RE: RAT Amazing stories and histories

["Sylvain, John" <jsylvain@station.sony.com>]

You walk like an anarchist, you talk like an anarchist, but in the depth of
your soul you're  a searchable database lover.

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	NOMADMONAD@aol.com [SMTP:NOMADMONAD@aol.com]
> Sent:	Thursday, December 16, 1999 7:37 PM
> To:	rat-list@whirl-i-gig.com
> Subject:	RAT Amazing stories and histories
> 
> 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.