The Occupied Gents
TURN IT UP

Dream about running into 3 people who looked like Woody Harrelson, including a woman. I asked if they were related to Woody Harrelson, and they gave me a dirty look. I told them to remind him he owed me $3.00. One of them was walking on amputated legs.

Another dream where Firestone, Good Year, and other rubber moguls were finding out about rubber. It may have been the mid 1800s, and they were in trees hearing about rubber for the first time

This seems to be a morning where the routine solidifies, and I just have to follow wherever my feet are leading me. I have no idea how I got here, but here I am.

Names that have popped into my head this morning.

Tommy King.
Tommy King was a nice guy. A bit of a marshmallow. Would never hurt a fly.
I met him through Julio and Damian. He was their friend from when they were running around the streets of Hoboken back in the day. When I moved to Weehawken, Tommy was living with his father around the block from me.

We had a couple of nights around Jane Street, smoking weed, hanging out and listening to music. After 11 years on Jane Street, I moved back to Hoboken. I only saw Tommy once again; he was living elsewhere and doing handyman work. Julio told me that Tommy passed away after hanging out with a bad crowd. Julio was greatly upset. When I walk down Garden Street I pass by where I last saw him and think of Tommy King.

Fred Ince. Another nice guy. He looked out for me. We worked together at a bookstore on West Broadway. He was into photography and was hoping to be an assistant to a well-known name. I learned a lot about photography from Fred. When I left the bookstore and wound up at Skyline Studios, he showed up one day, so happy to see where I landed and advised me not to fuck it up.

Fred did like some harder substances than me and I sadly believe they might have been the end of Fred’s story. I’ve looked online but came up short. When I picture Fred, I picture Henry Lewis Gates for some reason.

Rae Guay. She was a sweetheart who believed I was intelligent. I stupidly called her vapid one night, not knowing the proper definition of the word, and saw that I had cut her badly with that remark.

My ignorance was hurtful enough to never see or hear from her again, though I have tried, perhaps half-heartedly, through this here blog. I’d love to speak with her again, she was positive and supportive, whereas I was an idiot know nothing, and I still am.

NOw it is Friday night. Mike is here on the couch listening to Bill’s stories. I sit with my back to them, typing an entry for this here blog. All is well and they’re netertained.

The Beatles, Devil in Her Heart has been playing for the past 45 minutes in my head.

Joe Lucas lived down the street from my family. He was married to Etta and Father to Richie and Susan. Joe was kind of a throwback to the 1950s, at least to my 1970s eyes.

I was closer in age to Richie, but hung out more with Susan. They lived at 26 Riverview Ave and had a pool, which made Susan very popular in the summer.

The awful Debbie Natale outed Richie and Susan as adopted one night. The Natale family were just rotten people who lived in their basement. And Debbie was the meanest person I knew. Rotten for rotten’s sake. They were cursed.

Susan was understandably upset and ran home crying. Years later, I met up with Susan, Irene, and Kathy Grant at Maxwell’s for drinks. It was nice, I hadn’t hung out with them for years, so there was a lot of catching up to do.

We met up once or twice. Susan came out as a lesbian and found herself in a bad relationship. She passed away soon after. She has been ill many times growing up, and whatever ailments she had in the past, they caught up to her.

For some reason, I thought of Joe Lucas. I am probably older than he was when I last saw him. I remember crashing my bike into the hedges by his driveway and ruining them. He was pissed off, I was Innocent and oblivious to his ire, though I did witness it.

The thermostat at the fruit stand was at 79 degrees. I sat at my desk and was sweating. Now I have opened the window, so perhaps some relief is on the way.

Mike had a plan to take Bill and me out to dinner. It’s been spoken of since December. February 21 was agreed upon, but now Mike claims his landlord is raising the rent.

Mike paid the rent the other day, and now the landlord says increase and is coming back for more. It’s all so fishy, and personally, I don’t believe it

Some of these things that come out of Mike’s mouth seem dodgy, and this is just the latest. I could compile a list, but what would that achieve?

So, in reviewing my life at some point, I decided to focus more on this job that I have right now at the fruit stand. Instead of having a good time, which is what most jobs that I have had been. I thought I should hunker down and take it seriously.

And today I tried just that, only to find I was hasty, which caused me to overlook some crucial items.
Because other people were involved, bells and whistles were going off.

Yancey stepped up and had my back. I should not be so hasty with filling fruit stand requests. A lesson learned.

Meanwhile, Facebook and Meta have maintained their silence regarding the accusation of posting sexualized images of children. I have spent the last hour arguing with Meta AI regarding this, and they, in turn, provide laughing emojis.