Anyone ever see a film called Goodfellas? I grew up and live in Ozone Park and around there the mafia was part of your life in a way. The notorious Bergen Hunt and Fish club was right next to my mothers bank on 101 ave. She'd go to the drive through after picking us up after school and many times you could catch John Gotti walking and chatting with an associate closely followed by two large goons. He'd throw a big 4th of July block party right there on 101 in front of Bergen and my parents took us there a few times. hot dogs, hamburgers, rides and fireworks. Their presence also kept away the "competition" giving people the notion that they protected the neighbourhood. The fact was everyone was so scared of them that no one would dare mess around on their turf.

You didn't mention them. I remember eating with my parents at my favourite Italian restaurant as a kid, Cartuccios on 101ave just down the road from Bergen. Well I was being the usual rambunctious child and due to all the people falling off buildings in Manhattan the name John Gotti was in the news a lot. So I must have heard it and for some reason blurted out "John Gotti!". The friggin restaurant goes silent record scratch style. My mother grabbed me and pulls me towards her and firmly whispers in my ear "Don't ever say that name out loud." I was actually given a talking to after we left on how he was a bad man who hurt people and lives near us.

There were always incidents and whispers of mob activity. The woman who owned the pharmacy two blocks from us was found shot in the head in the trunk of a burnt out car. She owed money. My uncles friend, an amateur boxer, drifter, gambler and alcoholic was found bludgeoned, wrapped up in a rug in a dumpster. Supposedly he stole or owed a lot of money and maybe worked for them. The first blockbuster in the area wound up burning down mysteriously while under construction. Twice. And a whole load of other crap I forget.

Not long ago I used to go to the local dive where just down the block above the glass shop was a "club". Now the gentlemen at said club would sometimes stop by and grab a drink. You knew who they were. Older, Italian, wearing nice designer clothes and shades. They'd come in, walk to the end of the bar and people would know to move. They're long gone now. But that place was and still is full of old neighbourhood goons and whatnot. One night I stopped in after work on a Tuesday and there's the bartender and another well dressed gentleman having a private conversation about Ronnie one arm. I felt unwelcome, finished my beer and left. Last year I was hanging out in the yard and and some old crew comes in, real goomba goons. This annoying jackass decides to drunkenly joke around with one of said goons. I knew shit was going down so I go back in and within seconds there were screams and the jackass comes running for his life through the bar covered in blood with two big goons after him. A guy picks up the phone to call the cops and the two other goons grab and start beating him up. I got the fuck outta there.

And just this past weekend I sat in my yard with two friends one of which invited a real neighbourhood character over, think Kramer from Seinfeld but a total degenerate and pill/coke head. Anyway he knows all of the other degenerates and told me that the nice man who lived next door to us was deep in the mob and supposedly a killer. His son was a cop. We just knew him as a nice guy who owned an auto wrecking, glass and radiator shop. He then tells me my other neighbour was also involved with a crew who went away for 15+ years and was handed their auto business. He wound up marrying my cousin. But that guy, you knew he was up to no good. And just a few years back Gotti's grandson was arrested for selling pills out of a tattoo shop just down the street. They're still around but just remnants.

And through the old family business I've had plenty of dealings with them. Once my brother helped me do a delivery in Brooklyn to an obvious gambling parlor. We drop off the equipment and had to pick up a cash payment of $3000. All hundreds. So my mind goes blank and I start counting the money like an asshole in front of this guy standing there with with two goons (I should have known better). For some reason I guess one bill looked funny so I paused to look at it and then the dude blurts out "What, my fuckin money isnt good enough for you" me: "sorry, no I'm just making sure..." he cuts me off: "Do yourself a favor, take the money and get the fuck out" while the two goons glared at us. We did just that.

And of course, going back to Goodfellas, over the years there have been a few homes dug up around the neighbourhood by the FBI looking for Burk's Lufthansa money. And a bunch of bodies found buried in "The Hole". I still pass by Roberts Lounge on my way to my favourite Halal cart. It's a Jamaican Restaurant now and I wonder if they know there were upward of a dozen bodies buried in and around that building at one point.

I wish I could gather up more stories and write a better post but work.