I just finished watching what I thought was a great movie. There are so few these days… but I’m sure a lot of people wouldn’t like it that much because it has to do with boxing. It was called GRUDGE MATCH, and starred Sylvester Stallone, Robert DeNiro, Alan Arkin, Kim Baysinger and Kevin Hart. I thought it’d be a hoot to see Kevin Hart paired up with Stallone and DeNiro…and it was. Of course, I like boxing. One of my older brothers, RAYMOND LEANDER CITTADINO, was a professional boxer in the New Orleans, LA area many, many years ago. Then he became a New Orleans Police Officer. Go figure! I can remember so well my Daddy taking me down to the old St. Mary’s Gym on Poydras Street in New Orleans if I remember correctly… it’s been almost 60 yrs. ago, so don’t fault me for a bad memory. It’s not there anymore. I remember many years later when they finally tore it down. I always felt that it was such a tragic loss to the City but then what did I know. As we entered the old building, the sounds of guys working out all over the gym could be heard and the ripe smell of sweat was in the air everywhere. There was no air conditioning back in the day. But I loved it. We would search around, with Daddy hailing fighters all over the place, until we found Ray. We’d wander over to where he was and Daddy would tell me to go sit down on the old bench against the back wall, opposite from the ring. I would watch in awe as my brother Ray would do his workouts with the bag, sparring in the ring with other fighters, and being the discombobulated and uncoordinated little girl of 8 years old that I was, I coveted his jump roping skills deeply. I believe I was in the 2nd and 3rd grades at the time and jump roping was a big thing. I was so proud of my big brother. I just knew he could win any jump roping contest they had out there. And then one Saturday night, my Daddy, my Mama, me and my little sister Debbie went to a place called the MOULIN ROUGE out on Airline Highway in New Orleans somewhere to watch my big brother in a very important fight. He and his opponent had top billing on the card that night. That means it was a very big deal. This would be the first of several times I would ever watch him box live and in the ring. We all arrived and got seated and of course had to wait through several other matches before Ray’s turn in the ring came. I remember well the excitement and anticipation of wanting to see him enter the ring and hear the announcer call his name out over the microphone hanging down from the ceiling. You could tell my Daddy was anxious and agitated for the fight to start. My sister-in-law, Teresa who was also sitting with us, was a nervous wreck. And then the bell rang loudly, the fight started and it was on. We were sitting close enough to the old square ring to hear the THUD of the gloves as they connected to skin and various body parts. The grunting was really loud. Round One went off without a hitch and everybody retreated to their corner when the bell sounded. A few minutes later, the bell rang again and Round Two was in progress. As a young kid, I was extremely wired about the whole situation. It was exciting and fun watching my brother dance around his opponent, jabbing at him and feinting to the left, then to the right, and skipping backwards and thrusting forward. I thought he was the greatest fighter in the world and was enjoying myself immensely, jumping up and down and shouting words of encouragement to him from my little seat in the audience. That is until my brother landed a humongous punch to his opponents face and broke his nose. I swear to this day I think I heard that guy’s nose crack as it broke it was so loud. All I know is that the next thing I saw was blood spurting out his nose and all over his face and my big brother Ray hitting him again and again and again and again. Blood was flying everywhere and was all over Ray and the guy he was fighting, the floor of the ring and on the referee as he endeavored to stop the fight. The guy fell down on one knee with one glove over his bloody nose and the other one over his head as he tried to stop the reign of blows coming from Ray’s gloves. But the sounding of the bell beat the ref to it and Round Two ended. Everything that happened next is kind of a blur to me, but as best as I can recollect, my sister-in-law Teresa stood up and said “There’s his wife. She’s going to the bathroom. Oh my God she’s pregnant!! C’mon on, Lucille, let’s go!” at which point my mother grabbed up me and my little sister Debbie and drug us by the arms into the aisle heading for the bathroom at breakneck speed as we tried to keep up with Teresa. I don’t know a whole lot of what else happened after we got to the bathroom, I just remember that lady screaming and clutching her stomach and then throwing up in the sink. I believe she said it was the first time she had ever seen him fight and I’m assuming it was a little too much for her to handle being pregnant and all. I do, however, remember my poor sister-in-law Teresa trying to comfort that lady and holding her head on her shoulder while she cried and wiping her mouth off after she had vomited. Teresa told her that she’d get used to it eventually and to not let it bother her right now, to think about the baby and just stay calm. That lady told her that she would never get used to that and as far as she was concerned, his boxing career was over. Teresa looked at her and said, “Yeah, I used to say stuff like that too.” I can’t remember anything else about that night except how excited I was about the whole situation. Being a drama queen in the making, even back that young, I couldnt wait to talk to my brother Ray about the fight. And how he’d punch, jab, dance and skip… and to accentuate my future conversation with him, I used my little sister Debbie as my punching bag demonstration. And that was it… the fight was on. And YES, I got a spanking and Debbie didn’t…. she got ice cream and cotton candy and I was supposed to have “learned my lesson” from all of that… but I didnt. I got in a few licks on Debbie’s ice cream cone while she wasnt looking, and ate several bites of her cotton candy, too. And thus ended what I considered to be, all in all, a wonderful night. :-)
Posted on: Sun, 13 Apr 2014 10:51:55 +0000
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