Life on Steinway Street (A 1950's Boyhood Memory) Part #2 'Fighting Twins'
Being the only boy in our family with eventually five sisters and having no boys on the block my age, could have turned me into a sissy, but the opposite happened...
Though my sisters and their little female friends forced me to play 'House' with them almost every day, at least they made me their husband and father of the baby dolls. By the time I was seven years old, I had been married to every girl in the immediate neighborhood. They 'forced' me down the isle...made me vow "till death do I part" and made me kiss them...sometimes on the lips...Yuck!
Once some boys moved onto the block, and I discovered some nearby, the manly art of fist-a-cuffs and wrestling became a sudden way of life. For some reason, I not only found myself in fights with every boy I met...but they were all 'twins' as well; figure that one out? So, I had to fight two kids at the same time...Fortunately, my father had always rough-housed it with me, which prepared me a bit for the real world.
It wasn't as if I liked fighting; it just seemed as if it was normal, and I didn't mind having to defend my honor at the time. Wrestling was usually the choice of combat, with a rare punch thrown; and the punch was always a wild round-house swing, mostly into thin air...
My first fight was with a couple of twin brothers, who lured me across the street around the corner from my house. I was only about six years old, and not sure if I was even allowed to roam that far, let alone cross a street by myself...These two little twin urchins coaxed me across the street saying that they wanted to be "friends." As soon as I got to the other side of the road, they ganged up on me; I did my best, but eventually retreated back across the street where it was safe...(they weren't allowed to cross streets either)
I Could've Been a Contender
Before our old black and white T.V. burned out, I would sit on my father's lap some nights and watch Boxing bouts or Professional Wrestling. Dad would roar with laughter at the antics of wrestlers like Antonino Rocko and Apollo, Skull Murphy, Haystack Calhoun and Bruno Samartino...Watching them helped me learn head-locks, scissor locks and a few other moves that I could employ on the street against my young adversaries...
Boxers like Joe Lewis and Marciano were the boxing kings of the era, and with them and my father slap-boxing with me, I learned a few tricks of the trade as well.
My second bout with twins came shortly after my first. Louie and Nicky moved onto the block a few doors down from me. They were the same age as me, and the day we met...we had a fight...Again, I had to fight two brothers at the same time, but this time, we became the best of friends afterwards. Louie and Nicky also wound up in the same classroom with me at school.
One day, Nicky and I were outside playing when I got the idea to go find those two evil twins from around the corner, now that I had back-up. We found them, but Nicky was not allowed to cross streets like the rest of us, and too afraid to sneak across with me. As soon as I got on the other side of the street, the two little monsters jumped me...I yelled to Nicky to help me as I fought them off, but he couldn't bring himself to break the 'no crossing streets rule.'
The whole scenario frustrated me so much, that I must have gotten a surge of superpowers, because I wound up beating up both of the evil ones, who ran into their backyard and hid behind a tree...calling out for their mom...
John and Joey were my next twin brother adversaries from around the corner, who were in my class at school too. They came to visit me, Louie and Nicky...and you guessed it...I wound up fighting them. I'll be damned if I can remember why, but hey...what the hell were all those twins doing around me at the time anyway? I even had another set of twins in my class named Steve and Andrew...but, I never had a fight with them fortunately.
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Thank you @creativecrypto...much appreciated.