Never Again: The Life and Times of Ray Smalls -Chapter 1

It was the summer of 1983, I had made my grandma real proud of me. I made straight A’s on my ninth grade report card all semester. She told me that I should get a summer job, because I was thirteen years-old and would have to begin to provide for myself as a man. 

Her exacts words were, “Ray, you’re a man now, I will still cook for you but now you have to be a man, and began making decisions on your own. You know right from wrong, and any choice you make now will affect only you.” 

I told her, “But Grandma, I’ve still got the paper route.” 

Then she said shaking her head, “Boy, I want you to work hard. I won’t be here all the time, you know.” 

She then, went into her pocket book and pulled out a bank card and handed it to me. She told me, that all the money my mom and dad had left me was on the card. I was free to do with it as I pleased. I took a pair of scissors that were laying on the coffee table and cut the card up into pieces. I threw the pieces in the garbage. I hugged my nanny and waited around for Rick the “Ruler” as usual to play my numbers. 

In 1983, I got a job at the candy store across the street. Suga T was always fond of me. He knew that I knew my toys and all the kids in the neighborhood use to come to me for advice on toys, and to trade video games.

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 I was the first kid in the neighborhood to have an Atari. I was also the first to get a Nintendo a couple of years later. My Uncle Ted had mailed me a Nintendo, after I bought mine, so I gave the other one to Jackie’s little brother Fred, and now all the other kids in the neighborhood believed that I would eventually give them one. It was because of them I was made popular among the younger kids in my neighborhood. 

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One time, Ralph, one of younger kids in my neighborhood fell asleep in my hallway while waiting for a Nintendo game and a toy. His parents found him sleeping in the hallway ten hours later. I gave the kid what he was waiting for a week later, once he got off punishment. Working at the candy store was a breeze but I soon came to learn that Suga T was selling more than just candy and toys. The more I worked for Suga T, the more I learned.

 

Never Again: Life and Times of Ray Smalls- Chapter 1 intro