16 Park Island

  My Mother was teaching Marion to sew using her brand new state of the art Brothers Sewing Machine.                    Marion was new to the role of being a housewife having spent her earlier years in the strip clubs as a dancer. These Clubs lined Bourbon St. In those years of unrequited love she and Tony hit it off.   I am fairly sure she was a stripper for a club when Tony met and married her.  

     They soon adopted a girl to complete this domestic scene. Tony had nightclubs.   In fact, he had many clubs. He had the very first Whiskey a Go Go in New Orleans where Johnny Rivers got his start in the music business.  He also owned Guys and Dolls as well as a string of strippers.
        Tony bought a split level home on Park Island where the wealthy sought isolation. This is on Bayou St. John that drained the area of those torrential rains New Orleans is notorious for.  He bought his and hers Cadillacs to celebrate his success in the nightclub business.  His palatial palace had a pool. This is why my brothers and I went to enjoy with Mother during her educational sessions with Marion.  The pool was nice in the summer heat.

      We would spend our summers fishing for bream during the spawning season. You could catch a whole string of bluegills in one day. One had to fish correctly with the cane pole. I was good at fishing.  I'd stand at the double sink cleaning fish. I slipped with the razor sharp knife and peeled the skin on my right fingers. I bled like I was going to die. Marion stopped the bleeding and bandaged my wounds.
      We had to be quiet during our visits there. Tony was sleeping after nearly all night at his clubs. I visited him at his office at a club after hours. He was sitting behind his huge desk counting money with that silver thirty eight always close by for unannouced visitors. 

        New Orleans was a crime ridden city.    At that time, it was the murder capital of the world due to Carlos Marcello and the Gambino Family.  That .38 would play a significant role in their lives.

       Marion committed suicide with this gun during a drunken spree when her past came to haunt her.  Gratefully, I was gone during these troubling episodes.  The memories linger on.  It was not long before we heard the news of Tony's death a few years hence followed by the daughter.  When things start to go wrong there is no escape from fate.  Live fast die young seems to have been their motto.

    Park Island was rich.  Frank Demico the lawyer had an indoor pool that was heated.  It was as close to a Roman bath as possible in New Orleans.           

      My interest was his worm beds for fishing he had built.  He fed them cornmeal sprinkled on the surface.  He said I could get my fishing worms from him for free.  No more digging up the banks of the bayou. I was moving up in this crazy Mafioso world.
     All of this was happening right around the Kennedy assassination.  The coincidences were hitting close to home.  Jack Ruby had night club connections in the Big Easy. Lee Harvey Oswald and David Ferry being in the same C.A.P my brother was in.

       I could not put my finger on it because when you are dealing with a sinister world everything becomes invisible after the fact.  The DA Garrison was on to something but that was quashed by these shadowy people.
   I wanted away from this.  I did not know how to get out. I started travelling by thumb. I went to Florida to the Gulf Stream Race Track Music Festival. Anything to distract me from stinky old New Orleans was OK by me. You ever feel trapped?   Then you know how I was feeling.                      There were huge pressures on me at that time. The University life was not appealing.  It was filled with the hard lesson that I would never be a scientist. Chem 2B made sure of that. The highest grade in class was a 49. I was somewhere in the twenties.  You start out with a perfect 4.0 average. With each passing semester you lose a little of this to inattention and mistakes. You learn very early to drop the tough courses after one or two sessions before they affect your grade point. You slowly resign to Arts and Sciences from a nonpracticing perspective.

      I tried to master Algebra again.  It was impossible even with tutors. Getting the right answer was like finding Eldorado.  Once you start down the slippery slope of failure, its every man for himself.. All you are looking for is an escape route. I had none.  No one came forward and offered me a money job.  All I could find was dishwashing or waiter jobs which again puts you at the mercy of the public filled with distain.  

       If some manager doesn't like you, find another job....except jobs were not easy to find.  Life is hard and then you die.  This is all I learned during my time in New Orleans.

     The only bright spot was Scouting. THE BSA provided some relief. I had to bike to scout meetings five miles away. The bike finally gave out.  We lived at 4110 Franklin Ave.