it was 1983-1984 I had a 5 room railroad flat on 2nd avenue and 34th street east side manhattan, during day would hustle my hand painted tee shirts and small paintings in areas like st. marks place and soho and the village....as a back up for making coin or as we say in new york scratch for the pocket there was husband and wife living in building from ecuador and they always traveled back and forth and always brought with them the most incredible hand made ecuadorian sweaters and hats home to their flat just above me....im talking so handmade off the loom these creations still had twigs in areas off the looms, and hand dyed wools that still smelled in some cases like the earth and animals that were shaved....anyway the reason i ramble is a reflection...they needed money as we all did.....I worked the streets very well back then...i said to them let me take a couple dozen of these things and what i get we do 50/50, i filled my suitcase and walked from 34th and 2nd avenue over to 65th and broadway and right across the street at around 12:30 in the morning after a night of all the hoy palloys spilled out of lincoln center i sat across the street in dantes park....small little peace park where even at 2am in the morning you could still feed the pigeons....ha hell you could even sleep there after the lights went out at lincoln center and wake up breathing 5 hours later, but this was not needed...people responded so damn well and saw the hand made quality of what was in my suitcase this crow knew he was not only cabbing it back to the east side home that night but still had time for a little action! i started at 40 dollars for the sweaters....i knew it was bargain but i held for the night the price....you have about 1.5 hours to hustle lincoln center after house rolls out and then another 30 minutes for more sales after the crowd comes out of the restuarants that are across the little park and 65th broadway....so around 2:30am it is a done deal....that night i sold all 30 sweaters from the suitcase and literally gave the 31st one off my back to the most delightful woman that i must say was about 85 years old with emerald eyes and probably only about 5 feet tall....of course i wore one while selling! she offer me 100 dollars but i refuse....she tell me they worth much more, i said yes.....as matter of fact no way to put price to be fair to women and men in ecuador making these items....she with very good english insist i take 100 dollars and at the very moment at that time of the early morning 2:30 am something close a old homeless woman of the night comes into park.....we offer to her....she accept.....i tell you all........they looked like they could have been sisters.....i turned to the woman of the street to talk and get her to understand where the money came from and when i turned again the emerald eyed woman and sweater was gone, i mean gone.....my suitcase was empty, i had almost 2,000 dollars in my pocket, actually 3 different pockets, in new york carve up your money in case you are hit, always keep just the right amount in your pocket to give up and bulk of the rest spread out to different areas of body, muggers dont have time to frisk....they want in and out, always have enough to get robbed and be convincing, noboby gets hurt and life goes on....i caught a cab from broadway and 65th over to east side... first avenue around 61st street and made my way into dangerfields where that night i met rodney and had the time of my life....but this is a whole nuther ny city story.....as a conclusion about 3 nights later back at dante park i was getting 80- 100 dollars per sweater and my friends in my building were getting half down the stretch....they told me they only expected to get 10 dollars per sweater on the streets of ny, i told them not to forget the women men and children in ecuador who actually created the sweaters....their tears as i handed them their due told crow they held truth....below a list of some entertainers that my boy rodney helped out over the years..... George Carlin, Jay Leno, Tim Allen, Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Jim Carrey, Andrew Dice Clay, Dom Irrera, Roseanne, Bill Hicks, Sam Kinison, Robert Schimmel and Jeff Foxworthy. The club was home to HBO comedy specials Rodney Dangerfield put on to showcase young comedians. crow word..... anyway for some reason i reflect today, rodney portraits available in my gallery redbubble/people/redboy
Posted on: Tue, 04 Feb 2014 21:26:55 +0000
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