peeves

Not much to report on the little guy lately except he turns 8 in about a month. My neighborhood used to be a bad and dangerous place to live let alone hang out in at night. There were drug dealers on every corner and burnt out buildings and burnt out cars everywhere. Ohhhh The good old days. Now my neighborhood is a destination. New York City, my hood Alphabet City, where the numbers decreased from First Avenue to Avenue A on down to Avenue D. I call it my hood even though I moved in from someplace else like 20 years ago. Believe me my first few years here it definitely was not my hood. Avenues B thru D were the "hood" and it was a scarry place. I live between C and D. I remember convincing one of my girlfriends that lived in a more conventional part of the city that it actually "wasn't that bad" and this was 15 years ago. Needless to say the next morning around seven when we were walking to breakfast and I was telling her "see it wasnt so bad last night" that we come across a severed dogs head. Well she didnt sleep over again after that. Now there are restaurants and bars everywhere and people come from all over to hang out in "the hood." I like to play darts and since all of this gentrification took place a beer place that has darts opened up right across the street from the new precinct. I have been a few times and it is not fun for my sharking sense of things since no one can really play and I kick their asses for beers way too easy. But it is sooooo close to where I live. The other dart places are blocks and blocks away. The bartender knew me from outside of the bar, he is a friends brother.Well to make a long story short he started telling people not to play against me because I was only trying to beat them....duh isnt that what beer and pool and darts are for. Ok friday I went back knowing that the other guy no longer worked there and It was clean sailing. I walk in and there are three out of towners playing darts, two girls and a guy. I walk up to the dart board as is the customary way, well not all the way to the board but in the general area and stand there, not in the way but on the side. They stop playing and ask me what I want. I say I want to play darts and they say but they are playing and I say I see that I will play one of you after one of you wins this game.(which is also a customary thing) and they say but they are talking and it is personal. I say go ahead and keep talking I dont know you. "but" they say "you are right there" I say "it is because this is where people stand" plus I am not interested nor am I listening...and then they say the clincher of all time, they say that "if I dont leave they are going to tell" I said "WHAT, you are going to TELL, who the fuck are you going to tell?" And they said "the bartender" Now at this point I am so confused. "Telling" that threw me for a loop. Tell what,...come on ...TELL...WTF is that??? SO here comes the bartender and the first thing he says and it is a person I have never seen before, says "Oh its you the dart guy, we heard about you, you have to leave." I left but I think that life has sure changed on The Lower East Side when you cant go into a bar and beat someone at a bar game without them telling on you. Pathetic.