Chapter 2 - The House on Gorham Street
Street Gangs
Yes, we had street gangs. There was nothing formal about them, no initiations, no dues, and no jackets. The kids who lived on or around Gorham St belonged to the Gorham St gang, the kids who lived on or around Hand St belonged to the Hand St gang. (Only boys were gang members.) (The names of the gangs weren't very imaginative.) The gangs really served no purpose; there were no meetings, and no long standing disputes with other gangs. The gangs in the neighborhood were either mostly Jewish or mostly Italian. It depended on the street. The Gorham St gang was mostly Jewish.
When Lou and Mitch were in the gang, occasionally one gang would challenge another gang to a baseball game. These games would be "softball" (as opposed to hardball) and were played on the city streets, with no umpires and improvised bases. Cousin Maurie Liberman, who was about four years older than Lou, was a leader of the Gorham St gang.
By the time Bucky was in the gang, there were a few of the challenge baseball games, and they were played in "Gardener's yard."*
Maybe once a year, for no apparent reason except that the moon was high or low, two gangs would meet on the street and shout insults at each other. The shouting would end with a fist fight between the two opposing gang leaders. The gang leaders generally fought until one of them got hit. (It was seldom that all the kids would fight. Nobody really wanted to fight.) Then it was over, and we'd go back home. There was no need for police. In the winter it was different. Then we would stand on opposite sides of the street and throw snowballs at each other.
*. A man named Gardener owned a white frame house built on three normal sized lots at 30 Gorham St, a beautiful house in a beautiful setting. In 1930 the house was totally destroyed by fire and never rebuilt. The vacant lot, "Gardener's yard", was used as a park and ball field by the children of Gorham St. In 1942, a neighbor, Mr Berger, leased the lot and turned it into a parking lot for Bausch & Lomb employees.
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