It was the summer of 1956

It was the summer of 1956 and my grandparents and my uncle were building new homes. My Dad was the foreman overlooking the subdivision. We lived on Moreland dr in Norridge Park Illinois. Right in the back of us the workman were building more new homes. One day my dad said to my sister and me, “Why don’t you sell cokes to the workman. It would be a good way of making some extra money. I’ll get you started and buy the cokes. Then you can put them in a cooler with ice and put it in your wagon and go around the where the workmen are building the homes and sell the cokes to them. I am sure they would be happy to buy them from you."

 I was 11 and Jeanne was 9 at the time. We both thought that it would be a good idea. So Dad got us the cokes and Jeanne and I pulled the wagon around. It was great and the workmen would come out of the buildings and we would sell them the cokes. It was summer and hot so the workmen were happy that we had ice cold cokes that they could buy.

 It was going great and then one day Jeanne and I were pulling the wagon down Foster Ave in Norridge Ill. When we got to the corner of Foster and Mission Dr, a car pulled up next to us. A man got out of the car and came up to Jeanne and me. “What are you selling?” the guy asked us. “We’re selling coke.” We opened the cooler to show him. “You don’t have many left. Why don’t I drive you both down to the store and I’ll buy you some more coke,” the man said. Jeanne backed away. “No,” she told the man. I felt just as scared as Jeanne at this point. “Ok, you stay here and I can drive you down to the store,” he said to me. Jeanne and I knew that this man was trying to get us in his car.

 While this man was trying to get Jeanne and I in his car all the workmen saw what was going on and came running out of the buildings toward us yelling at the man. The workmen asked what was going on. Jeanne and I told the workmen that he wanted us to get in his car and drive us down to the store so we could get more coke. The workmen were mad and I thought they were going to beat him up. The workman told him to get the hell out of here. He did and the man drove away.

 Jeanne and I were so glad that the workman saved us.  I was afraid that he was about to force me into his car. The head workman walked us back to our home. I knew Sam the workman so I wasn’t afraid of him. He told my Mom and Dad what happened. My parents were so upset that we almost got kidnapped. They told us we were not going to ever sell coke again. That was fine with me and Jeanne.

 

 William Kaufman

My First Sports Bet

My First Sports Bet

 

With the Super Bowl Game on today I knew the craps table would be empty or nearly empty so I headed out to the Grand Victoria Casino. They have a new Sports book they just added to the casino. I am not into sports. Heck I don’t even know how to make a bet. But when I walked in and saw the new Sports Book area I thought about making a bet. So I went up to the cage and told the guy, “I don’t know how to make a bet on the Super Bowl. I was thinking about betting the Game today.” “Who do you want to bet on,” he asked me. “The Chiefs to win.” “Sure. Well a $100 will pay you $110.” “Can I bet $10,” I asked. “Sure, $10 will get you $11.” So I gave the guy $10. I had over $300 in my pocket to play Craps with and I wasn’t about to bet more than $10 especially being that this was the very first time I ever made a bet on sports. So I gave him the $10 and he gave me the ticket.

I just don’t like football. It all goes back when I was about 10 years old. It was Christmas time and my parents gave me football for Christmas. I was over at my cousins at the time so we went out to the park to play. Well when my cousin threw the ball at me to catch he hit me in the noise with it. That was it. “I don’t like this game,” I told him. Later on when I was 12 the school sent my parents a letter saying that they were going to start up a football team. I was with my Mom and Dad in their bedroom while my Mom read this letter to me. I guess they thought I would be interested in joining. Mom was reading the letter to me while I stood there in front of her. She was reading off the things that I would need to get. “It says here that you have to wear a girdle,” Mom said smiling. “She looked at me and said, “I have a girdle, you can wear mine.” “I don’t want to wear your girdle,” I said. Suddenly Dad started laughing his head off. I was so embarrassed and I left the room. A couple of days later I told my Mom. “I didn’t want to play football.” “OK,” she said. I never got into sports growing up. I was into building hot cars smoking, drinking and girls.

Anyway I walked into the casino after making my bet and saw that the craps table was nearly empty. “COOL,” I said to myself. I bought in with my $300 and saw that the table was at $10. I was prepared to bet my usual $15 Don’t Pass bet but I thought about it and started with an $11 Don’t Pass. My first bet on this shooter started off with the point of 4. So I laid $20 in single odds. As luck would have it I won my bet. I started off with a win but the next guy was either a good shooter or just lucky because each time I bet on him he would knock me off so from then on I didn’t bet on this guy. When I made a bet I started off with an $11 bet. If I lost that one I would go to $16 and then the final one I would go to a $20 Don’t Pass. It worked out great this time.

The table started off with 4 other guys but it didn’t take long until it was just me and another guy. I was getting the dice pretty often. When I got up to +$76, I quit. I had made enough so that I had enough money in my wallet to make another $100 bill when I cashed out. It was a great day for me. I love winning.

When I got home I turned on the TV to see the Super Bowl score. When I watched the first half, I thought, “Well I can kiss that $10 bet goodbye. So I watched something else for a while. When I turned on the Super Bowl again, I got excited knowing that I had a chance of winning my bet. I had to watch it to the very end. “Yippee, I won my Chief’s bet.” Now my winnings ended up for the day +$87. But that will be my last sports bet. I hated waiting hours to see if I won or lost. At least playing Craps you know right away whither you’re up or down.

 

 

“He’s right down the street!”

“Ever hear of John Wayne Gacy? He’s right down the street!”

 

 

 

You can see what I mean when I said John Wane Gacy's was right down the street from Chip's house  

"He's Right Down the Street!"

 

By Bill Kaufman on Monday Oct 31st 2022

 Chip Johnson was a friend of mine way back in 1954 when I first met him in second grade at St Eugene’s grammar school. He lived on Summerdale. When I turned 18, he was supposed to join the navy with me but he chickened out. I went ahead in the Navy and he married a girl that lived down the block from him on Summerdale.

  I remember this one time after I had gotten out of the Navy. I went over to visit with him. It was a nice sunny summer day and he went in the house and grabbed two beers. He handed me one and we went for a walk down the street sipping on the beer as we walked.

  As we were heading west on Summerdale, Chip started talking about this guy that lives down the street. Chip said, “Guys go in his house and they never come out again.” I said, “Yeah, right.” I didn’t believe him. I thought he was just bullshitting me. But he told me “If his car comes down the street and stops to talk to us, I want you to run in the opposite direction.”

  Now Chip was never afraid of anything in his whole life. He was crazy and he would do anything. But Chip was afraid of this guy.

  When we got to the intersection he pointed to Gacy’s house and said, “That’s where he lives.” I wanted to walk past his house to see what it looked like but Chip wouldn’t go any further down the street. So he turned around and we headed back down Summerdale towards Chip’s house.

  Sometime later when I was at home, I saw the news about Gacy. I almost freaked out. I turned to my wife and told her this story about the time Chip warned me about Gacy.

  I’m glad we never saw Gacy that day. I sure wouldn’t want to be one of his victims.

  After all the news about Gacy, I wanted to go talk to Chip about it but he was gone. I guess he had left his wife and little boy back on Summerdale and moved away somewhere.

 

 

 

Judy’s Letters and Poems Part 6

Judy’s Letters and Poems

Part 6