RAT Amazing stories and histories

[NOMADMONAD@aol.com]

In a message dated 12/16/99 6:39:09 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
jsylvain@station.sony.com writes:

> Hey Nick,
>  
>  Some of us old Annex croakers were talking about putting up a history bb on
>  the Annex site to document all of the amazing stories. This incredible 
story
>  made me think about how cool it would be to have a national message based
>  board where people could document the trials and victories of this new
>  generation of small theaters.

John, 

You old croakers should definitely put those Annex stories together.  I'd 
love to read them.  And if the rest of the theaters and individuals in RAT 
did the same it would create a great collection.  Excellentt idea.

But I don't know if a bulletin board is the best place for something like 
that.  The idea of a RAT bulletin board was tossed around on the rat-list a 
couple years ago.  The idea then was to use it for posting apartment sublets 
and the like.  No one was really interested in it.  

For the project you're talking about I think a bulletin board is a much too 
"cheap"  of a way to treat the stories. It's certainly the easiest way to 
"publish" them, but if we are really trying to "document the trials and 
victories of this new generation of small theaters" then we should put some 
effort into it.  We should make a searchable database out of it.  

I came across the following a couple days ago.  It is a most amazing database 
of 300 writers working for Federal Writers' Project from 1936 to 1940.  

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/wpaintro/wpahome.html

I did a keyword search for "nick" there and found the following incredible 
document.  There also must be many other extraordinary stories there.  If we 
do the collection of RAT stories we should treat it in the same way.  It 
wouldn't take that much effort.

***********************************
Nick is seven. 

"Yeah, seven. So what? Bet I know as much as Dog Feet, Bally Balls, Chimbo, 
or the Jew-boy, or Oriental Charley (we call him that 'cause he's got long 
pants and looks Chinese), Shorty or Boze! Aw go on, leave my hat alone!" 

Nick is small, wiry, and muscular. His natural olive complexion is tinted 
with a paleness common to many of his playmates. He is tough and a scrapper 
for fun's sake what ever the cost may be. He is a vassal among older boys and 
a lord among his own. 

Society has a definite pattern in Nick's mind. It's organized on a "gang" 
basis according to age groupings with a "boss" at the head of each group. 

"You gotta have a boss. My boss, he's just like me - seven years. He knows 
everything and tells us all what to do and teaches us things and watches us. 
He teaches us new games and we gotta pay him something for it - oh, anything 
we got. When he seen me with some candy, he runs after me and grabs the candy 
out off my hand and throws it on the ground in the dirt so's I won't pick it 
up. Then when I run away, he picks it up, wipes it, and kisses God just like 
that (places fingers of left hand on mouth, looks up in the sky, and blows a 
kiss) and eats the candy as if it's his." 

"See that man over there - he's the "boss" of the whole block! He does favors 
for everyone all the time. He's a good guy to all the kids. Guess he's coming 
over here." 

The slim tailored young man walked over to us and listened for a while to the 
conversation. 

"Why don't you pay them something for talkin' to you? It's worth something to 
you ain't it? Give them two-bits or something." 

The children looked from the "boss" to me with undisguised surprise written 
all over their features. Why should they be paid just for talkin'? The "boss" 
turned neatly on his heels walked up the block satisfied that he "took care 
of the street." 

"There goes my "boss"! Nick broke the silence. 

"He's not a boss, he's a chief." some one cut in. 

"Well, what's a chief, if not a boss?" Nick shouted back indignantly. 

"See that guy over there? "He's a "fag". He's got three sisters. They "goose" 
him all the time. He walks from his hips down. "Oh, dear," he says all the 
time. In the school yard one day everybody called him a "fag" so they 
gathered around him and wouldn't let him go till he began to bawl and now the 
principal don't let him play in the yard no more. A baby could knock him out 
- that high." 

"What would I like?" "I like to see an actress when she gets out off bed with 
no make-up and junk on." 

"No, he don't mean that. What would you like to be?" 

"It don't make no difference, we'll end up in the gutter and in the slums 
anyway." he paused, "I don't know why, but that's how it is." 

"I like to live here. We have lots of fun here-more than on Park Avenue. I 
don't wanna live on Park Avenue if we have homes like theirs here." 

"Look who's talkin'! The dump cleaner, and he doesn't wanna live on Park 
Avenue!" Nick put his two cents worth and in return received a slap and a 
well placed kick in the rear. 

"God damn you!" Nick cursed as he made his get away. 

"You're gonna die if you say that, Nick." someone shouted. 

"What do I care, smarty. God don't help you anyway if you need something 
right away. He only helps when you are sick-like and I'm not sick. I'm 
Cat'lick anyway." 

"Nick's gonna be gangster just like the rob ers the cops got when there was a 
bank robbery around the corner." 

"I dunnow." Nick answered, "When I grow up I wanna get a job, but you have to 
be good to get a job, but I guess I'll look for it. Come on lets play war." H 
made a snowball and threw it at the biggest of the boys. "a "War is 
declared!" 

"You jack ass. You don't declare war anymore." a twelve year old shouted as 
he threw a well placed shot at Nick. The snow landed square on Nick's face. 
He made a wry smile, wiped off the tears, and joined the "war" in earnest.

"Look who's talkin'! The dump cleaner, and he doesn't wanna live on Park 
Avenue!" Nick put his two cents worth and in return received a slap and a 
well placed kick in the rear. 

"God damn you!" Nick cursed as he made his get away. 

"You're gonna die if you say that, Nick." someone shouted. 

"What do I care, smarty. God don't help you anyway if you need something 
right away. He only helps when you are sick-like and I'm not sick. I'm 
Cat'lick anyway." 

"Nick's gonna be gangster just like the robbers the cops got when there was a 
bank robbery around the corner." 

"I dunnow." Nick answered, "When I grow up I wanna get a job, but you have to 
be good to get a job, but I guess I'll look for it. Come on lets play war." H 
made a snowball and threw it at the biggest of the boys. "a "War is 
declared!" 

"You jack ass. You don't declare war anymore." a twelve year old shouted as 
he threw a well  placed shot at Nick. The snow landed square on Nick's face. 
He made a wry smile, wiped off the tears, and joined the "war" in earnest.