," we used to call them. "Greasers" was the other tag line, that described them too. So you had kids who were "good kids," who wouldn't drink, didn't cut school and basically stuck to the American model of, get good grades, stay in school, go to college etc. Then you had the bad asses, that wanted to drink beer and hard liquor on the weekends, and go out and get into fights or try to get laid. Now there's a behavior model, eh? Go out, get shit faced, kick the shit out of someone, then try to romance the woman. And you also had the ones that wouldn't touch drugs, but liked sniffing glue and Carbona! Jeez. And then there was the "new generation," that started smoking pot, dropping LSD, and turning on to something very different. The classic junkies of the time were rarely seen at first. We knew of a few who (hung out on "The Avenue,") but hardly anyone had anything to do with them. Still, this total mix of mid 60's adolescent development, gave rise to a very colorful neighborhood. Mixed into all this were the young "Mafia Wannabe's." Our neighborhood had lots this. So did parts of Brooklyn, Manhattan, Staten Island, and Queens. Actually, a lot of the city had this. There were so many young macho Italian types running around, that you would swear that a large part of the cities population must have been "connected." All these kids thought it was cool to act like a Gotti, a Castellano, a Genevese, etc. You had young Italian kids, that talked like Sylvestor Stallone, wore a lot of stupid gold chains and pinky rings, drove Lincoln Town cars or Cadilacs, fronting off the fact that they had a brother, a father, and uncle or a cousin that was "connected." So the image was, "hey don't fuck with me." Of course most of this was bullshit. Although there were a few kids, that could legitimately make that claim, the image was more like, "hey my dad can kick the shit out of your dad." Big deal. But this total mix, was what made the "hood," come alive. There was so much energy going on, that if you were receptive to it on any level, it made for some exciting times. Contrast this place with nice tame, lame places like Scarsdale NY, Macon GA, Sun City Arizona, etc. Compared to "The Bronx," these places were relatively dull. It wasn't Haight Ashbury California, or San Francisco but it was a blast. Perhaps even more of a blast, for although the whole 60's movement started in California, it spread to New York City in a large way. So you had, "New York Energy," coupled with the California thing, back dropped by the fading value systems of the 40's and 50's generations. Layered throughout all this was the new music scene. The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Stones, Dylan, The Moody Blues, Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, Procal Harem. Juxtaposed musically with that you had groups like The Four Tops, Stevie Wonder, The Supremes, etc. Depending on what block you were hanging out on you could hear anything from Led Zeppelin, to Frank Sinatra. The young Italian kids, still liked Frankie back then. I guess they figured he was "connected" too. Come to think of it, he was. But as it happened across the country in various hot spots, the 60's psychedelic movement finally started to burn out. Somewhere in 1968 there was an enormous pot shortage for about four or five months. I can't remember exactly when, but I remember that you couldn't buy a $5 bag of pot for love or money. People were traveling as far as Florida to try to find some good weed. I'm not sure how many folks noticed it, but this had an interesting effect on the drug scene. All of sudden, heroin was looking better and better. Not only was heroin selling for $1 to $2 a bag still, but one of those bags could get you stoned three or four times if you were a new user, plus it was a much more potent high. So little by little, the kids who normally wouldn't go near H, started getting into it. "Can't buy pot? Fuck it, let's get some dope," was the thinking. And in the space of one summer a lot of us got our first habit. Even though pot eventually became available again, it was too late! Once smitten with the dope craving, a whole bunch of us didn't give a shit about pot anymore. Also at this time, heroin became available in the suburbs in a big way. Like I said earlier, before 1966/67, dope was a pretty clandestine thing in the suburbs of the city. Even in places like Harlem and East New York, it was still a secluded thing. Not any more! Now, you could walk down the major streets of almost anywhere in New York City and cop. Hell, dope was being sold even in more exclusive places like New Rochelle, Mt. Vernon, Yonkers etc. The price was a little higher, but it was there. This situation continued for quite a while. Eventually the cops succeeded in slowing things down somewhat, but not before big bad heroin coursed it's way into the lives of many "nice local kid." There's just no stopping junk. Unless, you want to stop it for yourself, personally. Copyright Gizmo 1996