Never Again: Life and Times of Ray Smalls- Chapter 1 intro
In the Spring of 1981, I was twelve years-old. At the corner of my street was a candy store. A couple friends of mine would run up Lakeview to the corner of Temblett to buy candy once we were done with baseball practice. This candy store was not your average candy store you could get whatever you wanted from this store and I wanted toys. After that we would race across the street home to change clothes.
There were four apartment buildings where I lived and together it housed about fifty-eight units. My street was long, about a mile in length and it had several streets that branched off of it. I knew people on every street. On Sunday, my friends and I would wake up around 6 a.m. We would ride up and down those streets and take the newspapers; as many as we could handle. We would dump them off at my little brother Sam house and go get more. Once we had a certain amount we would began to sell them.
The candy store always opened up at 9 a.m. on Sunday, so we would have twenty papers ready for the candy store. The owner always gave us a couple of dollars, candy and toys for the papers. Between my friends and I, we made fifty dollars each from the Sunday papers.
Ryan was the tallest and skinniest of the four of us. He also was the blackest, fastest, and also looked like he was an African. Matter of fact, he was African, his mom and dad traveled to America from Nigeria a few years back.
Sam was the shortest and the fattest but he was also fast and smart. Sam was the one who came up with the idea to collect papers on Sundays and pretty soon, he had just about everyone in the four buildings buying papers from us. So many people began to buy papers from us, that we eventually went to the Plain Dealer and landed our own paper route.
Jackie was the only girl that helped us with the papers. She was the best baseball player on our team. From looking at Jackie, you would’ve never believed that she was a tom-boy, but she was a natural athlete. She was good at most sports, including baseball, soccer, and ice hockey, just to name a few.
I had many other friends, but these were the friends I could trust with my toys and money. I had so many toys that when I got tired of them, I put them in boxes and into the closet. I didn’t play with my toys or even open them. I collected toys, among other things.
I lived with my grandmother and at first that bothered me, it was just me and her. No one ever came to visit us, but then I got used to it. My grandmother did not have a job so she was always at home and involved at my school. She always had dinner ready at 6 p.m. sharp. Out of all my friends, my nanny allowed Sam to come in the house, Sam was allowed to spend the night and come over for dinner. Sam was over for dinner quite often during the week. The only day he did not come over for dinner was on Tuesdays and that was because he went to St. Aloysius with me and my nanny for free dinner. I used to tell people that Sam was my little brother. Every day of the summer was routine for us.
Rick was the number runner in our neighborhood and he always made it to my nanny at 5 p.m. sharp. I made it my business to be the one that opened the door for Rick. Sam also was normally with me when Rick came to pick up the numbers from my nanny. He also came to pick up the numbers from me and Sam. I think my nanny only let Sam come over because Sam always picked winning numbers. Rick also knew Sam was good with numbers. Ryan and I were allowed to shoot craps at Rick’s after-hour spot that was up the street on Tuscora, because of Sam.
I nicknamed Rick, Rick the “Ruler” because of an incident that happened at his after hour spot one night. I think it was July 17th to be exact. Rick would always introduce me, Sam, and Ryan to people as his nephews. Rick ran numbers for this guy name Bruiser. One night Bruiser came into Rick’s after hour spot and pulled Rick to the side. He asked him why he let us come and shoot craps at the tables. They got into an argument about it, along with something that had to do with two numbers. I will never forget those two numbers; 7 and 8. Rick told everyone to go home. He said that he was moving the after hour spot down the street to Hopkins, and it would re-open in a week. Bruiser and Rick disappeared mysteriously before Rick opened the other house. Two years later Rick came back to Lakeview and opened the house on Hopkins. The name I gave him stuck and people began to call him, Rick the “Ruler.”
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I had a paper route when I was young and every Sunday I would sell my over-supply to people passing by. It was good and honest cash with almost everyone giving me a tip on top of the price of the paper.
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Thanks for the story. Raised in erie some great memories there, now 25 years gone not sure I'd recognize the place :) What I remember most about Cleveland was the endless hwy construction, big parades on euclid and hanging at "the arcade"... lol... Good Times!!!
Thanks it gets better and more memorable for Clevelanders as the story goes on so stay tuned.
Very cool piece that I'm sure brought everyone reading back to a moment in their own childhood. Super cool to read and I hope you decide to write more like this. I will be following to support ya!
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Wow what an amazing story. I so look forward to hearing more of this story.
Thanks for sharing this is great.
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