| Chapter 7: | The Schools |
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Calitri had a sport jacket that was torn at the elbows. He didn’t have enough money to buy a new one. But he kept writing novels until he became a successful author.
In my senior year I ran for the position of secretary on the Ben Franklin Party with Louis Russo who ran for the position of president and John Marsalisi, who ran for the position of treasurer. We put out a sheet of paper which stated, “Vote vote vote vote down the row of the stars.” We won the election hands down.
I remember Blacks in large numbers in the band. Blacks dominated our basketball team. I remember a Puerto Rican, a kid named Mercado, who played clarinet and oboe like he was born with these instruments in his mouth. Many Puerto Ricans were on drugs. Often the Italians did not mix well with either African Americans or Puerto Ricans. I did make friends, however, with Black guys, including a big fella named Henry Booker, who played basketball for Franklin.
I remember telling a Black saxophone player in our band that I thought Joe DiMaggio was the greatest baseball player ever. He disagreed and told me he believed Ted Williams was the best. I wondered why Black kids didn’t have Black baseball players they could admire. They did but I was not aware of it at the time. I thought quite incorrectly that they didn’t have great jazz clarinetists like Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw and Woody Herman. Because I played clarinet in the high school band, I made many Black friends. Black guys were numerous in the orchestra. They were also very ambitious. Julius White, President of the Frederick Douglass Society, wanted to be a psychiatrist, Ernest Osborne,